Brock Beauchamp

It just doesn't make sense for the Brewers to add another position player. They're loaded with outfielders and have Tyler Black that they need to do... something... with. Whereas their pitching pipeline is pretty worrisome, at least in the short-term.

Welcome to the site! There's actually quite a bit of discussion about Yeli moving to first but I don't know if Christian has bought into the concept (or the Brewers, really). Does anyone have info on this?

The 2023 season saw rookies step up and make major contributions as the Brewers won the National League Central Division by a mile. Could the Brewers see a similar class in the 2024 season? Image courtesy of Brewer Fanatic & Brock Beauchamp This is an excerpt from the 2024 Brewer Fanatic Offseason Handbook, you can find a link to download the entirety of Week Three of the handbook at the bottom of the article. This publication is funded by Brewer Fanatic Caretakers and full entries are available exclusively to Caretakers. During the publish period of the handbook, we are offering 25% off all Caretaker packages using the coupon code HANDBOOK. To become a supporter of Brewer Fanatic, click here. Another perk of Caretaking is ad-free browsing across all of Brewer Fanatic. In 2023, Sal Frelick, Andruw Monasterio, Abner Uribe, Joey Wiemer, and Brice Turang played significant roles for the Brewers. Monasterio ultimately emerged as Brewer Fanatic’s Top Rookie of 2023 by a slim margin. Who are the rookies who could step up in 2024? Let’s look at them and dive them into tiers. Rookies Likely To Be On The Opening Day 2024 Roster Tyler Black, 3B .284/.417/.517 with 25 doubles, 18 home runs, 73 RBI, 88 walks, 100 strikeouts in 450 at-bats between AA Biloxi and AAA Nashville Black moved to third base for 2023 and dominated at the plate in both stops. Long seen as a pure hitter, he struggled to stay healthy in 2022. The health came in 2023, and he proceeded to post double-digit doubles, triples, homers, and steals, making a strong case to be the front-runner to start at third base on Opening Day for the Brewers. The Crew certainly needs some help at third base – Brian Anderson cooled off and was eventually designated for assignment after a hot start, Luis Urias never got back on track after an Opening Day 2023 hamstring injury, and Monasterio ended up needing to cover second base because of Turang’s struggles at the plate. Black could easily slot into the #2 hole behind Frelick. Robert Gasser, LHP 9-1, 3.79 ERA, 123 hits, 50 walks, 166 strikeouts, 12 home runs in 135 1/3 innings pitched over 26 games (25 starts) at AAA Nashville The Josh Hader trade that some think sank the Brewers in 2022 but which aided the team’s 2023 NL Central Division championship may help the team again in 2024, this time in the form of Gasser, who was arguably Nashville’s ace last season. The Brewers will need some rotation help due to Brandon Woodruff’s extended absence in 2024, and Gasser could provide that help at a bargain price. Top Prospects Who Could Reach Milwaukee In 2024 Jackson Chourio, OF .283/.338/.467 with 26 doubles, 22 home runs, 91 RBI, 43 walks, 104 strikeouts in 531 at-bats between AA Biloxi and AAA Nashville Chourio rocketed to AA in 2022 and more than held his own at that level at age 19 in 2023. The Brewers have a lot of young, talented outfielders, including Frelick, Wiemer, Chris Roller, Blake Perkins, and Garrett Mitchell. Still, Chourio could easily force his way to Milwaukee at some point in 2024 due to either injury or struggles at the plate by the other players. Still, Chourio is very young, and the Brewers will likely be inclined to wait to call Chourio up unless they feel they have no choice... View full article

I'm far from convinced Manoah is a good choice, I'm just fascinated by his 2023 performance and overall situation with the Jays.

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic! And yes, put into international free agent terms, this is a steal for the Brewers.

MLB Trade Rumors released a lengthy piece about the Corbin Burnes situation and outlined several potential suitors for the Brewers starter. While much of the piece deals with the usual suspects (the Dodgers), there are some intriguing ideas here. One that stuck out to me was the Blue Jays, who are currently determining what to do with struggling starter Alek Manoah. While a straight Manoah-for-Burnes feels like insanity, if the Blue Jays are particularly down on the big righty, they might be willing to juice the offer with him. Of course, all of this depends on how the Brewers view Manoah internally. The 25-year-old was extraordinary in 2021 and 2022, posting a 2.60 ERA. Inversely, 2023 was equally disastrous as he posted a 5.87 ERA. Anyway, click the link above to see the entire list of teams. View full rumor

I'm sure he could hack it over at first but boy that seems like a waste of his athleticism. I'd rather see him traded, I think.

This is how I see it playing out as well.

I agree with most everything said here but I wonder if Frelick has more value than Wiemer. Dunno.

The Brewers called up several exciting rookies in 2023. Some sported mullets, some threw wicked sinkers with triple-digit velocity, some were defensive experts, and several took up metaphorical spaces only slightly less extreme. In a sport as multifaceted as baseball, it’s always challenging to try and predict whether rookies will sustain their early successes, but it’s fun to do so, anyway. Image courtesy of Brewer Fanatic & Brock Beauchamp This is an excerpt from the 2024 Brewer Fanatic Offseason Handbook, you can find a link to download the entirety of Week Three of the handbook at the bottom of the article. This publication is funded by Brewer Fanatic Caretakers and full entries are available exclusively to Caretakers. During the publish period of the handbook, we are offering 25% off all Caretaker packages using the coupon code HANDBOOK. To become a supporter of Brewer Fanatic, click here. Another perk of Caretaking is ad-free browsing across all of Brewer Fanatic. Joey Wiemer Wiemer burst onto the scene with a 64” frame and á wacky swing, making his debut on April 1st after just missing out on the Opening Day roster. Ranked as the team’s third-best prospect and the 90th overall by MLB Pipeline, Wiemer came with some noticeable prospect hype. His first two months were paltry at best, with a .678 OPS in April and a .497 OPS in May. He found his groove in June, slashing .233/.337/.512 across 101 plate appearances, but he couldn’t hold onto that magic. He closed out the campaign with a .505 OPS in August and a .438 OPS in September. While Wiemer was included on the Brewers’ postseason roster, he did not have a plate appearance in the Wild Card Series. A noisy swing was the main culprit, fueling exceptionally high whiff (33.6%, 9th percentile) and strikeout (28.3%, 17th percentile) rates. He also struggled immensely with hitting breaking balls, accumulating a run value of -11 against sliders, the pitch he saw most frequently. He also accumulated a -4 run value against the curveball and sweeper. When he did make contact, he struggled to achieve a valuable launch angle, finding the sweet spot at an alarmingly low rate (28.9%, 6th percentile). On the bright side, Wiemer had two great qualities: defense and hustle. His sprint speed was in the top 11% of the league, and that (combined with his excellent arm strength (89.3 mph, 81st percentile)) allowed him to be an exceptional defender in center field. He accumulated 7 Outs Above Average and 5 Defensive Runs Saved. Whether Wiemer improves next year depends on whether he can kick existing bad habits. If he can use this offseason to correct his swing and approach at a place like Driveline, he might have a chance to be one of the most well-rounded outfielders in MLB. If nothing changes, he might struggle to find consistent playing time on the Brewers, a team stacked high with outfield talent. Sure, he’s a defensive asset, but based on how Milwaukee performed at the plate last year (.704 OPS, 23rd in MLB), they’ll trade a few outs on balls in play for significantly more production at the plate any day of the week. Abner Uribe Uribe was one of the most electric pitchers on Milwaukee’s staff, and for a squad that included the likes of Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams, and Freddy Peralta, that’s saying a lot. With a lethal sinker that averaged 99.4 mph and a slider that averaged 89.4 mph, he posted an ERA of 1.76 and a WHIP of 1.17 over 30 2/3 innings pitched. His slider became an especially effective weapon, boasting outlandish strikeout and whiff rates of 62.1% and 58.1%. Opposing batters averaged just .080 against it, and the xBA (expected batting average) was even lower, at a measly .028. These excellent metrics can be attributed to the unreal amount of movement on the pitch. With 32.2 inches of vertical drop and 8.6 inches of horizontal break, and given the sheer velocity of the fastball off which the pitch plays, it’s no wonder it often leaves hitters dazed and confused. He struggled a little with control, posting a 15.7% walk rate and a somewhat low chase rate at just 24.2%. He was also known to give up some hard contact, with 43.3 percent of opponents’ batted balls leaving the bat at 95 miles per hour or more. His Statcast xERA (expected earned run average) was 3.53, significantly higher than the 1.76 he ended up with. His FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) of 2.77 also signaled that he may have gotten a little luckier than most in 2023, though both those gaps can also be attributed to good defense behind him. Uribe’s raw talent is undeniable. With a full offseason of work in the Milwaukee pitching system, fans should be confident that he’ll return better than ever, barring injury... View full article

This is a terrible idea.

Yeah, that's the question. Most or all of the players are leaving anyway. So how much does the team want to push contention at the sacrifice of a quicker retool? With so many things going wrong to start the offseason (Woody, Counsell), I think it's prudent to retool now to the detriment of the 2024 season.

I think this is a problem that sorts itself out in time. Best case scenario is that Quero goes on fire in 2024 and trading Contreras becomes a legit option 12 months from now.

That's definitely possible, I just think it's unlikely. I think there will be teams left without the starting pitching they want and trading for Burnes with the confidence they'll get a comp pick in ten months lowers the barrier to entry by a lot.

This is generally my feeling as well.

I'm loathe to advocate for rebuilds. I've seen enough of them sputter and fail to realize they're not worth 3+ years of my life waiting for a time that might not come. But in the case of the 2024 Brewers, I think there's a real chance to rebuild on the fly and remain a marginal contender while simultaneously setting up the team for real contention in 2025 and beyond.

Never mind that the chance of an offensive rebound is pretty significant.

I just cannot see how Burnes’s value is the same in July once you factor in the loss of a compensatory pick.

Brewers fans have to go back to the mid-2000s (with players such as Prince Fielder and new Associate Manager Rickie Weeks) to find a prospect who has received as much national attention as Jackson Chourio has over the last two years. This is an excerpt from the 2024 Brewer Fanatic Offseason Handbook, you can find a link to download the entirety of Week Three of the handbook at the bottom of the article. This publication is funded by Brewer Fanatic Caretakers and full entries are available exclusively to Caretakers. During the publish period of the handbook, we are offering 25% off all Caretaker packages using the coupon code HANDBOOK. To become a supporter of Brewer Fanatic, click here. Another perk of Caretaking is ad-free browsing across all of Brewer Fanatic. Ranked by MLB Pipeline as the 16th-best prospect in the 2020-21 International class, Chourio received the Brewers’ largest bonus in that class, signing for $1.8 million. Only two and a half years after being thus ranked, Chourio became the first Brewer to be crowned the top prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. Chourio ended the season at number two on Baseball America and MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 lists. He is universally regarded as a top-five prospect in the sport. Let’s dig into what makes him special and what he can bring to the 2024 Brewers–perhaps as soon as Opening Day. Offensively, Chourio certainly does not get cheated on his swings. He’s looking to do damage at all times. At the same time, though, he has an innate ability to stay consistent with his bat path and to cover the entire zone. He does a great job of being direct to the ball, attacking the pitch with a very flat vertical bat approach. Despite the flat swing, he can still generate the loft needed to elevate the ball, allowing him to tap into his plus raw power in games. As a team that finished 25th in home runs in 2023, the Brewers would benefit from having a power bat such as Chourio in the lineup. Chourio is more than a power hitter, though. As mentioned earlier, his swing path is very flat and, thus, he stays in the zone for a long time. It’s one of the main drivers of his above-average bat-to-ball ability, and it also allows him to hit the ball on a line and to use all fields with regularity. Chourio pulled the ball 40% of the time and went to the opposite field around 35% of the time. Many of his extra-base hits went to right field and right-center. While his hit tool is probably closer to average than it is to plus, it’s certainly not going to be a weakness for him. Chourio is the type of hitter who should comfortably post a batting average north of .260, year in and year out. Average isn’t a great measure of pure batting talent, but the best hitters usually post a reasonably high average. That’s what fans should be able to expect from Chourio. Chourio has an offensive profile resembling those of the franchise’s best hitters over the years. Players like Christian Yelich and Ryan Braun consistently brought that cocktail of power and bat-to-ball skills from 2007 through 2019. The Brewers haven’t received the same production at those spots since the Covid season, though, and 2023 was no exception. The 89 wRC+ they received from hitters in the three-hole finished 29th out of 30 teams. The 103 wRC+ posted by the players occupying the two spot placed them 21st in MLB. Chourio is the type of hitter who has the potential to solidify one of those two spots, from the moment he steps onto an MLB diamond... View full article