Brewers Minor League Link Report (5/5): Jadyn, Jayden and Jose Lead the Way for ACL Brewers

[Ben Lepak]

Image courtesy of BrewerFanatic

Final: ACL Brewers 12, ACL Cubs 6
Box Score and Game Log

In the second game of the season, the ACL Brewers sent Jayden Dubanewicz, a 19-year-old, 16^th round pick from the 2024 draft to the mound for his first professional start. Dubanewicz signed on deadline day last year for $665K out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to forego a commitment to the University of Florida (brief pre-draft Instagram video here).

Dubanewicz comes equipped with a three-pitch mix – fastball, sweeping slider, and changeup. With a 6’3” frame there’s reason to believe he will add to his fastball velocity, which sat 91-93 and topped out at 94 MPH in high school.  However, Dubanewicz’s first professional inning started unceremoniously with a missed catch fielding error by leftfielder Jadyn Fielder on the first batter of the game, followed by a one-out single to give the ACL Cubs a 1-0 lead just three batters in.

In the bottom of the first, Jose Anderson hit a two-out, solo homerun to center to tie things at 1-1. Anderson, who clubbed eight homers and slugged .515 in 46 games in the DSL last year, later added another solo shot in the 3^rd inning.

Here's video of Anderson going deep on March 26th in the Spring Breakout game.

Dubanewicz rebounded with a clean second inning despite another defensive miscue, this time from second baseman Juan Ortuno. In the bottom of the second inning, Ortuno, who hit a grand slam in his first stateside at-bat on Saturday, atoned for his error with a single and a steal in front of Jadyn Fielder. Fielder, the son of former Brewer Prince Fielder and grandson of Cecil Fielder, then homered to right center – in his first professional at-bat – to give the ACL Brewers a 3-1 lead.  

Dubanewicz was knocked out in the fifth inning after a leadoff triple and fielder’s choice tied the game at 4-4.   The final line for Dubanewicz’s ACL debut read: 4IP, 5H, 4R, 3ER, 1BB, 5K.   He threw 46 of his 73 pitches for strikes, while generating 10 whiffs.  Dubanewicz gave way to Joshua Quezada, a 21-year-old right hander acquired from the Yankees last February for Clayton Andrews.   Quezada worked 1-2-3 to close the fifth and the Brewers rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom half to retake a 6-4 lead. The highlight of the rally was catcher Luis Corobo’s first stateside hit, a double, which was sandwiched between a walk, two HBP, and a wild pitch.

 

Quezada worked a clean sixth, and the Brewers tallied five runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning, despite again only producing one hit – a Frederi Montero two-run single. The chaotic inning featured five walks and two wild pitches from Cubs relivers and ended with the Brewers in the lead 11-4.  The inning was emblematic of the entire affair - overall the two sides committed six errors, threw six wild pitches, hit three batters and left fifteen men on-base.

 

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Looking at the week ahead for the other Brewers’ affiliates…

In Low-A Ball, the first place Carolina Mudcats head to Kannapolis to face the second place Ballers, the White Sox affiliate.  After taking three of five in the series versus the Cubs’ Myrtle Beach affiliate last week, the Mudcats now own a 8-3 head-to-head record on the young season against the Cubs’ affiliate. The Mudcats prospect-laden offense leads the Carolina League in hits, runs, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.

At High-A, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers start a series in Peoria against the St. Louis Cardinals affiliate. When Tyson Hardin's turn comes up, he could be making the case for a promotion and will look to build on last week’s masterful 7IP, 4H, 0ER, 0BB, 9K performance. For a roundup of the T-Rats last week, check out the Rattler Review pod.

In Biloxi, the red hot Shuckers (winners of three in a row and 8 of their last 10) will host first place Pensacola, and look to carve into the Marlins’ affiliates’ three game division lead. Brock Wilken will look to continue his torrid start to May (.400/.550./933 slash line in 15 ABs) in the six game series.

Finally at AAA, Nashville hosts the Orioles affiliate Norfolk this week and Sounds fans will get an up-close look at the top catching prospect in the minors, Samuel Basallo. The week in Nashville could feature the final rehab start for Brandon Woodruff, who is slated to pitch Tuesday, while top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski looks to continue his recent brilliance (17IP 9H 1ER 5BB 22K in his last three starts).

The ACL Brewers are now 2-0 on the season and will face the 2-0 ACL Mariners on Tuesday.

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Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Batting Stats and Depth
Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Pitching Stats and Depth

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[jay87shot]

I don't expect Anderson or Ortuno to be in rookie ball long. I would think there is a string of promotions with a couple weeks, Wilken AAA, Jadher AA, Josh A, Dinges A+, that might be a chance for one or both of them and then maybe mid June-ish I would expect the better Carolina guys to move up as well. Maybe by the midJune area a couple of the other teenagers like Corobo, Quintana, or other will be ready as well.

[sveumrules]

36 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

Wilken AAA

Not sure I’d be in any hurry to promote Wilken.

The power surge has been nice, but his unsustainable walk rate is majorly juicing his overall line with a .205 batting average and 26% K rate under the hood.

I’d guess they’ll want to see him make some progress on the hit tool before promoting him.

[Ro Mueller]

Love this, including how you set the stage for the full season affiliate series which will commence on Tuesday.

Also, Jadyn Fielder was always listed as a 2nd baseman this offseason, but maybe the plan is to give Juan Ortuno a full-time shot at the 2nd base job, thus forcing Fielder to immediately become positionally flexible.

And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Pedro Ibarguen will have a 2025 ACL breakout (and return to prior form) the same way that Filippo Di Turi is returning to form in Low-A ball this year. After a great 2023 DSL campaign, Ibarguen was prominently featured atop ACL lineups in 2024, only to struggle mightily. Two hits and a stolen base in Ibarguen's 2025 debut is hopefully a sign of good things to come.

[biedergb]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Not sure I’d be in any hurry to promote Wilken.

I agree

This is similar to the promote Mis last year after a good outing.

Wilken has to show consistency at the plate before he can move up. We are giving him a mulligan for last year (facial fracture, caged batting helmet, being a dad if I remember correctly), but this year has to show that he can do more than have a hot streak followed by times of low production.

But there are plenty of opportunities for promotions in Biloxi (outfield, pitching side) and Wisconsin (IF, OF, bullpen) to have some players move up as they deserve (looking at you Jadher Areinamo).

[Joseph Zarr]

2 hours ago, Ro Mueller said:

And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Pedro Ibarguen will have a 2025 ACL breakout (and return to prior form) the same way that Filippo Di Turi is returning to form in Low-A ball this year. After a great 2023 DSL campaign, Ibarguen was prominently featured atop ACL lineups in 2024, only to struggle mightily. Two hits and a stolen base in Ibarguen's 2025 debut is hopefully a sign of good things to come.

As discussed in the off-season recap Vids Spencer and I did, Ibarguen was my ACL candidate who would bounce back and show he's a much better player. His 2024 summer was reallllllly bad. BUT, it's important we remember: stateside transitions can be unkind for some (for whatever reasons) and the ACL season is just a very compressed very short season. He had shown such promise in the DSL l so he was a pretty low hanging fruit to forecast as a potential breakout performer in 2025 in his second summer in Arizona.

[Joseph Zarr]

Fantastic debut write-up @Ben Lepak. Welcome aboard!

[Jake McKibbin]

2 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Not sure I’d be in any hurry to promote Wilken.

The power surge has been nice, but his unsustainable walk rate is majorly juicing his overall line with a .205 batting average and 26% K rate under the hood.

I’d guess they’ll want to see him make some progress on the hit tool before promoting him.

Interestingly, here are his AFL numbers:

If I told you his zone-contact rate was over 80% this season, would you be intrigued more?

The big question for Wilken is his swing rate. He swung at only 40% of in zone pitches for the first half of April, and is sitting more 50-55% now. If he can remain passive, but at 60% and retain that zone-contact, I think we'll see some big numbers.

Since his final year in college, to cut down the strikeouts, he has had a quite passive approach. I think I'd like to see him jump on more pitches not just to the pull side, but even taking fastballs to straightaway center more often. He has the juice to do it. Currently he's pulling 60% of balls, a jump even on last seasons 50% rate.

Just to clarify, I agree and I'm not in any rush, but if he starts swinging more and continuing to do damage, I'll be happy to see him in triple A by the end of June

[jay87shot]

2 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Not sure I’d be in any hurry to promote Wilken.

The power surge has been nice, but his unsustainable walk rate is majorly juicing his overall line with a .205 batting average and 26% K rate under the hood.

I’d guess they’ll want to see him make some progress on the hit tool before promoting him.

I  would promote him if he stays hot for a week, this guy needs some positive to balance out the past year (baseball wise). It sounds like his defense has improved and he has had a lot of positive this year even if the walk rate is crazy unsustainable. He is repeating AA and even played there at the tail end of 2023, I just think the time is right to give him some good news and kick start the bat and aggressiveness into AAA. It would really be nice to have an option where Wilken and Boeve could be ready to help the big league team at some point this year an open up some room behind them for our loaded lower level IF prospects.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Spencer Michaelis]

Sounds like Dubanewicz is throwing both a slider and a curveball now. Sat in the low-90's yesterday, and only allowed one hard hit ball (a double). The final line score doesn't really align with what I heard about his outing. Sounded pretty encouraging. Nice to see him stretched out enough to go that deep in the first game as well.

[Jake McKibbin]

Funny I was just about to share Chris Cleggs report!

Fascinating stuff

[MilwaukeeBeers]

I need Brock Wilken's Z Contact/Z Swing% to improve to promote him. It's almost to the point of a passive approach. The lack of contact in the zone is reminiscent of Oliver Dunn but at least Wilken gives you solid defense at 3rd. I am really encouraged though by his ability to get on base. Really hoping some of the raw power starts to turn into game power his EVs are lower than I expected they would be. 

[Terry]

Early stats so far.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

Are you able to sort what pitches Jayden Dubanewicz is generating those whiffs on? 

[Terry]

6 minutes ago, MilwaukeeBeers said:

Are you able to sort what pitches Jayden Dubanewicz is generating those whiffs on? 

Unfortunately no for non-Statcast game.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

Any word or update on when Hayden Robinson is gonna pitch again?

[Jim Goulart]