Ro Mueller

From this article (translated with Google Translate), it appears that RHP Nolan Blackwood may head down to Mexico if he doesn't settle well in the Brewers' organization.

RHP Nolan Blackwood signed and assigned to AAA Nashville RHP Kevin Herget signed and assigned to AAA Nashville OF Duncan Garcia released by ACL Brewers INF Jonatan Guzman released by ACL Brewers 20-year old OF Duncan Garcia from the Dominican Republic signed with the Brewers in January 2021, putting up reasonably encouraging offensive numbers over two seasons in the DSL (.719 OPS with 7 HRs, 34 SBs in 355 PAs) and one season stateside in the ACL (.741 OPS with 1 HR, 7 SBs in 74 PAs). After being principally a corner outfielder in the DSL, he shifted primarily to center field in 2023, which appeared to signal growing prospect stature. However, an injury in late July 2023 saw him placed on the 60-day injured list and his road with the Brewers has now come to an abrupt end. We hope that Duncan is fully recovered and ready to successfully tackle his next opportunities in life. 20-year old INF Jonatan Guzman from the Dominican Republic also signed in January 2021, but didn’t debut until June 2022 in the DSL, struggling to a .588 OPS in 138 PAs that year, while playing a mix of second and third base. Promoted to the ACL in 2023, his numbers were nearly identical while exclusively playing second base: .571 OPS in 63 PAs. He homered once in each season and also stole nine bases as a Brewer. We wish Jonatan well in his next adventure, whether in baseball or in other noble pursuits.

Are you trying to do such an amazing job that you convince the brass to send you to Arizona every February? Well, I think it's working. Fantastic reports and nuggets here and on Twitter. Bravo!

Thanks for this. I've been looking for something like this on Junis to feel confident about his addition to the rotation. It's similar to how I felt about Bryse Wilson last year, when you wrote a similarly helpful article. Junis and Hall look like massive X factors that can easily make or break our season. Go Brewers!

It’s always fun to try to interpret the Spring Training playing time tea leaves. My over-reaction from Game One is that 22-year old RHP Edwin Jimenez will join Manager Joe Ayrault in the move up to AA Biloxi.

- RHP Christian Mejias released by AA Biloxi The 24-year old Venezuelan joined the Brewers on a 2-year minor league contract in December 2022 after spending 7 seasons in the Astros organization. Despite only playing half a season of High-A ball with the Astros, the Brewers thrust him into a starting pitching role at AA Biloxi in 2023 and it was unfortunately (understandably?) a struggle: 6.90 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 9.1 K/9 in 121.1 IP. Christian threw respectably in the Venezuelan Winter League, but apparently a mutual separation was in order. We wish him success wherever he’s headed next, including on the ball fields if that remains his mission.

Weeks had an interview a few days ago, although it's a light one that doesn't really dig into his focus areas at Spring Training - minutes 22-37 of the February 21 podcast labelled Black History Always Special on 101.7 The Truth

I'll put this out there just to see how wrong I'll end up being: C - Contreras 100, Sanchez 50, Haase 12 1B - Hoskins 135, Bauers 17, Black 10 2B - Turang 71, Ortiz 51, Miller 21, Monasterio 19 3B - Black 97, Ortiz 24, Monasterio 21, Frelick 20 SS - Adames 90, Turang 47, Ortiz 25 LF - Yelich 90, Frelick 65, Chourio 5, Perkins 2 CF - Chourio 65, Wiemer 50, Mitchell 40, Frelick 5, Perkins 2 RF - Mitchell 50, Frelick 40, Wiemer 40, Chourio 29, Perkins 3 DH - Sanchez 50, Yelich 47, Contreras 30, Chourio 11, Black 10, Hoskins 8, Bauers 6 SP - Peralta 29, Rea 29, Junis 29, Miley 26, Hall 24, Gasser 11, Ashby 11, Ross 3

I think that we could turn this into a nice little competition, including starting pitchers, injuries, trades. Submission deadline midnight before opening day...something like that. I hope that we get a lot more than 210 combined starts from Frelick and Black, but we'll see.

And now RHP Dalvin Bodre has signed, completing the 35-player international signing class announced last month

I’ve been concerned that the lack of urgency to get this across the line (and thus into camp) signaled an injury setback (e.g. new medical procedure). As such, I’ll be thrilled if Sanchez is healthy enough to hit and catch to start the season.

Keeping Janson Junk in the fold should clear up the one gray area which AAA Nashville appeared to have: starting pitching. SP (6): One of Gasser/Hall/Ashby, Junk, McKendry, CF Rodriguez, Myers, Patrick RP (8): One of Bukauskas/Vieira, Hudson, Clarke, Paredes, Koenig, Zastryzny, Meeker, Yeager C (3): Quero, One of Haase/Nola, Navarreto IF (7): Dunn, Miller, Capra, Clarke, Dorrian, One of Collins/Zamora, One of Arroyo/Hernandez OF (4): Perkins, One of Roller/Jones, Hicklen, Campbell We also typically stash up to 10 AAA players on various other lists to start the season - injured, development, temporarily inactive, ACL roster, etc. - e.g. (9) McGee, Crow, Shook, Middendorf, Thompson, Nola, Zamora, Hernandez, Jones.

Thanks for this. It's always interesting to see who makes significant progress year-over-year, like Andruw Monasterio, Wes Clarke, Isaac Collins and Patrick Dorrian last year. I also agree that guys like Areinamo and Cornielle are too talented and obvious to select. I really hope that you're correct on Alastre, Chirino and even the serviceability of Russell Smith. I'll throw out six more names - 3 straight-up candidates and 3 injury bounceback players: 1B/3B Zavier Warren - nice second half last year, switch-hitter, familiarity with Manager Joe Ayrault. He and Ernesto Martinez may take turns mashing at first base for AA Biloxi C Matt Wood - likely has more pop than he showed in 2023, which will hopefully come out with more time at High-A Wisconsin UT Noah Campbell - like Weston Wilson before him, Campbell never disappoints when given the chance to play. I hope he's fully healthy and produces solid offense and with his usual defensive versatility at AAA Nashville RHP Manuel Rodriguez - the organization appears to have pegged this 18-year old starting pitcher as someone special, which will hopefully show itself big time in ACL ball this year LHP Brandon Knarr - smart, crafty, capable starting pitcher with past success and a likely a chip on his shoulder after missing most of last season. Like Campbell, I hope he's healthy and delivers terrific results at AA Biloxi RHP Justin Yeager - this is perhaps too easy of a pick, but nobody seems to be talking about this now 26-year old, highly talented reliever who missed most of last season. After a solid showing in the Arizona Fall League (except for one game), I'm dreaming that Yeager will make the AAA Nashville bullpen and dominate there

If Keston can produce offensively like his ZIPS projection suggests, then there’s definitely a place for him in that lineup: - Hiura +4.3 Off - Carpenter +2.4 Off - Badoo +0.4 Off - Ibanez -3.1 Off - Vierling -4.4 Off - McKinstry -6.0 Off Wishing Hiura a terrific spring and season.

One advantage of the May 4 Arizona Complex League start date: Understanding that teams may release ~300 minor league players in late April / early May to accommodate the DSL->stateside promotions, this gives the released players a better chance to quickly join an independent league roster. The 12-team AAPB and 16-team Frontier League both start their seasons on May 9 this year and the 12-team Pioneer League (lower quality) gets going on May 21, although the 10-team Atlantic League (typically slightly older players) commences on April 25.

Might have to modify the title of this thread…

Ashby and Ortiz are missing too, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I wouldn’t want to be the staffer who omitted them though 🤦‍♂️

That would actually surprise me quite a bit, as we've historically preferred to wait until pitchers turn 20 before pushing them to full-season affiliate ball, with only Yujanyer Herrera, Juan Geraldo and Brailin Rodriguez reaching the Low-A level as 19-year olds in recent years. Of course, the new MILB roster limits will likely force a change in the Brewers' approach, but I'd expect that Josh Knoth, Bishop Letson, Bjorn Johnson, Hayden Robinson and Manuel Rodriguez are the sub 20-year old pitchers most likely to reach Low-A Carolina at some point this year.

Good luck fitting 19-year old RHP Joshua Quezada (acquired today from the Yankees for LHP Clayton Andrews) into that ACL roster picture! He had solid numbers for a first-year player in the DSL, averaged over 4 IP per outing and is about 5 months older than LHP Anthony Flores. Heck, he's older than RHP Josh Knoth, RHP Manuel Rodriguez, RHP Hayden Robinson, LHP Bjorn Johnson, RHP Bishop Letson, RHP Daniel Corniel and RHP Aneuris Rodriguez!

Yeah, the article says that’s one benefit of the shift, particularly for Arizona, where the average high temperature in Phoenix in August is 104 degrees.

Well, I was expecting the main system-wide cuts (making room for DSL->stateside promotions) to occur in the first week of June, but now it looks like it will be the first week of May instead. It also nearly shuts the draft classes out of same-season Arizona Complex League ball (Boeve debuted there on July 28, Wilken July 24; the ACL season now ends on July 25). I guess this is meant to keep ACL ball focused on younger players. But it's not a bad idea to shake things up. Promoted international signings will make their stateside debut earlier. Many drafted pitchers don't debut until the next season anyway, so this gives them a possible May ACL debut timeline, instead of waiting the extra month. It basically shortens Extended Spring Training from 2 months to 1 month. Per the article, they'll now organize some unofficial games for draftees and other ACL guys in August.

The last time MLB teams saw them, Joey Wiemer couldn't hit and Garrett Mitchell wasn't healthy enough (or something) to be trusted on the postseason roster. Maybe after they've shown their stuff in a few Spring Training games, some other club(s) will give a strong trade offer.

I suspect that 90% of the story is the pileup which slow free agency has caused (e.g. 124 MLB/AAA-level free agents on Fangraphs). So we’ve got a number of players out there still hoping to clinch an MLB contract or split contract. And within that group of 124 players are also guys who would typically sign MILB deals with a flexible opt-out, but that’s where MLB teams may be trying to exercise increased negotiating power to deny them the opt-out. It’s going to be a crazy spring training, with lots of fringe players being signed, DFA’d, claimed, DFA’d again…all while they’re supposed to be in camp!