Brewers Arizona Fall League Update: Eric Bitonti, Home Run Derby Participant

The Milwaukee Brewers didn't become World Series champions by finding just one batch of young talent and hitting it rich. They know they need to keep promoting successfully from within, if they hope to sustain their dominance. Their prospects have kept their foot on the gas this fall in the Arizona Fall League, and Eric Bitonti has turned a breakout 2026 regular season into an impressive run in the fall. The Brewers’ 20-year-old prospect competed in the AFL’s Home Run Derby over the weekend, but his recent power surge doesn't fully answer the questions hanging over his progression toward the majors.

How He Got Here

Bitonti was drafted as a 17-year-old in 2023, when he earned plenty of attention coming out of the California high school class. The powerful corner infielder went in the third round, and Milwaukee’s $1.75-million offer was enough to sway him from a commitment to the University of Oregon. 

Matt Arnold clearly saw the potential, and as he has done so many times, he found a way to harness a promising young talent and turn him into a productive professional baseball player. After turning in an age-19 season wherein he smacked 19 home runs and slashed .238/.341/.421 with Low-A Carolina, Bitonti really found something this year. 

A Spectacular 2026 Run 

In 2026, Bitonti struck a balance between a high batting average and potent power numbers while toiling for the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He slashed .270/.391/.525 with 25 home runs and 88 runs batted in over a 111-game span in Appleton. That piqued the Brewers’ interest enough to put the young phenom into the AFL. 

What has he done since gaining entry to the season-ending showcase? Nothing different than the first six months of the season: he's absolutely mashed. In 18 Fall League contests, the power-hitting lefty has whacked three home runs and six total extra-base hits. He boasts a .792 OPS. As a result, he competed in the league’s annual Home Run Derby, and therein, he launched eight long balls in the opening round.

Looking Under The Hood

At a closer glance, it’s easy to see how Bitonti is so effective on offense. For one, his timing is impeccable. The Brewers’ up-and-coming slugger is catching the ball out front at an elite clip, earning a 25.2% pull air percentage (85th percentile). 

Bitonti has a profile similar to fellow power hitters Andrew Fischer and Braylon Payne, though that also means that he shares their greatest vulnerabilities. He may hit the ball a mile, but his strikeout rate is sky-high. The eager bat has a 37.9% whiff rate, directly correlating to a 32.9% strikeout rate. In an age wherein pitching velocity is rising by the year and hurlers are able to generate more break on their pitches than ever, some teams are willing to trade the strikeout rate for supreme power. However, only a very small subset of great sluggers can hit enough to make up for that high a strikeout rate.

Is This the Brewers Way?

The question before Bitonti is: will the Brewers try to mold him into a more contact-oriented player? Their identity hasn’t been based on power in years. This season, Milwaukee was 15th in home runs (154), had the 12th-fewest strikeouts (1,383) and had the best on-base percentage (.341) in baseball. Neither catching the ball out front nor trading contact for power is part of their broader philosophy.

Will Bitonti conform to the Brewers Way, or will up-and-coming power-hitters like him, Fischer and Payne have to cut down on the strikeouts to crack the big-league roster one day? The good news with Bitonti is that he isn’t venturing out of the zone much, chasing just 27.5% of the time (59th percentile). Now, it’s just about finding a path to a better contact rate in the zone to cut down on the punchouts. 

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