Brewer Fanatic Short Season Pitcher of the Year - 2024

[Spencer Michaelis]

While complex level pitching can often lag behind the hitters, the Brewers had some impressive performances this season, and four names in particular separated themselves from the crowd. 

Without further ado, here are your Brewer Fanatic Minor League Short Season Pitchers of the Year, voted on by the site’s writers, and beginning with five honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions
RHP- Wenderlyn King - Dominican Summer League - 10 G, 6 GS, 37.2 IP, 2-3, 3.25 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 1.27 WHIP, 42 H, 6 BB, 43 K

LHP- Wande Torres - Dominican Summer League - 8 G, 7 GS, 15.2 IP, 1-0, 1.72 ERA, 1.49 FIP, 0.83 WHIP, 7 H, 6 BB, 33 K

RHP- Wandy Cabrera - Dominican Summer League - 11 G, 3 GS, 30.2 IP, 4-2, 2.05 ERA, 4.82 FIP, 1.27 WHIP, 21 H, 18 BB, 25 K

RHP- Saul Sanchez - Dominican Summer League - 26 G, 0 GS, 20.2 IP, 3-2, 1.74 ERA, 4.07 FIP, 1.06 WHIP, 13 H, 9 BB, 17 K, 1 SV

LHP- Anfernny Reyes - Arizona Complex League and Carolina Mudcats - 27 G, 0 GS, 32.1 IP, 6-1, 2.23 ERA, 4.84 FIP, 1.30 WHIP, 16 H, 26 BB, 41 K, 2 SV

TOP FOUR SHORT SEASON PITCHERS OF 2024
#4 RHP - Hayden Robinson - Arizona Complex League - 6 G, 3 GS, 18.2 IP, 0-0, 2.41 ERA, 3.14 FIP, 1.13 WHIP, 14 H, 7 BB, 28 K
Unranked by all publications

The Brewers 14th round selection in 2023, Robinson was signed away from a Nicholls State commitment, and made his professional debut this summer. He quickly generated buzz within the scouting community in Arizona, specifically due to his secondaries.

Robinson throws a fastball, slider and changeup. The fastball is only in the 88-91 MPH range, but it plays up due to his elite extension. At only six feet tall, he is able to get seven feet of extension, which adds around two MPH to his perceived velocity. The slider is a really good offering, sitting around 80 MPH with quite a bit of sweep. The changeup looks similar to Logan Henderson’s on video, and is also hovering around 80 MPH on average. It was used against righties and lefties, and according to Baseball America, both the changeup and slider induced whiff rates of over 45% against them this year.

The final two appearances of Robinson’s season were arguably his best. On May 30th he struck out nine batters in 4 2/3 innings, only allowing two hits and one walk, as well as a hit by pitch, though he did allow one earned run. On June 6th, in his final outing, Robinson only allowed one baserunner in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out seven hitters. In total, he threw eight innings of one run ball, allowed only four baserunners, and struck out 16.

Unfortunately for him and the Brewers, Robinson ended up missing the second half of the season with an elbow injury. It’s unknown exactly how long he will be out, but if he is healthy enough to handle it, the Brewers may feel comfortable pushing him to Low-A to being 2025.

#3 RHP - Ayendy Bravo - Dominican Summer League - 12 G, 4 GS, 45.1 IP, 4-3, 2.38 ERA, 4.24 FIP, 1.04 WHIP, 31 H, 16 BB, 34 K
Unranked by all publications

Signed out of the Dominican Republic in this past January’s class, Bravo turned 17 a couple of weeks after signing. His first season as a professional came with a lot of success.

An unheralded signing at the time, his bonus went unreported, and there is not much information available to the public. Based on some social media sleuthing, Bravo appears to throw in the low-90’s with a firm fastball and an over the top delivery. He also mixes in an upper-70’s slider that takes a little more of a curveball shape, due to that previously mentioned arm slot. It’s unclear if he has more secondaries in his repertoire, but it’s certainly possible that he does.

Bravo has good stuff for his age, but one thing he will likely look to improve on as he moves through the system is his ability to generate swing and miss. Along with, on the same note, generating strikeouts. He seems like a good candidate to begin 2025 in the Arizona Complex League.

#2 RHP - Argenis Aparicio - Dominican Summer League - 11 G, 5 GS, 48.0 IP, 4-1, 2.81 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 1.08 WHIP, 41 H,11 BB, 41 K
Unranked by all publications

Aparicio signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2023 as a two-way player. He spent his first season doing both and didn’t find much success on either side of the ball. In 2024, however, he spent all of his time on the mound and had a much better second season.

Aparicio possesses a fastball in the 87-91 MPH range. In the video that is available, the fastball appears to have carry and play well at the top of the zone. Similar to Bravo, Aparicio throws from a pretty high slot. His upper 70’s-low 80’s slider has the shape of a gyro slider, getting sharp, late, downer movement on the pitch. He also has a mid-80’s changeup that appears to have quite a bit of fade to the arm side. 

Aparicio showed an ability to strike hitters out at a decent level, limited walks well, and never allowed more than three earned runs in an appearance. He was 18 for the entirety of the season, but is 19 at the time this article is being written. He seems like another good candidate for the Arizona Complex Brewers in 2025.

#1 RHP - Dariel Jaquez - Dominican Summer League - 9 G, 6 GS, 31.0 IP, 2-0, 1.74 ERA, 4.65 FIP, 0.94 WHIP, 13 H, 16 BB, 29 K
Unranked by all publications

Signed out of the Dominican Republic this past winter, Jaquez had just turned 17 a few weeks before signing. 

Unfortunately, there is not much in the way of information on Jaquez. Unlike the majority of his DSL teammates, Jaquez doesn’t appear to be very active on social media, thus making it hard to find anything on his repertoire. 

What we do know is that he struck out nearly a batter per inning this year, which implies that he has an ability to miss bats. His walk numbers were higher than you would want them to be, walking 13% of the hitters he faced, but he did a fantastic job limiting the number of base hits he allowed, and still ended up with a WHIP under one. There’s no way to be sure of this, but often times those three qualities point to a pitcher who has good velocity, or an outlier pitch of some sort which allows them to work around control issues.

Jaquez will be 18 in 2025. The high walk rate is the only reason he might not begin next year at the Arizona Complex, but assuming his stuff matches his results, he would seem to be a good candidate to move stateside.

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Do any of these names stand out to you? Anybody you’re specifically excited to see in 2025? Let us know in the comments!

 

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[sveumrules]

Wenderlyn King was ROBBED.

K%
Wenderlyn (25.9%)
Jaquez (23.6%)
Aparicio (21.0%)
Bravo (18.9%)

BB%
Wenderlyn (3.6%)
Aparicio (5.6%)
Bravo (8.9%)
Jaquez (13.0%)

HR/9
Wenderlyn (0.24)
Jaquez (0.29)
Bravo (0.40)
Aparicio (0.94)

FIP
Wenderlyn (3.07)
Bravo (4.24)
Aparicio (4.37)
Jaquez (4.65)

I'd have King, Wande Torres and Hayden Robinson as the top three with a decent bit of separation between them and everyone else because their results were just on a whole different level.

I'd probably have Melvin Hernandez ahead of everyone in the article too. Only 17 this season but already put up 46 IP with a 3.81 FIP in Arizona while everyone else was still on the island.

[Ro Mueller]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Wenderlyn King was ROBBED.

K%
Wenderlyn (25.9%)
Jaquez (23.6%)
Aparicio (21.0%)
Bravo (18.9%)

BB%
Wenderlyn (3.6%)
Aparicio (5.6%)
Bravo (8.9%)
Jaquez (13.0%)

HR/9
Wenderlyn (0.24)
Jaquez (0.29)
Bravo (0.40)
Aparicio (0.94)

FIP
Wenderlyn (3.07)
Bravo (4.24)
Aparicio (4.37)
Jaquez (4.65)

I'd have King, Wande Torres and Hayden Robinson as the top three with a decent bit of separation between them and everyone else because their results were just on a whole different level.

I'd probably have Melvin Hernandez ahead of everyone in the article too. Only 17 this season but already put up 46 IP with a 3.81 FIP in Arizona while everyone else was still on the island.

Hehe. Wenderlyn was my pick as well, though at age 19 (after a late August birthday) I guess he's a bit older.

He put up excellent numbers despite a .376 BABIP, striking out 6 or more hitters in 4 of his 10 games played.

[Spencer Michaelis]

Was able to learn a bit about Jaquez. Throws a changeup and slider as his secondaries, both had some decent whiff rates and both are around 80 MPH. Still couldn't find anything on his fastball velocity, but I'd imagine it's pretty close to 90 based on the velo on the secondaries.

And yeah to touch on the above, I somehow overlooked King on my voting this year, as well as Hernandez. I was quite excited about both throughout the season too... Total oversight on my part. Even if I placed King first, he would've ended up as an Honorable Mention. So it appears we all overlooked him outside of @Ro Muellerlol.

[Joseph Zarr]

2 minutes ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

And yeah to touch on the above, I somehow overlooked King on my voting this year, as well as Hernandez. I was quite excited about both throughout the season too... Total oversight on my part. Even if I placed King first, he would've ended up as an Honorable Mention. So it appears we all overlooked him outside of @Ro Muellerlol.

That's OK. I somehow missed voting entirely. 😅 I believe that qualifies for a 'total oversight', actually.

[jay87shot]

The Hayden Robinson injury really hurt, I thought he was close to an A ball call up and if he pitched well there could have jumped into the top 20/30 prospects potentially. Do any of the Dominican guys throw over the low 90's? 

[CheeseheadInQC]

It was interesting the complete disconnect between peripherals and ERA for a number of players in short season, most notably Anthony Flores and Enderson Mercado, but also Hernandez to some extent as well.

I might have gone King barely over Aparicio too, but you could put together a ton of different lists depending upon which stats you looked at.

[sveumrules]

7 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

The Hayden Robinson injury really hurt, I thought he was close to an A ball call up and if he pitched well there could have jumped into the top 20/30 prospects potentially. Do any of the Dominican guys throw over the low 90's? 

Believe Wande Torres had some reports of velo in the 95 MPH range this year coming back after surgery. 

[Joseph Zarr]

1 hour ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

It was interesting the complete disconnect between peripherals and ERA for a number of players in short season, most notably Anthony Flores and Enderson Mercado, but also Hernandez to some extent as well.

I might have gone King barely over Aparicio too, but you could put together a ton of different lists depending upon which stats you looked at.

Yup. It's extremely hard to formulate truly accurate opinions on any of the DSL (or ACL, for that matter) pitchers. I am still only half a season or so removed from the LHP Osbriel Mogollon rise-and-fall within the organization. He was a gem throughout his DSL summer. Came stateside; was promoted to Low-A Carolina; struggled mightily; was sent back to the ACL; played sparingly but still struggled; and was Released.

It's very very much hit or miss and, honestly, mostly miss (tho, that may be changing). We can use any number of stats to try to read the Tea leaves but until we see them face those Low-A bats we really don't know all that much of anything.

This being said, I personally considered the LHP Jesus Flores and RHP's Yorman Galindez, Dikember Sanchez, Brailin Rodriguez, Manuel Rodriguez, and Daniel Corniel collective developments to be toward the top of my favorite system storylines of the entire 2024 season.

[Joseph Zarr]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Believe Wande Torres had some reports of velo in the 95 MPH range this year coming back after surgery. 

Reports were he is sitting 95-97 mph. Touching 98 mph.

Which is, well, it's pretty awesome if the reports are accurate (and I have little to no reasons to think they are not).

[Seth Stohs]

11 hours ago, Spencer Michaelis said:

And yeah to touch on the above, I somehow overlooked King on my voting this year, as well as Hernandez. I was quite excited about both throughout the season too... Total oversight on my part. Even if I placed King first, he would've ended up as an Honorable Mention. So it appears we all overlooked him outside of @Ro Muellerlol.

Y'all are too kind, but it's 100% on me. I tried to provided a list of 12-15 of the top guys, and I MISSED KING... Granted, it still could have been looked up (Good job, @Ro Mueller!), but that's completely my bad.