The Brewers Have Three Battle Royales Shaping Up Down On The Farm

[Harold Hutchison]

The surprise placement of starting pitcher Colin Rea on waivers can be seen as acknowledging financial uncertainty due to the Bally Sports Network collapse. But that’s possibly too simple of a take that ignores the growing strength of the Brewers in a crucial part of any Major League Baseball franchise.

Image courtesy of © Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

That’s the depth in their farm system, which arguably makes their inability to play in the free agent pool an inconvenience instead of a serious issue. So, what positions likely have a lot of contenders fighting to make it to MLB with Milwaukee? Let’s take a look.

Shortstop
Okay, let’s get this out of the way: Willy Adames said he would take less money to stay in Milwaukee, and the Crew could channel the spirit of Bobby Bonilla to help keep him. It gives the Brewers a slim chance to keep Adames in Milwaukee. Put that possibility aside for the sake of this discussion. Because in the next year or two, the Brewers could have a lot of choices to make.

Cooper Pratt reached Double-A Biloxi in 2024, where Eric Brown Jr. had a rough, injury-plagued season where he didn’t crack the Uecker line. Vinny Capra had a decent season in Triple-A Nashville. Freddy Zamora, Ethan Murray, and Casey Martin had rough seasons at Biloxi. The real logjam is in the lower minors, where Eduardo Garcia had a bit of a breakout, and Jadher Areinamo had a real breakout in High-A Wisconsin. At the same time, Jesus Made and Luis Pena flashed dynamic offensive profiles in the DSL, overshadowing Jorge Quintana.

Keep in mind, these players are behind Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang, even though the latter seems entrenched at second base, where he won both the Gold Glove and the Platinum Glove.

Third Base
Should Joey Ortiz slide over to shortstop to replace Adames, the Brewers will need a new third baseman. Again, the team will have a lot of potential choices to fill that hole, both short-term and long-term.

We start with Tyler Black (who mostly played first base in 2024 but had a solid defensive performance in 2023) as perhaps the front-runner if the Brewers want an in-house short-term option.

Mike Boeve and Brock Wilken, who reached Double-A Biloxi, could be added to the mix. Boeve is arguably ahead of his fellow 2023 draft classmate.

Just below them, there’s Luke Adams, Juan Baez, and Eric Bitonti, who reached full-season professional ball – all of whom have flashed some very good offensive tools.

Wilken arguably had the roughest year of the bunch, while Black wasn’t helped by spending time on the Milwaukee-Nashville shuttle. The former showed a three-true-outcome profile in 2024, albeit he struggled to reach the Uecker line, while the latter is arguably somewhat deficient in power but brings good contact-hitting skills, OBP skills, and speed.

Boeve and Baez look to have excellent hit-for-contact tools and some decent pop, while Adams and Bitonti’s profiles are more akin to three-true-outcome hitters, though Adams has also been a legitimate threat on the basepaths.

Some players could move across the diamond, as the Brewers have few blue-chip prospects at first base (Ernesto Martinez and Wes Clarke are the best options in the upper minors).

Starting Rotation
The surprise placement of rotation mainstay Colin Rea on the waiver wire can best be explained by listing the starting pitchers in Double-A or higher that are not currently on the 40-man roster: Chad Patrick, Shane Smith, Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, K.C. Hunt, Brett Wichrowski, Nate Peterson, and Tate Kuehner. That’s just from Double-A and Triple-A; of those eight pitchers, only one had an ERA above 4.00.

In that sense, it’s easy to understand why Colin Rea was waived and Frankie Montas’ option was not picked up. The Brewers have lots of rotation options in the upper minors. That’s before considering the fact that the Brewers start with Tobias Myers, Freddy Peralta, Aaron Civale, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, Brandon Woodruff, Robert Gasser, and Carlos Rodriguez on their 40-man roster.

Overview
When it comes to potential holes, the Brewers have a lot of options to address them on the farm. These internal options make filling holes a lot easier, especially with the uncertainty of broadcast revenue hanging over the team’s payroll. But these will be fun battles to watch, and each player involved can make a good case to be the one who stays.

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[Jim French Stepstool]

Every time I read about Tyler Black & third base I feel Like I just woke up in the B&B in Punxsutawney in the movie "Groundhog Day".

[CheeseheadInQC]

The one thing that most of those minor league pitchers have in common is that they are right-handed. I'd be interested to know who people think the top healthy lefty starting pitching prospect in the organization is (so, not Gasser) and how many righties do you have ranked ahead of him? Is it Tate Kuehner? Given Fitzpatrick spent most of the year in the bullpen and Manfredi was moved there after having some struggles starting, your other options seem to be two draft picks from last season (Broughton and Molina) and a guy who has yet to pitch stateside (Torres).

[ClosetBrewerFan]

10 minutes ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

The one thing that most of those minor league pitchers have in common is that they are right-handed. I'd be interested to know who people think the top healthy lefty starting pitching prospect in the organization is (so, not Gasser) and how many righties do you have ranked ahead of him? Is it Tate Kuehner? Given Fitzpatrick spent most of the year in the bullpen and Manfredi was moved there after having some struggles starting, your other options seem to be two draft picks from last season (Broughton and Molina) and a guy who has yet to pitch stateside (Torres).

I still consider Ashby, Hall, and Gasser as pitching prospects and the best options we have for LHP SP.  But if you are really considering minor leaguers only, it would be Mason Molina. I'm not too concerned since we have plenty of RH SP at this point.

[TURBO]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Every time I read about Tyler Black & third base I feel Like I just woke up in the B&B in Punxsutawney in the movie "Groundhog Day".

Yeah, why do "Brewers writers" continue to not realize that ship has sailed.  I understand how writers from other teams may not know, but our own writers need to bone up on what's going on within our own system

[gregmag]

11 hours ago, TURBO said:

Yeah, why do "Brewers writers" continue to not realize that ship has sailed.  I understand how writers from other teams may not know, but our own writers need to bone up on what's going on within our own system

This isn’t a “Brewers writers ignorance” thing. It’s a “Harold doggedness” thing, and it has been for many years. BTW, I think this is article is very well done. But Harold still thinks Ryan Braun has a chance to stick at shortstop.

[SoCalBrewfan]

I'm not sure that you can really talk about the Brewers' choices on the infield without talking about defense. These guys are more than just stat lines, and the Brewers have shown that they are not as willing to sacrifice defense in order to get a bat in the lineup as the author is. At least at the MLB level, that is...they will invest minor league playing time in the hopes that defense will develop. The fact that they are no longer doing so with Black at 3B or even 2B has to be a tell.

How many of the guys who played innings at 3B would the Brewers actually tolerate there in the majors? 

I do think that moving on from Rea signals that they are planning on filling the back end of the rotation from within, for what it's worth. There are plenty of candidates, so likely this will be similar to the approach to the outfield: let performance and health sort out the surplus.

[Playing Catch]

On 11/14/2024 at 9:09 AM, SoCalBrewfan said:

the Brewers have shown that they are not as willing to sacrifice defense in order to get a bat in the lineup as the author is.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'm not 100% sure that is true (I'm more like 85%, LOL). Yelich and Hoskins played a lot, in spite of their defensive qualities.

There is NO doubt that the Brewers value defense. I just don't see evidence where a clearly superior bat was eschewed for defensive reasons. 

On 11/14/2024 at 9:09 AM, SoCalBrewfan said:

The fact that they are no longer doing so with Black at 3B or even 2B has to be a tell.

Maybe. Or maybe he's so untalented in the dirt that the Brewers have no choice. IMO, Black's biggest issue IS the bat, as it's not good enough to play ahead of other 1B/DH options on the roster, or on the waiver-wire.

[SoCalBrewfan]

The key phrase: 'not as willing to sacrifice defense ... as the author is.'

OK, that is like saying not as willing to sacrifice sunshine as a vampire, maybe, but the fact remains that the author is notorious for proposing defensive alignments that the Brewers would likely never adopt. It's kind of charming if that is your thing I guess, but I really don't think you can have a meaningful conversation about these infielders without considering defense.

On 11/16/2024 at 7:01 AM, Playing Catch said:

Maybe. Or maybe he's so untalented in the dirt that the Brewers have no choice.

Is that really an 'or'? I think what you said and what I said are more compatible than not. Minor league playing time is a resource the team can employ to improve the future roster, including giving a player defensive reps and coaching at a position at which he might improve. That they are no longer choosing to do so here suggests that they do not feel that these are positions at which Black can reach an acceptable level of defense.