Now the Fun Starts: Jackson Chourio Will Play Opening Day

A nagging and uneasy sense of unreality has hovered around Jackson Chourio's spring training showing. Despite the megabucks the Brewers agreed to pay him before he even spent any meaningful time in Triple A, Chourio wasn't guaranteed a roster spot at the commencement of camp. Manager Pat Murphy went out of his way to make clear that he had high expectations and high standards for Chourio, not only to ensure that his wunderkind would work hard, but to deflect some attention from him.

It worked, but it worked in an odd way. We've spent much of camp trying to suss out what role Chourio would fill for the team early in 2024, and we still don't have all those answers. He could be the center fielder or the right fielder. He could bat as high as first in the lineup, but he seems more likely to bat seventh or eighth. The unusual number of qualified candidates for the other outfield gigs on the team has made it hard to bring Chourio's rookie outlook into clearer focus, and it's made for some frustrating interference in Brewers' fans efforts to get excited about a player the team hopes will be one of the best in baseball, relatively soon.

Now, that penumbra has been pulverized. Chourio is real, and his impact on the team--for better and for worse--will be immediate. Mistakes loom ahead. Chourio made a couple of visible mistakes in right field Monday, but they were far from the first of camp. Whether on his own recognizance or on coaches' orders, he played outrageously deep when placed in center field for the first couple weeks of Cactus League play, and it led to some bloop singles that have to be caught. Early on, he played some left field in untelevised contests, and the lack of cameras was a kindness, as he let plays speed up on him and didn't read the ball especially well.

In all three outfield positions and even since the start of camp, though, he's flashed dazzling ability. That was part of what caught Murphy's attention, and earned some less-than-approving grunts: Chourio isn't yet consistent afield. Nor will he be so at the plate, right away, but the flashes on offense have been just as scintillating. He's made plays on the bases with his speed and nose for the extra base, and demonstrated an ability to barrel the ball up in that gorgeous way reserved for special talents.

Over the winter, Brewers minor-league hitting coordinator Brenton Del Chiaro half-sheepishly compared Chourio to Mike Trout at the same age. At 20 years old, Trout had one of the best rookie seasons in baseball history. After watching Chourio's every move for a week earlier this month, reading his scouting reports and stats, and scrutinizing his adjustments as the Cactus League season has trudged toward its completion, I'll offer a different comp: a 20-year-old Willie Mays.

Though he, too, won the Rookie of the Year Award at age 20, Mays wasn't quite the dynamo Trout was in 2012. In 1951, Mays came up in late May and survived a long period of struggle, before finding traction and tearing up the league down the stretch. He never looked back, and is probably the best baseball player ever. Obviously, comparing Chourio to either of these guys is massively unfair.

Just as Del Chiaro sees an echo of Trout's unique feel for the barrel in Chourio's swing, though, I see some of Mays's unique traits in him. As Mays was, Chourio is unusually short and compact for a power hitter, but that power remains fairly obvious. He strides through the ball in his swing and can plug the gap in right-center as readily as he can lose a double in the left-field corner, just as the young Mays could. The way he runs the bases--head up, full-speed, eager and more than able to take an unexpected 90 feet--and the way he plays defense (headlong, athletic, and coordinated, though without Mays's grace and natural feel for the ball in flight) enhance the sense of parallelism.

Already, Chourio will have to hear the name Robin Yount unfairly often, because Yount was such an important part of this franchise and came up so young, setting an almost impossible standard. Comparing the youngster to two more all-time greats only increases the stakes and raises my anxiety slightly, but as Del Chiaro did, I feel a bit compelled to confess this impulse. Watching Chourio is more fun and more exhilarating than watching other players--even very talented, reasonably interesting ones. He's as attention-grabbing as he is good, which is really saying something.

Even if Murphy tries to bat him low in the order and shelter him from overblown expectations, Chourio is the most important variable in the equation when trying to forecast the Brewers' 2024 win total. He could put them over the top in the NL Central almost by himself. If he scuffles and stalls out, though, they'll be hard-pressed to overcome that. As scary as that is, it's also thrilling. Now, at least, we know that this incandescent talent won't be diverted to Nashville to begin the season. For all 162 games, Chourio will be right in the thick of it for the Crew.