Brewer Fanatic 2024 Offseason Top 20 Prospect - No. 3: Cooper Pratt

3. Cooper Pratt (Carolina Mudcats, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, Biloxi Shuckers)

The Brewers surprisingly selected Pratt in the sixth round in 2023, a pick that many evaluators considered the steal of the draft at the time. Pratt was ranked the 25th-best overall prospect in the draft by FanGraphs, 45th by MLB Pipeline, and 63rd by Baseball America. Pratt was, like many Brewers selections in recent history, a pick based on a mix of analytics and pure scouting. He would stand out in most teams' models, but he also stood out to the pro scouts watching him on the prep circuit over the last few years. Pratt began his first full season with the Carolina Mudcats as a 19-year-old, spent time with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, and eventually finished his season playing for the Biloxi Shuckers in their lone playoff series.

What to Like:
On the defensive side, Pratt appears to be poised to stick at shortstop, despite his 6-foot-4 build. He was recently awarded the Rawlings MiLB Gold Glove award as the best defensive shortstop in the minor leagues. Pratt has very good hands, and advanced actions for his age. He gets solid reads off the bat and does especially well when coming in on the ball, or ranging up the middle. As the season progressed, he looked more and more comfortable ranging to his right to cover the hole between shortstop and third base. Pratt’s arm is above-average, if not plus, and it allows him to record outs on plays that not many players his age could make.

While not a burner, Pratt is an above-average runner with good instincts on the bases. He has a very smooth gait and used it well on the bases in 2024, stealing 27 bags successfully and being caught just three times. While he probably won’t be a prolific basestealer in his prime, a 20-steal big-league season wouldn’t be out of the question. He also appears to have good baserunning instincts, and looks to take the extra base when he can.

Offensively, Pratt’s approach at the plate was considered one of the best among all the high school selections in his class. According to Baseball America, he posted fantastic plate discipline and bat-to-ball numbers during his time on the tournament circuit.

“Over a 668-pitch sample, Pratt had just a 12% overall miss rate and 17% chase rate," reads the BA report. "His miss rate falls to just 6% on pitches in the zone.” Unsurprisingly, that whiff rate was higher in pro ball, but the 23.2% rate he posted in 2024 was still 77th-percentile and shows that he has above-average contact skills. 

Pratt has a simple operation at the plate, utilizing a small leg kick and extremely quick hands. Those traits combine to form a smooth swing that keeps the barrel in the zone for a long time and allows him to hit the ball with authority to all fields, and also to hit line drives at an elite level. His 30.5% line drive rate was in the 98th percentile among all minor-league hitters, and he batted .728 on those line drives, including 11 of his 15 doubles and three of his eight home runs. 

What to Work On:
Pratt is not providing much in the way of in-game power at this point in his career. Still, his frame shows the potential to grow into much more, and he did start to show signs of improvement after his promotion to High-A. Pratt hit five home runs with the Timber Rattlers in only 95 plate appearances. He had only hit three in 311 plate appearances with Carolina. In order to get to that power more consistently, Pratt could benefit from hitting fly balls more often; his 28.2% rate is extremely low. However, similar to Mike Boeve, there's a risk of losing his elite ability to hit line drives in that process. As long as he keeps getting stronger, he might be able to make this profile work well enough to get to 20-homer power, but he’s more likely to end up in the 10-15 range without the adjustment.

While Pratt drew quite a few walks in Low-A, he did see that number fall sharply in High-A. He went from a 12.2% walk rate to a 4.2% rate, and at the same time, he saw his strikeout rate jump from 18.3% to 25.3%. His power numbers made a leap at High-A, but could that have been at the cost of his plate discipline and bat-to-ball abilities? A sample of under 100 plate appearances isn’t any reason to sound the alarms, but it will be something to monitor moving forward.

Defensively, continued improvement in his initial read off the bat will help ensure that he sticks as a shortstop. As mentioned earlier, this mainly shows up on balls hit to his backhand. He already made a jump in this regard in 2024, but getting even better at it could take him from a really good shortstop to a great one.

What’s next:
Pratt has already popped up on a couple of Top 100 lists around the industry. His ability to defend at short, hit line drives and play smart baseball all give him a really solid floor. If he can trade some of his ground balls for fly balls and continue to add weight to a frame that can definitely carry more, he may begin to tap into a bit more power. A power jump, while maintaining what he’s already good at, would likely make him a consensus Top 100 prospect.

Starting Pratt back in Wisconsin with the Timber Rattlers is a possibility, given he only spent a few weeks there in 2024. However, considering the amount of infield depth in the Brewers system at the lower levels (as well as Pratt’s promotion to Double-A for the Shuckers playoff series) would seem to point to a potential Biloxi assignment to begin 2025.

What are your thoughts on Pratt? What are you hoping to see from him in 2025? Let us know in the comments!

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