Brewers Minor League Observations: Blake Burke, Contact Hitter?

[Spencer Michaelis]

Image courtesy of © Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

We are back for week three of Brewers farm system observations. Last week, we covered two pitchers—one more established and one under-the-radar arm—as well as a position player. This week will be more of the same, starting with one of the Brewers' top picks in last year’s amateur draft.

All statistics are season-long unless otherwise noted
Blake Burke - 1B - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers: 144 wRC+, 21.4 K%, 12.6 BB%, 3 HR
The Brewers' second selection in the 2024 draft, they used the pick they had acquired in the Corbin Burnes trade to take Burke out of Tennessee. At the time, Burke was best known for having huge raw power, but it's been his hit tool that has stood out while watching him this season.

Before the season, if you had told me that Burke would only have three home runs to this point, I would have assumed he was either injured or struggling. Neither of those things are true, though. Burke has played in 56 of 57 games for the Timber Rattlers, and he’s posting a 144 wRC+. 

So what’s causing the power outage, and is it cause for concern? To answer the latter, from my personal perspective, it is not something I am concerned about at all. The power is going to be there for Burke. He has hit balls as hard as 117 MPH, and he hit a home run in spring training at 110.6 MPH. The power is in there. One of the bigger questions for Burke coming out of Tennessee was whether his solid bat-to-ball skills in college would transfer to pro ball, and the answer so far is a resounding yes. 

Burke’s ability to cover all quadrants of the zone has been impressive to watch. His whiff rate of 26.4% and strikeout rate of only 21.4% are both better than average for the level. He draws walks, and hits low line drives to all fields with regularity, though it should be noted that his ground ball rate of 52% is higher than you’d want from a player of his build. It’s not been the profile that was expected from him, but it’s been extremely productive—44% better than league average to be exact.

Even though a groundball-heavy approach is unlikely to work well for him, Burke actually moves reasonably well for his size. His baserunning IQ is high, and he recognizes that pitchers will lose track of him occasionally. He is 7-for-10 in stolen base attempts this year, and has also legged out two triples.

Having watched a handful of games while he was at Tennessee, I knew Burke’s glovework would translate well. He has good hands and was able to show that off in the games I had seen. The nimbleness around the bag wasn’t as evident in the small sample as in a larger sample of High-A viewing. He’s not going to be a Matt Olson-level defender at first base. Still, he seems to have more mobility and better reaction times than similarly built former Brewers first baseman Rowdy Tellez, for example.

Touted as a power-only bat who may not be able to handle first base defensively, Burke appears to be quite a bit different than that. While the power will eventually need to show up, it seems likely that it will, and in the meantime, Burke has shown that his perceived weaknesses may not be as concerning as many thought 11 months ago. 

K.C. Hunt - RHP - Biloxi Shuckers: 4.30 ERA, 4.16 FIP, 24.9 K%, 9.3 BB%, 33.3 Whiff%
From going undrafted in the 2023 draft to being named Co-Minor League Pitcher of the Year for the Brewers in 2024, Hunt actually got off to a pretty slow start in 2025. Through his first seven starts of the season, covering 30 2/3 innings, Hunt posted a 5.28 ERA with 27 strikeouts and 15 walks. After putting up a 5.6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2024, seeing it at 1.8 was unsettling.

In Hunt’s most recent three starts, though, he has gone 15 1/3 innings, with 21 strikeouts to only three walks. That stat line is much more in line with what we became accustomed to seeing from him last year. For the most part, Hunt is still getting the job done on the back of his array of breaking balls. His mid-80s cutter and slider both play well, and his curveball in the upper 70s shows flashes of being an above-average or better pitch, as well.

Hunt’s high-spin fastball velocity is down a tick or two in 2025, sitting more in the 90-92 range rather than 92-94. However, outside of being in the zone more consistently, the most significant positive change of late has been Hunt’s improved changeup. Formerly a distant fifth pitch for Hunt, the changeup has been a real weapon against lefties, sitting in the mid-80s and showing more depth than in the past. The changeup generated five of the 24 called strikes and whiffs in the video below.

One of the main questions for Hunt has been whether he’s capable of sticking as a starter. Many of those questions were related to whether his fastball would play well enough. While the improved changeup helps Hunt’s profile as a starter, the drop in velocity on his fastball does the opposite. 

If Hunt can get his velocity back to where it was in 2024, he still has a good chance to slot into a back-of-the-rotation spot down the line, where he can use the fastball around a third of the time. If not, he may end up being a reliever, where lower fastball usage is more sustainable. Either way, it’s good to see him getting back on track, especially with the help of that improved fifth pitch.

Bjorn Johnson - LHP - Carolina Mudcats:  3.34 ERA, 2.23 FIP,  33.1 K%, 10.2 BB%, 34.0 Whiff%
This should shock absolutely nobody, but Bjorn Johnson is yet another 2023 draft pick performing well in the early portion of his career. The 12th-round selection was drafted out of high school and signed away from an Auburn commitment. 

Unlike many of his 2023 draftmates, 2024 was not a story of immediate success for Johnson. In fact, it was the exact opposite, as Johnson posted an 8.38 ERA over 19 1/3 innings in the Arizona Complex League. He walked 18 while striking out 16. It was a nightmare of a debut season in the small sample of games Johnson pitched in. Given the numbers he put up, it felt noteworthy when the Brewers assigned him to full-season ball and put him on Carolina’s Opening Day roster.

He has shown exactly why the organization gave him that promotion and vote of confidence over the first two-plus months of the season. He continued his string of strong performances this past week, pitching in two outings, combining for 6 1/3 innings, striking out five, walking zero, and allowing only one earned run. While his ACL games were not televised, based on the numbers, he certainly seems to have made huge strides in his command since last season.

As you may have noticed in the video above, Johnson throws a hammer of a curveball in the 79-81 MPH range. Coming out of high school, his changeup was seen as his best secondary, but the curveball has overtaken it since he arrived in pro ball. It is his primary pitch, as he uses it comfortably in any count or situation. His changeup is also still a strong offering, though he mainly uses it against right-handed batters, while the curve is less platoon-dependent. 

Johnson throws his fastball in the low 90s, though it seems to play up a bit beyond that, likely due to his approach of pitching backward, using the fastball as his change-of-pace pitch. To add to the equation, he occasionally mixes in a cutter and seems to use it more lately.

He has gone four innings multiple times this season; it’s possible that starting games could be in his future, whether this season or another. Regardless of his future role, Johnson has been impressive this year at just twenty years old. 

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That’s all I’ve got for this week; let us know what you think in the replies!

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[Playing Catch]

On the preseason prediction thread I think I predicted Burke would be in AAA by June, so obviously, I believed in Burke.

But at the same time, this is A+, and he's a top50ish college pick. I'm glad he's playing well, though.

[MattK]

Yeah, agreed. There is kind of a logjam ahead of him with Adams (and Boeve?) (and maybe Wilken). Plus Martinez in Nashville. Burke's bat seems to play so well, though, you gotta think in the second half he'll be in Biloxi.

[CheeseheadInQC]

It is kind of weird with Burke. If you had shown me just his Fangraphs batted ball profile (basically line drive/ground ball/fly ball and left/center/right) and told me it was a Timber Rattler, my response would have been, “Jadher Areinamo is hitting a few more grounders this year.”