Jesus Made Gets His First Taste of Big-League Coffee, While Other Top Prospects Show What They Can Do

Jesus Made
Made replaced Jorge Alfaro in the bottom of the eighth inning in Maryvale, facing José E. Hernández, who saw time in the majors last season for the Pittsburgh Pirates (a 3.38 ERA, in a small sample). Made took a fastball on the outer third, before laying off a changeup that tunneled beautifully with his first pitch but tailed out of the zone. A swing and a miss on the slider (Hernández's best offering, with a 41.5% whiff rate in the majors in 2024) should have slowed Made's bat down, but he was right on time—maybe even a little early—on the low heater that followed, resulting in some solid contact to third base.

Made didn't look overmatched by big-league stuff, despite his mere 17 years of age. Hopefully, we can see more of the young man in settings like these during the early days of spring training.

Blake Holub

Holub is very much in the Kenley Jansen mold of relievers. A high-IVB fastball with lots of cut (negative horizontal break, in this case) usually comes with some difficulty in spinning the breaking ball, but Holub has a fantastic gyro slider that plays off his cutter nicely. Comparing him to Jansen's arsenal (below), there's an interesting similarity here. The cutter has slightly more movement than Jansen's, with a slightly better feel for spin, but this does create a fascinating profile for the Brewers bullpen.

Braylon Payne & Eric Bitonti
I'll group these two together, as they featured in back-to-back at-bats facing former closer Giovanny Gallegos. Payne was slightly early on a slider, pulling it about 10 feet foul and 40 feet over the right field fence. Payne came into the draft under the radar of most publications due to his slappy swing, low exit velocities and ground-ball tendencies. So far with the Brewers, though, he's shown exit velocities up to 110 mph, and if we can see signs of pulling the ball in the air with more regularity, it bodes incredibly well for the young speedster. Payne produced a fielder's choice on a ground ball to second in an 0-2 count, but to his credit, the speed did help him stay out of a double play.

Bitonti has the opposite of Payne's problem—he'll hit for power, but most other things are in doubt—but he did showcase his capabilities nicely. One of the best swing decision-makers in the Brewers organization (per Baseball America), Bitonti can swing and miss more than you would like, while producing booming contact. He demonstrated as much against Gallegos, sitting on two changeups down and out of the zone before turning on one down and in for a rocket through the infield.

The fact that players so young are performing like this against MLB-caliber stuff is impressive, for two of the most intriguing, high-upside hitters in the Brewers farm system.

Garrett Mitchell Can Still Hit Curveballs
One day (though spring training isn't a time when they'll care), pitchers will stop throwing curveballs to Garrett Mitchell. He crushed a hanging breaker to left-center against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and in some ways, it was a massive relief. Mitchell has been working on his swing mechanics this offseason, looking to deliver the bat with his torso rather than have to cheat to catch it out in front. It's not a small change, and as such, it was a concern, given the degradation of Joey Wiemer in 2024 after he tried to make a similar adjustment.

For those who don't remember, Wiemer underwent large-scale changes to smooth out his swing. He was trying to reduce his swing-and-miss rates, but he ended up losing all sense of timing at the plate. Mitchell's ability to continue barreling up in-zone breaking pitches is a good sign for him, and hopefully, the rest of the swing changes he's been working on can help him at the top of the zone—where he struggles most.

Overall Loud Contact
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Corbin Burnes are two of the premier pitchers in baseball. Yamamoto is further on in his ramp-up than most pitchers, since he's due to start for the Dodgers in Japan, but no one could accuse Burnes of poor raw stuff. Joey Ortiz, Eric Haase and Ernesto Martinez Jr all recorded exit velocities north of 100 mph against Burnes in his first two innings of work, though, and Martinez touched 110 mph in the fourth inning, to boot.

We saw the same against Yamamoto (although without actual numbers) from William Contreras, Garrett Mitchell, Vinny Capra (another home run!) and Jorge Alfaro.

Honorable Mentions
We also saw some additional tidbits. Rhys Hoskins looked to be in his early-season 2024 form, with battling plate appearances. He was seeing the ball well and looking a lot more comfortable at the plate. Luis Lara crushed a 105-mph line drive (impressive, given he's 20 years old and 5-foot-6). Nick Mears is continuing to keep the curveball away from his arsenal, with an even balance of four-seamers and sliders generating whiff rates of 40% and 50%, respectively. His arm angle was notably lower on his four-seamer, in contrast to last season—something to watch, as it should help the deception on his slider if it turns out to be a legitimate change.

Overall, it was a fun day of pre-season baseball for the Brewers! Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below!

NB credit as always to Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) whose graphics and models are oh so useful to me!