Brewers Minor League Observations: Luke Adams's Unique Approach, Jeferson Quero Progress Report, and More

We're back for another week of farm system observations. Last week, we covered two pitchers (one more established and one under-the-radar arm), as well as a position player. This week, there will be two pretty well-known position-player prospects and a starting pitcher from the 2024 draft under the microscope. Let's begin this edition with a player who evokes a wide opinion gap on his long-term abilities. 

All statistics are season-long unless otherwise noted
Luke Adams - 1B/3B - Biloxi Shuckers: 247 PA, 179 wRC+, 21.1 K%, 16.6 BB%, 11 HR
The Brewers' 12th-round pick in the 2022 draft, Adams stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 210 pounds. He has a rare blend of patience at the plate, plus raw power and surprising baserunning ability. Adams has spent most of the season at first base, with Brock Wilken manning third, but he has shown the ability to play over there, too.

Adams only turned 21 in April and was the fifth-youngest player in the Southern League on Opening Day. It wasn’t a huge surprise, therefore, when the bat got off to a bit of a slow start; he posted a line of .173/.326/.387 in April. This was good for a 118 wRC+ in the oppressive Southern League hitting environment, but it was not the type of line you'd hope to see from a genuine prospect.

On top of his age, Adams was taking some offseason swing changes into games for the first time. These changes continued something he had been working on the last couple of years: simplifying his operation. You can see the changes Adams made from 2023 to 2024 in the first tweet below, and then the second shows how he simplified it even further heading into 2025.

From 2023 to 2024, the hand movement in his load lessened significantly. In 2025, the hands haven’t changed much pre-swing, but the angle of his barrel is more in line with the angle at which he wants to swing the bat—going from a flat angle in the 2024 video to more of a 20-degree angle in 2025. This change has minimized that movement even further.

The other significant change Adams seems to have made heading into 2025 is that he does a much better job of staying “stacked” throughout his swing. He keeps the upper body (shoulders and torso) aligned over the lower body (hips and legs) during his load and swing. You can see, in the 2023 and 2024 videos, that he has a bit of a hunch in his torso. In the video below, showing the grand slam Adams hit this past weekend, you can see how well-aligned his lower and upper halves are.

I mentioned his April slash earlier. It was a fine month of production, but not in the shape you want to see from a legitimate prospect. Since April ended, he has posted a .294/.490/.569 line, good for a 215 wRC+. Including the final two games of April, Adams has reached base in 36 straight, setting the Shuckers franchise record on the grand slam above.

Adams has always been considered patient, but really, it’s a passive approach. His swing rate of 30.7% in 2024 was among the lowest in professional baseball. He has upped his swing rate to 32.8% in 2025, but this would still make him an outlier at the major-league level. Juan Soto has the lowest rate among qualified hitters in MLB, at 34.4%. This is the concern with Adams, when it comes to prospect evaluators. Yes, this approach works fine in the lower levels of the minor leagues, but when pitchers throw strikes more consistently, will it still work? That’s the question, and it’s a good one.

The good news is that the approach has worked at every level, actually improving his production, going from a 130 wRC+ in Low-A to 153 in High-A and now 179 in Double-A. He has also already matched his career high in home runs, at 11, in only 60% of the plate appearances. At some point, it gets hard to push the production aside. You start to hope (and assume) that he'll make the adjustments and swing a bit more often, because he's shown that he knows what he's doing.

Jaron DeBerry - RHP - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers: 26 IP, 3.46 ERA, 3.25 FIP, 27.5% K%, 7.3 BB%, 25.2 Whiff%
The Brewers drafted DeBerry in the third round of the 2024 draft. A personal favorite fit of mine in the draft, DeBerry has a kitchen-sink repertoire, but I think there’s more of a ceiling to dream on than most pitchers in that category have—especially those drafted as senior sign pitchers and those who receive only $25,000 in bonus money, when the slot value is $788,700.

I have watched DeBerry’s last few starts in High-A, where he was promoted after he showed he was a bit too talented for Low-A hitters in 8 2/3 innings at the level. His most recent start was his best with Wisconsin. He showed off his entire repertoire throughout, on his way to a line of 5 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts, four hits, and two walks, resulting in two earned runs.

DeBerry mixes in all three fastball variations, sitting in the low-90s on his two- and four-seam heaters. The cutter, which he has used quite a bit in High-A, sits in the 86-88 MPH range. DeBerry also throws two breaking ball variations, a sweeper and a curveball, which each sit in the 79-81 MPH range. A late addition to his college repertoire was a changeup in the 83-85 range, which he has not used much in pro ball. He did record a strikeout with it on Thursday (the fourth strikeout in the video above) and when he’s used it, it has looked like a solid-average pitch.

Going back to the ceiling that DeBerry possesses, he enters pro ball with an extremely slender frame, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing (a seemingly generous) 178 pounds. There is some hope for added velocity, simply from adding some mass to his frame as he moves up the ladder. The four-seam and two-seam shapes are a bit generic at this point, though the two-seam has improved from the one he threw in college, so added velocity would go a long way.

On top of the potential for a bit of a velocity jump, DeBerry’s ceiling is interesting because of his ability to spin the ball. Both the sweeper and curveball have had spin rates of over 3,000 RPMs and have sat in the 2,900 range. To me, these are both above-average pitches or better. I question whether his heavy fastball approach with the Timber Rattlers is the best way to deploy him. That said, pitch usage in the minor leagues isn’t always aimed at getting the best results. Rather, it's tailored to help development the most.

If he can increase his velocity by a couple of ticks, there are a lot of Coleman Crow similarities in DeBerry's game. His numbers in High-A haven’t been nearly as strong as they were in the small sample of Low-A outings, but I believe there’s still quite a bit to be excited about with DeBerry. Minimally, he should be looked at as more than a money-saving pick. This is a prospect worth following.

Jeferson Quero - C - Nashville Sounds:  36 PA, 79 wRC+, 13.9 K%, 8.3 BB% (Triple-A only) 
Quero is a different story than the other two in the article. Having missed all of 2024 (outside of one plate appearance), the top prospect has made his long-awaited return to Triple-A over the last couple of weeks.

I have been wanting to see, more than anything else, Quero’s ability to throw the ball coming off his torn labrum. Formerly throwing the ball as well as any catcher in baseball, he was posting pop times around 1.80 seconds in 2023, as a 20-year-old in Double-A. It would have been one of the strongest arms in MLB at that time.

Since returning from injury, his stats say that he has thrown out two of five attempted base stealers. However, one steal came on a pitch he didn't make a throw on, and the two “caught stealings” are both pickoffs where he never touched the ball. Baserunners are 2-for-2 on their actual stolen base attempts. Both of those attempts saw pop times in the 2.00 to 2.05 range, but both were on breaking balls in the dirt that caused a long transfer, neither of which was very clean. All that context to say, we haven’t learned anything in that regard so far, at least visually.

We did get some information in the form of Sounds announcer Jeff Hem’s interview with manager Rick Sweet (around the 2:10 mark of the interview below), where Sweet mentions that Quero has 12 bolts in his shoulder and it will still be a while before he’s back to 100%. He also says that Quero used to have an “80 arm” but will most likely have an average to above-average arm moving forward.

It’s unfortunate news. At one point, there was a path to Quero being a bit of a defensive game-breaker, where he could control the running game at an elite level, as well as bring his exceptional game-calling and solid receiving skills to the table. The lack of that elite arm makes it more likely that he ends up being an above-average defender, rather than a great one.

Quero’s bat hasn’t been great in his first week’s worth of plate appearances in Nashville. Still, he showed plenty of ability when he was on his rehab assignment in Arizona, hitting five home runs in 44 plate appearances at the level.

The exit velocity numbers have been weak so far for Quero, topping out at 101 MPH. The shoulder may also be causing an inability to finish his swing the same way he did when he was last healthy. Formerly a two-hand finisher, Quero has very noticeably been finishing with one hand this year. Compare the video below to the video above, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Not that there aren’t plenty of hitters who finish with one hand, but Quero’s hand seems to be coming off pretty early at times, which leads to a one-handed swing rather than just a finish.

These are concerning signs for a guy whose offensive game was primarily built around his ability to drive the ball, as he’s never been overly strong in the swing-decision department. His bat-to-ball skills still appear to be pretty solid, but he will need the power to return to offensive relevancy.

All of this said, it’s been a tiny sample, and things could change quickly in a positive direction—especially if, as Sweet mentioned in the interview, he is still not back to 100%. The early returns on his return to the field haven’t been great for Quero, but we will need to check back in on him in a month or two.

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

Interested in learning more about the Milwaukee Brewers' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!