Brewers Minor League Observations: Josh Adamczewski Keeps Hitting and Tyler Renz Makes His Carolina Debut

[Spencer Michaelis]

After a three-week hiatus, due to the draft and travel, we are back with another installment of minor league observations. This week, we cover one of my favorite swings in the system, another teenage pitcher in Carolina, and then an 18-year-old hitter on the Mudcats who was off to a slow start but appears to be figuring some things out.

All statistics are season-long unless otherwise noted
Josh Adamczewski - 2B - Carolina Mudcats: 164 PA, 115 wRC+, 19.5 K%, 12.8 BB%, 5 HR (no ACL rehab stats included)
Adamczewski has been a personal favorite since the moment I saw a video of his swing post-draft. The 15th-round selection was signed away from a Ball State commitment for only $252,500, a deal the Brewers have to feel quite good about at the moment. He spent most of last season in the Arizona Complex League before a strong finish in Carolina to close out the year. He got off to a tremendous start this season and appeared to be on the fast track to High A before he was sidelined for two months with a back injury. 

Adamczewski is back with the Mudcats and picked up right where he left off. I was a big fan of Adamczewski’s swing out of high school, but it has only continued to improve since then, including some changes that Chris Clegg of Dynasty Dugout pointed out early in the season.

While he was off to a great start pre-injury, his return has been even better. In his first 12 games back in Carolina, Adamczewski is posting a 210 wRC+ and a 1.124 OPS, while walking the same number of times as he’s struck out (seven times). He has shown his ability to hit with power to all fields, hitting a home run to right center on Wednesday, and then one to left-center on Friday. 

Adamczewski’s bat is unquestionably advanced for his age. His swing has some shades of Corey Seager, and the results have mirrored his tremendous offensive process to this point.

With a couple of his fellow middle infielders being promoted to High A before him, I’m guessing that the organization would like to see him remain with the Mudcats for a little longer as he continues to work back from his injury. I also can’t help but wonder if they’d like to see more consistency defensively at second base. Perhaps they even have plans to try him at a position or two that aren’t second base, where he has spent his entire pro career to this point. Either way, he deserves an opportunity to see High A soon, as Single-A pitching is proving to be no match for his bat.

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Tyler Renz - RHP - ACL Brewers and Carolina Mudcats: 57.2 IP, 3.43 ERA, 4.68 FIP, 21.3 K%, 8.2 BB%
The Brewers selected Renz in the 18th round of the 2024 draft, likely in part as insurance in case they couldn’t sign Chris Levonas. As a 17-year-old who was still four months from turning 18, Renz was seen as a prospect data-driven organizations would like, but it was also likely to make him pretty expensive. Thus, Renz signed for a hefty $852,500 bonus, the second-highest bonus ever given to an 18th-rounder. He has spent the vast majority of this season in the Arizona Complex League, but he made his full-season debut this past Tuesday, which gave me an opportunity to watch an entire outing, rather than just highlights.

Renz has reportedly been up to 96 MPH on his four-seam fastball, though it sounds as though that was in a bullpen setting. In this outing, he was sitting 89-91 MPH early, before dropping a few in the 87-88 range later on. The fastball plays up well above his velocity, due to decent extension, but mainly the excellent carry and shape the pitch has. He did a good job of locating at the top of the zone, especially early in his outing on Tuesday. Despite all of that, the velocity will need to improve over time if he is to reach his immense ceiling.

The ceiling is there because of the pitch mix he possesses beyond the fastball. He mixes in a solid-looking cutter, as well as a slider and curveball combination that used to blend together in high school but have now become two very different pitches. Renz has also added a changeup that appears to be a splitter variation, rather than the circle-change he was attempting to throw before the draft.

Renz was cruising through his first two innings, only allowing one baserunner via a walk, and striking out four. The velocity started to dip a bit in the third inning, and the command eluded him more consistently as he walked two in the inning. When he came back out for his fourth inning, he had started to wear down and walked two more, as well as throwing a wild pitch. Some poor umpiring cost him one of the walks, as well as finishing the game, as he made way for Anfernny Reyes to retire the final batter of the Mudcats game. All in all, though, you could see the talent Renz possesses.

Moving forward, building stamina will undoubtedly play a significant role in his overall improvement, as well as adding some velocity. Much of the improvement for both of those is likely via physical gains, as he has a lot of room to add good mass to his body. Renz will only turn 19 at the end of November and has a long way to go in his career, but already showing signs of a good starting pitcher’s repertoire and projectability in his frame is a great starting point.

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José Anderson - OF - ACL Brewers and Carolina Mudcats: 226 PA, 73wRC+, 30.1 K%, 8.8 BB%, 3 HR (Carolina stats only)
Along with Luis Pena and Jesus Made, Anderson was the third player from the 2024 international signing class to really explode onto the scene in the Dominican Summer League. He began the season in the Arizona Complex League, but after hitting three home runs in 10 games and posting a 200 wRC+, he was quickly pushed to Single A. It has been a struggle to this point, though there have been some signs of progress over the past month or so.

I’m going to start with the glove before getting into some of the offensive improvements, though. With Braylon Payne out again due to injury, Anderson spent most of this week manning center field for the Mudcats. There are some inconsistencies to his play out there, but there are also a ton of tools and a high ceiling out there. He showed off the potential on Saturday, when he made a tremendous diving catch in left-center field to take away extra bases. He has a cannon of an arm in the outfield, but his true defensive ability has looked questionable at times. His jumps have looked much better over the course of the season, and the routes seem to be improving as well. 

Anderson’s glove coming around to potentially being an above-average or better tool for him would be a significant development, but obviously, questions about his offensive profile remain. His 30% strikeout rate is too high, and his 36.5% whiff rate is even more concerning. However, I felt better about his approach watching him in July, and looking at the numbers, he did make some improvements in both regards. His strikeout rate is at 25.3% since July 1st, and his whiff rate is down to 32.7%. Again, neither of those is a good number, but they are much closer to playable than the numbers he was posting before this past month.

It should be noted, however, that the power he was showing pre-July has also largely dissipated, as evidenced by the .096 ISO since then, with only six doubles and one triple. There may have been an over-adjustment to work on the bat-to-ball skills that came at the cost of his ability to drive the ball. While it’s not an ideal scenario, I believe that for a player of his age, such over-adjustments are completely fine, as he still has a lot of time to find a balance.

If Anderson can find that middle ground between driving the ball while limiting strikeouts and whiffs to a reasonable degree, and combine that with his improving defense, he could put himself squarely back into prospect talks. While I’m sure his start to full-season ball has not been what he envisioned, he still has shown that he has a lot of talent and seems to be working to improve on his weaknesses. I’m not exactly sure where things go from here, but I do know that it will still be fascinating to follow.

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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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[homer]

Would Brewers consider sending Adamczewski to AZ fall league? I know they opened up the player pool a few years ago but have no idea if Brewers send younger guys there or not.

[Spencer Michaelis]

20 minutes ago, homer said:

Would Brewers consider sending Adamczewski to AZ fall league? I know they opened up the player pool a few years ago but have no idea if Brewers send younger guys there or not.

That's a good question. I think they'd at least consider it. They sent Lara when he was about a half a year younger than Adamczewski will be this fall.

[Joseph Zarr]

2 hours ago, homer said:

Would Brewers consider sending Adamczewski to AZ fall league? I know they opened up the player pool a few years ago but have no idea if Brewers send younger guys there or not.

I think it is absolutely squarely on the table, yes. They did it with Lara, as Spencer notes. They also just did it with Baez. They also do this with extremely talented players who suffered a loss of strategic PT due to injury - Wilken, EBJ and Coleman Crow, for example. If Josh can stay healthy the rest of the year, I'm leaning 80/20 they send him. Should any issues arise physically during that short season, he'll already be in Arizona where they can address it right away.

[Joseph Zarr]

Y'all, Spencer's José Anderson write-up is spot on. He's a wild horse, essentially, learning how to be broken in. AND, you can see his earnestness in the manner in which he shows these adjustments in-game. He has tons of talent but he has very little refinement in his game. Hence, because he has a cannon arm he'll over-aggressively go for an over-aggressive OF assist to 3B from deep CF and airmail the throw into the dugout (seriously, he did it last week). His jumps and overall impact in CF have/has really evolved favorably in the time he has covered for Payne. I actually think Anderson may be the better CF'er when it's all said and done, but Payne is very clearly just the better amd more refined baseball player. In the very least he is just much further along in his development arc. Payne is really more the prototypical straight-line athlete - strong and fast but not a short-space or side-to-side quickness kind of young man. Anderson appears to have a bit more elasticity. Regardless, you can see the massive difference at the plate on a regular basis. Payne had one period of prolonged slump. He took a small bit of time. He came back with a refined modified approach and reached another level. Anderson is very much a work in progress in every way at the dish. However, seeing the earnest manner by which Anderson has attempted to refine his approach and modify his game in season, while still playing games, and the fact he is evolving into a plus CF'er before our eyes gives me hope he isn't going to simply go the route of an Eduarqui Fernandez. And, saying this, there is a long road ahead for Anderson. I am extremely curious to see how he responds to the upcoming off-season of intentional work.

[James Zumstein]

 

Quote

 I also can’t help but wonder if they’d like to see more consistency defensively at second base. Perhaps they even have plans to try him at a position or two that aren’t second base, where he has spent his entire pro career to this point.

I've been wondering for a while if Admaczewski might eventually end up in LF. With Made, Pena, and Pratt all being superior defensively, and the Brewers being a pitching and defense-focused organization, it wouldn't shock me at all for them to try him out there.

[Spencer Michaelis]

16 minutes ago, James Zumstein said:

 

I've been wondering for a while if Admaczewski might eventually end up in LF. With Made, Pena, and Pratt all being superior defensively, and the Brewers being a pitching and defense-focused organization, it wouldn't shock me at all for them to try him out there.

Agreed! I think there’s a pretty decent chance they’ll at least test it out.