Misc. Minor League Alumni News & Notes - 2025 Version

[Jim Goulart]

In order to prevent forum threads from becoming too unwieldy, we will freeze and retire certain theme threads.

Should you wish to revisit, the former "Alumni" thread, which was born in August of 2022, it can be found here.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

I'm fairly certain velo wasn't the concern for RHP Isaiah Jackson's stint with the Brewers in the ACL (UDFA summer of 2023 - released late August 2024), but, none the less, it's nice to see him continue to put the work in:

 

[Joseph Zarr]

INF Eddy Alvarez has apparently signed a Minor League pact with the Atlanta Braves as covered in the MLB Trade Rumors article HERE. I always thoroughly enjoyed Alvarez's dependability and underrated production in his short stint with the Brewers and Sounds two seasons ago. Good luck, Eddy!

[Jim Goulart]

Quick hits:

The Mets signed infielder Yonny Hernández to a minor league deal on Wednesday, Mike Mayer of MMO reports. Hernández, 26, split the season between Triple-A with the Nashville Sounds of the Brewers’ organization and the Long Island Ducks. In 81 games at Triple-A in 2024, Hernández batted .241/.333/.309, with two home runs, three triples, seven doubles, 13 steals, and 32 RBIs.

 

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The Gateway (Sauget, Illinois) Grizzlies of the independent Frontier League announce that they have re-signed second baseman Gabe Holt, bringing back an all-star-caliber player for their 25th anniversary season.

Holt will enter his third season with the Grizzlies this year, having been voted to the All-Star game in each of the last two campaigns. In 2024, he played in 84 games and ranked seventh in the Frontier League with a .324 average, adding 13 doubles, a pair of homers, 37 RBIs, and 13 stolen bases along with 50 runs scored and 107 total hits. A former 7th-round pick by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Texas Tech University in 2019, Holt continued to put his elite bat-to-ball skills on display, striking out only 23 times for the entire season.

In 2023, the Warner Robins, Georgia native set the Frontier League on fire in his Grizzlies debut, batting .435 with four homers, 31 RBIs, 12 doubles, 18 stolen bases, 83 hits, and 49 runs scored in 48 games, leading the entire league in batting average, on-base percentage (.513) and hits before suffering a season-ending injury.

 

[Jim Goulart]

RHP Dylan File, released after the 2022 season at Nashville to pursue an opportunity in Korea, has signed a minor league deal with Seattle for 2025. 

File was injured during his very brief Korea stint and returned to the US for a 2024 season in the Diamondbacks system.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

Another former Brewer (albeit, briefly as an in-season pick-up) heads to the Phillies.

RHP Joel Kuhnel has signed a Minor League deal with the Phils on December 21st it would appear. As the article suggests, this will be Kuhnel's sixth club since 2022. I would opine it isn't because of anything other than his services are valuable in what he provides. He was quite good with the Sounds in his six or so outings and continued earning MLB appearances with the Rays after he was scooped up when the Crew DFA'd him in July.

[Joseph Zarr]

His 2023 season with the Sounds and Brewers was a fairly unimpressive set of outings - I watched several of his 11 Sounds outings, his last work in affiliated ball, and they weren't pretty. BUT, that certainly didn't stop RHP Robert Stock  from putting in more work. It really showed in an extremely impressive Mexican Winter League set of performances:

😳

He parlays that into a Boston Red Sox Minor League contract (read Worcester) with an invite to Spring Training:

Congrats, Robert! Well deserved!

[Joseph Zarr]

Hey now! PCL Legend, and former Brewer, Keston Hiura signs on with the Rockies of Colorado:

 

[Jim Goulart]

2023 Nashville Sound for 46 games

 

[Jim Goulart]

2021 Carolina Mudcat continues his Indy ball journey

Baseball Reference

 

[Joseph Zarr]

Well, that certainly didn't last long:

LHP Tyler Jay was just DFA'd by the Seattle Mariners

Jay didn't last two weeks on the Mariners' 40-Man.

[Jim Goulart]

Here's a direct link to the brief discussion we had upon the July 1st, 2024 release of LHP Justin King from the Biloxi roster (King was snapped up four days later by the Miami Marlins). The posts include a classy and insightful entry from Justin's dad.

King turned 27 last month, and after excelling (seriously, check out his linked MiLB page above), with the Marlins' AA team in the second half (as we noted multiple times within Link Reports), He was given an Arizona Fall League slot. King now has a nice additional reward. He's among the big league camp spring training invitees for Miami, awesome.

Well, not for the Brewers, but for King and his family, absolutely!

[Joseph Zarr]

Best of luck in Boston, Mr. Toro. Here's hoping you get another opportunity in the majors.

[ARobsBrewCrew]

LHP Adam Seminaris, acquired with Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero from the Angels in the Hunter Renfroe trade a couple years back, has signed a minor league contract with Seattle.  The southpaw had been released by Milwaukee back in October.

[ARobsBrewCrew]

RHP Nash Walters, former top Brewers draft pick back in ‘15, has signed on with the Chunichi Dragons in Japan after working with Driveline this offseason.  Walters made an extremely brief MLB debut in 2022 for the Angels.

[ARobsBrewCrew]

Former Brewers Aussie farmhands C Alex Hall and INF Jesse Williams are headed to the Australian Baseball League Championship Series in hopes of brining home a “Claxton Shield”.  They’ve both played a major role in Perth’s terrific season and are two of the best players in the ABL.

[ARobsBrewCrew]

Former Brewers farmhand Luis Castro has been signed by the Houston Astros.  Castro spent the 2021 season between Biloxi and Nashville, but has been out of affiliated ball ever since, playing in independent and foreign leagues the past few years.

[Jim Goulart]

From October 14th as we discussed player releases:

On 10/14/2024 at 6:22 PM, Ro Mueller said:

22-year old RHP Jeison Pena signed from the Dominican Republic – in September 2020 in his case. Pena skipped the DSL, debuting in the Arizona Complex League in July 2021: 5.14 ERA with 35 Ks in 28 IP. A terrific strikeout rate saw him promoted to Low-A Carolina by July 2022, with Jeison also throwing 3 games at High-A Wisconsin: 3.30 ERA with 64 Ks in 46.1 IP across 3 levels that year, principally in relief. Unfortunately, the 2023 and 2024 campaigns were a struggle: combined 6.55 ERA with 86 Ks and 67 BB in 89.1 IP at Carolina. Good luck to Jeison wherever his path takes him.

UPDATE: Should Pena find his way back to affiliated ball, he’d first have to deal with this:

RHP Jeison Pena has been suspended by MiLB for 80 games after testing positive for Stanozolol, a violation of drug policy.

 

[biedergb]

6 hours ago, Jim Goulart said:

RHP Jeison Pena has been suspended by MiLB for 80 games after testing positive for Stanozolol, a violation of drug policy.

Here is a weird question - is there a statute of limitations of this - like if he plays international or independent ball for X years can he forgo the suspension? Otherwise that effectively kills a player’s chance of getting back to milb with a new team given roster limits etc. Wish him luck and wonder if that was another factor for his release (if known) but his poor performance at low A probably did it anyway.

[Joseph Zarr]

It would appear 2024 mid-season  Biloxi Shucker's pick up (and, honestly, a huge spark plug for the line-up at the time) OF Connor Scott has signed on with the Kansas City Royals organization. He has been assigned to their Double-A affiliate in the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.

Best of luck, Connor and thank you for helping those Shuckers back into the playoffs!

[Ro Mueller]

Old friend OF Joe Gray Jr. has signed with the Lake County DockHounds of the independent American Association.

[TURBO]

On 2/9/2025 at 3:29 AM, Ro Mueller said:

Old friend OF Joe Gray Jr. has signed with the Lake County DockHounds of the independent American Association.

Wow, how times change...

[Joseph Zarr]

2024 was mostly injury-filled for INF Christian Arroyo as a member of the Nashville Sounds as he managed to play only 30 games total. All but three of those games came in the latter portion of the season after a month's long ACL rehab stint beginning in mid to late June. Regardless, he signs with a new (and his fifth overall) organization in the Philadelphia Phillies:

Best of luck in 2025, Christian. Here's hoping you make it back to the Bigs.

[Jim Goulart]

July 6, 2021    Toronto Blue Jays traded 1B Rowdy Tellez to Milwaukee Brewers for RHP Bowden Francis and RHP Trevor Richards.

How can we not be thrilled for Bowden Francis?

 

[Ro Mueller]

• Former Mudcat 1B/C Satchell Norman signed with the Schaumberg Boomers of the independent Frontier League
• Former Shucker 2B Felix Valerio signed with the Ottawa Titans of the same league