Brewers 2026 Arizona Fall League Report, Week 2: Matthew Wood Walks the Walk

[Cory Sparks]

Image courtesy of Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

Two weeks have come and gone in the Arizona Fall League, an extended showcase allowing some of baseball’s rising stars to get extra reps against top-level competition. Notably, for anyone who will be on a 40-man roster next year, this could be the last taste of baseball for a while should a lockout come. 

While the big-league Milwaukee Brewers are dancing onto the World Series for the first time since the 1982 season, they have a few farmhands capturing headlines in AFL play so far. 

Matthew Wood
The minor-league backstop is Rule 5-eligible going into this offseason, meaning if the Brewers don’t protect him by adding him to the 40-man roster next month, another organization could pick the 25-year-old up and give him a shot—assuming that, despite the looming lockout, the Rule 5 Draft actually happens.

One of the catcher’s most notable attributes is his plate discipline, as he walked 18.4% of the time while only striking out in 13.5% of his plate appearances this year. That performance has carried into the first two weeks of the Arizona Fall League. So far, he's 4-for-11 (.364 batting average) with four runs, a double, a run batted in and a stolen base. Wood has 10 walks and no strikeouts through 21 plate appearances.

He enjoyed a career-best season with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers this year, throttling 18 home runs to the tune of an .890 OPS in 95 games. Before this year, Milwaukee’s rising signal caller had just 15 long balls over the course of 290 contests. With every well-worked at-bat, the Penn State alum is making a larger case to be placed on the 40-man roster, but it's important to take AFL results with a grain of salt, especially in small samples.

Jett Williams
Williams didn’t have a good season in his first year with the Brewers organization. He was one of two prospects (Brandon Sproat being the other) in a trade involving two-time All-Star Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers. The 22-year-old utility player swatted nine home runs, had 41 runs batted in and hit just .233 over 81 games with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. 

In the AFL, things aren't going any better. He's gone just 3-for-27, with six runs, a triple and three stolen bases over 33 plate appearances. Williams has six walks and 10 strikeouts. Selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, he's known for his blistering speed and doubles power. Neither will come much into play, though, if he can't become a more consistent pure hitter.

Jose Meneses
Meneses is a very intriguing prospect in the Brewers pipeline, and his start in the AFL is a fine microcosm of his overall baseball profile. He's made three appearances for the Scottsdale Scorpions, and he has allowed one run on no hits in 2 1/3 innings of work. The 21-year-old Venezuelan has handed out three free passes while striking out two. 

Take a step back to look at Meneses’s overall prospect makeup, and it’s clear what the ceiling and floor look like: a 28.6% strikeout rate this year, but a sky-high 16.9% walk rate. Meneses forces a remarkable 61.5% ground-ball rate. Now it’s just about staying ahead in counts, if he wants to be a major-league contributor someday.

View full article