2026 Brewers Affiliate Season Recap: Triple-A Nashville Sounds

[Steve Drumwright]

Considering the roster churn that strikes all Triple-A teams, winning games can be difficult. But with the quality and quantity of prospects in the Milwaukee Brewers’ system, the Nashville Sounds held their own during the 2026 season.

Led by Brewer Fanatic Top 20 prospects Tyson Hardin (No. 8), a right-handed starter, and catcher Jeferson Quero (No. 9), infielder-center fielder Jett Williams (No. 12) and corner infielder Luke Adams (No. 14), the Sounds had a good first half and a not-so-good second half. That is pretty typical. Of course, in the first half, the Sounds, who finished second in the International League’s West Division at 43-32, also had two other top prospects in shortstop Cooper Pratt and center fielder Luis Lara, who were promoted to the Brewers and have played key roles in Milwaukee winning a fourth straight NL Central championship.

The roster saw 74 players suit up for the Sounds this year (33 position players, 41 pitchers), including nine who made their MLB debuts (seven with the Brewers and two with other organizations). Also adding to the roster chaos is MLB players on rehab assignments, with nine Brewers hitting Nashville on the comeback trail. There was only one player who made it through the entire season on the Sounds’ active roster, corner infielder Brock Wilken.

Not so coincidentally, Wilken led the Sounds in homers with 17 and RBIs with 80, but only had a slash line of .191/.319/.365 in 130 games. His RBI total was seventh-best in the International League, while his 152 strikeouts were fourth-most. There were high hopes for Jett Williams, the infielder and center fielder who was acquired along with right-handed starter Brandon Sproat from the New York Mets in the Freddy Peralta-Tobias Myers trade. Williams, however, never really took off, finishing the season with a slash line of .233/.340/.384 with nine homers and 41 RBIs. He did have a couple of stints on the seven-day injured list.

Nashville finished 16th in the 20-team league with a .734 OPS, despite drawing the sixth-most walks in the league.

Pitching was a much better story. The Sounds had the second-best ERA (4.33), fifth-most strikeouts and issued the fewest walks. Among the starting rotation standouts were right-hander Coleman Crow (3.59 ERA in 20 games), right-hander Tyson Hardin (4.58 ERA in 19 games) and right-hander Thomas Pannone (4.70 ERA in 23 games). Pannone had the standout performance of the season, perhaps in all of the minors, by turning in a perfect game on Sept. 7, the first solo nine-inning perfecto by any minor-leaguer since 2017.

Among the noteworthy relief performances were right-hander Cameron Wagoner, who had a 0.56 ERA in 14 games with the Sounds after a 2.03 ERA in 19 games for the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. The 11th-round draft pick in 2022 had a combined .167 opponent batting average and struck out 35.1% of the batters he faced while walking 6.5%. Right-hander Blake Holub had a 2.10 ERA in 50 appearances with five saves and two holds. Holub had a 28.1% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate.

Despite all the turnover, the Sounds posted an overall record of 80-69, which was the sixth-best in the league.

Stat Leaders

League: International League West Division

First half: 43-32, second place, 4 GB, plus-62 run differential

Second half: 37-37, sixth place, 7½ GB, minus-26 run differential

Hitting leaders

(20 games minimum)

Average: Luis Lara .321, Greg Jones .289, Eddys Leonard .287

Slugging percentage: Luke Adams .509, Darrien Miller .507, Leonard .502

OPS: Miller .942, Adams .927, Lara .902

Runs: Lara 67, Brock Wilken 60, Jett Williams 60

HRs: Wilken 17, Jefferson Quero 15, Adams 13

RBIs: Wilken 80, Quero 69, Akil Baddoo 47

Pitching leaders

(10 games minimum)

ERA: Cameron Wagoner 0.56, Craig Yoho 0.78, Brian Fitzpatrick 1.13

Strikeouts: Coleman Crow 102, Tyson Hardin 96, Thomas Pannone 85

WHIP: Yoho 0.65, Rob Zastryzny 0.86, Wagoner 0.94

Opponent average: Yoho .135, Jacob Waguespeck .145, Wagoner .175

Wins: Crow 9, Russ Knehr 6, Blake Holub 5, Pannone 5, Garrett Stallings 5

Saves: Holub 5, Will Childers 4, Yoho 4

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