Brewers Farm System Observations: Is Luis Lara Back on Top Prospect Track?

This is the first installment of a weekly article focused on prospects who caught my attention during the past week of games. The Brewers system is chock-full of talent right now, and while there may be weeks when this article will feature the likes of Jesus Made or Luis Pena, I also want to draw attention to some of the other names—those who may still be flying under the radar, or those who may have fallen off the radar, like Luis Lara.

All statistics are season-long, unless otherwise noted
Luis Lara - OF: 116 wRC+, 17.8 K%, 14.4 BB%, 18 SB, 0 CS
Once a consensus top-10 prospect in the system, the switch-hitting Lara split his age-18 season between Low-A Carolina and High-A Wisconsin, while posting an above-average line at each level. His return to High-A, still as one of the younger players at the level, did not go very well in 2024, and his Arizona Fall League stat line was underwhelming, as well. That said, I spoke with a few scouts who watched him in Arizona, and they all believed that Lara performed much better than the stats would tell you. He was hitting the ball hard but running into quite a bit of bad luck.

Fast-forward six months, and the Brewers seemed to agree that he had made strides below the surface. They were once again aggressive, assigning Lara to Double-A Biloxi as a 20-year-old. After a slow start at the plate in April, Lara has settled in at the level, as evidenced by his slash-line of .325/.409/.403 and 140 wRC+ so far in May.

The big difference for Lara in 2025? His swing decisions. His swing rate is down 4% from 2024, and he is more selective early in counts. While his strikeout rate is up a couple percentage points, his whiff rate is down by a similar number. His walk rate, however, is up over 6% for the season, going from well below average in 2024 to well above average in 2025.

This more selective approach has helped him draw more walks, but has also helped him impact the ball more, allowing him to get his “A” swing off more regularly. This week, he had five batted balls over 100 MPH, including roping a two-run double at 103 MPH on Saturday and a 106-MPH fly out to right field that would have been a home run on many days—but on this particular day, was knocked down by the wind. Power will never be a massive part of his game, especially given his 5-foot-8 frame, but he is showing that he can impact the ball enough to keep pitchers honest.

Lara was always a plus runner, and had 75 steals between 2023 and 2024, but he was also caught 24 times. This season, he has been much better at getting reads on the pitchers. His jumps have improved, and when you pair that with the plus speed, he has yet to be caught stealing in 18 attempts.

Defensively, his reads and jumps have always stood out, but he has looked even better in 2025. Lara is a comfortably plus defender in center field with a plus throwing arm, and that could be underselling his abilities. His willingness to run through a wall and to lay out for balls is reminiscent of Sal Frelick. The smoothness of his defensive game evokes Lorenzo Cain and Blake Perkins.

In fact, a Blake Perkins type of player is a relatively safe projection for Lara. Both are switch-hitters with glove-first profiles and enough bat-to-ball ability to be competitive offensively. If the bat continues to improve, you can also see a world where Lara is a switch-hitting version of Sal Frelick.

Lara has been pushed aggressively, but after seemingly falling behind in 2024, he is catching back up.

Marco Dinges - C: 185 wRC+, 12.2 K%, 16.8 BB%, 4 HR
A personal favorite of mine since draft day, Dinges was promoted to High-A this week, and it was well deserved. Posting a 199 wRC+ with the Mudcats, he likely would not have lasted at the level as long as he did if not for battling some injuries, while continuing to get comfortable as a catcher.

Offensively, Dinges has looked the part the whole season. His walk rate is higher than his strikeout rate, and he clearly was too much for Low-A pitching. In his first week with the Timber Rattlers, he didn’t show many signs of slowing down, as he crushed his first High-A home run, which left the bat at 111 MPH. 

When it comes to Dinges, the question for most has been whether he will be able to stick behind the plate defensively. He’s still extremely new to the position, having only caught his senior year of high school and then his one season of junior college ball. He did not catch during his draft season with Florida State.

He has been showing growth all season and was able to show off his biggest weapon multiple times in his first series with Wisconsin. His arm is plus, if not better. (Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs has a 70 grade on his throwing.) He caught South Bend Cubs runners sleeping multiple times this week, pulling off two different back picks at first base.

While it’s clearly a talented arm, Dinges does have inconsistent footwork on his throws, particularly to second base, which has sometimes caused struggles with the accuracy of his throws. This is something he will continue to improve upon as he gets more comfortable at the position.

His receiving continues to be a work in progress, but there’s been noticeable improvement, especially on pitches at the bottom of the zone. It can still look clunky when he’s catching pitches up in the zone, but that’s not uncommon for any catcher, especially one with only two prior years of catching experience. Notably, he has not allowed a single passed ball in his 130 innings behind the dish this year.

Dinges is a much better athlete than most catchers, though with a slighter frame, both of which allow him to move around well behind the plate, giving him the potential to be an above-average blocker. To this point, there have been ups and downs, but the flashes are there. He also has good hands, which allows him to pick some of the pitches he doesn’t have time to block. 

As I watch him progress this season, I believe he will stay as a catcher long-term, which will only make his bat more valuable. Dinges’s stock will continue to rise as more people buy into his ability to handle the position. The Brewers look to have found a good one in their 2024 fourth-round pick.

Jesus Flores - RHP: 3.04 ERA, 3.30 FIP, 24.5 K%, 7.5 BB%, 30.1 Whiff%
After a tough debut in Low-A to finish last season as a 19-year-old, Flores has gotten off to a better start this season, and there has been a noticeable uptick in the quality of his stuff. Flores first caught my eye in his outing on May 18, when he went four innings in relief, striking out six batters and walking zero. He allowed two hits and one earned run.

In my viewings last season, Flores sat in the 89-91 MPH range, touching 93. In 2025, he has sat 91-94, even touching 95 a few times. He throws both a four-seam fastball and a two-seamer. To my eye, neither has an extraordinary shape, but they have different shapes, allowing him to keep hitters from locking in one of them. The uptick in velocity helps them play better than they did last season.

Flores’s best pitch—his bread and butter—is his slider. It’s the pitch he is most comfortable with, able to land it for strikes or to try to get a chase, and he’s willing to throw it in any count to both lefties and righties. Coming in around 83-85 MPH, it’s late-breaking and sharp. Without knowing any of the metrics on it, it appears to have a high spin rate and be hard for hitters to pick up. He repeatedly used the slider in his 11th-inning save this past Saturday, striking out the final two hitters he saw with the pitch, stranding the tying and winning runs in scoring position.

Flores also mixes in an interesting, upper-80s changeup that shows flashes of generating solid depth. Though you would, ideally, like to see more separation between the velocity on the changeup and the fastball, a pitcher like Freddy Peralta has shown this season that you can compensate for the lack of separation with good shape and good tunneling. He still has work to do in both of those regards, but you can see the flashes, including on the one he threw in the video above.

After struggling with command and control in his short stint with the Mudcats last season, he has shown much improvement in the strike-throwing department so far this season. He’s lowered his walk rate by over 10%, and his strikeout rate has improved by nearly 4%. With his whiff rate hovering in the 30% range, Flores likely has more room to grow in the strikeout department as well, in terms of putting hitters away when he has the chance.

Flores’s fastball shape worries me a bit, but seeing him go four innings in relief was interesting. With a four-pitch mix and the velocity holding up well over that long a stint, I have to wonder if they will look to stretch him out as a starter at all. At only 20 years old, there are some signs that this could be a pop-up prospect to keep an eye on moving forward.

That’s all I’ve got for this week; let us know what you think in the replies!

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