Cory Sparks

The Milwaukee Brewers made quick work of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2026 World Series, meaning the Arizona Fall League is our only semblance of American professional baseball before what could be a dark and tumultuous offseason. Milwaukee’s prospects have shown a wide range of results, and with two weeks to go in AFL play, here’s what we know. Eric Bitonti’s Power Travels Eric Bitonti has held one of the more potent bats not just in the Brewers system, but in all of Minor League Baseball this year. The 20-year-old California native is already wrapping up his third full season in professional baseball, reaping in the benefits of being a high school draft pick back in 2023. Bitonti has dazzled in 15 games of Fall League play, slugging two home runs, driving in nine and slashing .275/.383/.451 over 60 plate appearances with the Scottsdale Scorpions. The left-handed-hitting corner infielder is filling out his 6-foot-5, 218-pound frame and has a violent swing. His strikeout numbers are still worth monitoring, though. Bitonti, who ended the regular season in Double-A Biloxi, has 19 strikeouts so far. This equates to a 31.6% strikeout rate. The former high-dollar signee struck out (32.9%) or walked (16.6%) nearly half the time this year, but he still pummeled 25 homers and ran a .916 OPS with the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Few prospects can match his game-wrecking potential; he's just one key adjustment from unlocking it. Braylon Payne’s October Struggles Deviate From Bigger Picture Braylon Payne has had a microscope on him ever since the Brewers used their first-round pick on him in 2024. The 20-year-old high school draftee has shown promise, finding himself in Double-A by the conclusion of his second full pro season. Using a combination of power, range and an impeccable glove, Payne made big strides in 2026. His nine-game sample in Scottsdale may be a little off-putting to fans of the Brewers’ farm. Over 40 plate appearances, Payne has slashed just .200/.275/.314. The alarming part is his strikeout rate, as the outfield prospect has punched out 16 times for a 40% strikeout rate. His speed has still been on display. Payne has used the field dimensions to leg out triples for two of his seven hits. Payne’s 41.3% chase rate plagued him in Double-A this year, but his aggressivness on balls in the zone (79.8% zone-swing percentage) is one of the many reasons he makes for a dangerous at-bat. If the 20-year-old gets more selective, he could work himself into the big-league team’s outfield plans soon. Ryan Birchard Sputters Down the Stretch The Brewers have been touted for having a pitching laboratory, especially in the minor leagues. After a 2026 campaign in Biloxi that featured a 2-3 record and 4.68 earned run average, 23-year-old righty Ryan Birchard has run into some struggles in the desert. The 2023 fifth-round pick has struggled mightily with command, resulting in a 23.40 ERA over a five-appearance, five-inning sample. Birchard has given up 13 earned runs, and while he has allowed only five hits, the 12 walks have plagued the righty. This was a common theme in Biloxi this year, as Birchard gave up 57 free passes in 50 innings. He's also allowed 150 walks in 175 career professional innings. If the Milwaukee farm system can turn Birchard’s command around, it’d be a remarkable story, but this seems to be a long and winding road. The good news, for now, is that Bitonti continues to look like a budding star slugger, so the 2023 draft will continue to yield big returns for the Brewers. Image courtesy of Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin View full article

Week 3 of the Arizona Fall League has come and gone, and while the Brewers are one of the last two teams left standing at the big-league level, their farm system continues to prove itself in the form of a strong showing with the Scottsdale Scorpions. Let’s dive into some of Milwaukee’s contributors and what their performance implies about their progress. Jett Williams Earns Brighter Days After a tumultuous start to his fall league tenure, the Brewers’ no. 12 prospect (per Brewer Fanatic) has found his power stroke. Jett Williams went yard Saturday night for his first homer of the fall, lifting a ball out to straightaway center field. Williams was part of the return package for Freddy Peralta, whom the team dealt to the Mets before he landed in Tampa to help the Rays to the World Series. Entering Saturday’s contest, the 2022 first-round pick stole five bases in his first nine AFL games, displaying the speed and dynamism that still give him a high ceiling as a prospect. His zone-contact percentage, walk rate, and whiff rate all imply he can be a pesky on-base presence, too, despite his .232 batting average in Triple-A Nashville this year. The plate discipline and speed are a given. If three extra-base hits (a double, triple and home run) in 10 Fall League games are indicative of any power upside, that’s an added bonus. Eric Bitonti Shows Pop Over First 50 Plate Appearances The Arizona Fall League usually doesn’t allow for a very large sample size, as the season is just a month and change long. Eric Bitonti, however, is making the most of the opportunity. The 2023 third-round pick has two home runs, eight runs batted in, seven runs, two doubles, seven walks and three stolen bags, all in a 12-game sample. Bitanti is slashing .256/.360/.442 over that span. The 20-year-old has grown leaps and bounds from where he was even a year ago. Bitonti played 119 games in Low-A Carolina in 2025, and he sacrificed his average (.238) for power (19 home runs) in what was just his age-19 season. This year, Bitonti started in High-A Wisconsin and lit the world on fire. The corner infielder throttled 25 homers with 88 runs batted in, to the tune of a .270/.391/.525 slash line, before spending a week with Double-A Biloxi. He is very much a true slugger, still accepting a high whiff rate in exchange for one of the better Pull Air percentages (25.2%) in the minors. His next step is cutting down on the swing-and-miss—an achievable feat considering he chases less than the average minor-league hitter. Peyton Niksch As everything stands through the first three weeks, Peyton Niksch is still one of the more impressive prospects on the Scorpions. So far, he has 10 strikeouts to only three walks and three hits allowed in 9 2/3 innings. The 22-year-old righty has a minuscule 0.62 WHIP, following a season where he played across three levels, clocking a sub-3 ERA in Low-A (2.70) and High-A (1.13) before running into some trouble in Double-A (8.63). Keeping the walks down and preventing the home run ball (two allowed in AFL play) will be paramount in his development. Image courtesy of USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect View full article

Matthew Wood (Matt Wood ) is not on the Milwaukee Brewers' top 30 prospects list according to most publications, yet he drew a walk 18% of the time and slugged 18 home runs in Double-A Biloxi this year. Now, the 25-year-old backstop is tearing it up in the Arizona Fall League. Should the Brewers protect him on the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 Draft, or should they take the risk to allow him to play baseball from the get-go next year? View full video

Image courtesy of Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images Two weeks have come and gone in the Arizona Fall League, an extended showcase allowing some of baseball’s rising stars to get extra reps against top-level competition. Notably, for anyone who will be on a 40-man roster next year, this could be the last taste of baseball for a while should a lockout come. While the big-league Milwaukee Brewers are dancing onto the World Series for the first time since the 1982 season, they have a few farmhands capturing headlines in AFL play so far. Matthew Wood The minor-league backstop is Rule 5-eligible going into this offseason, meaning if the Brewers don’t protect him by adding him to the 40-man roster next month, another organization could pick the 25-year-old up and give him a shot—assuming that, despite the looming lockout, the Rule 5 Draft actually happens. One of the catcher’s most notable attributes is his plate discipline, as he walked 18.4% of the time while only striking out in 13.5% of his plate appearances this year. That performance has carried into the first two weeks of the Arizona Fall League. So far, he's 4-for-11 (.364 batting average) with four runs, a double, a run batted in and a stolen base. Wood has 10 walks and no strikeouts through 21 plate appearances. He enjoyed a career-best season with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers this year, throttling 18 home runs to the tune of an .890 OPS in 95 games. Before this year, Milwaukee’s rising signal caller had just 15 long balls over the course of 290 contests. With every well-worked at-bat, the Penn State alum is making a larger case to be placed on the 40-man roster, but it's important to take AFL results with a grain of salt, especially in small samples. Jett Williams Williams didn’t have a good season in his first year with the Brewers organization. He was one of two prospects (Brandon Sproat being the other) in a trade involving two-time All-Star Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers. The 22-year-old utility player swatted nine home runs, had 41 runs batted in and hit just .233 over 81 games with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. In the AFL, things aren't going any better. He's gone just 3-for-27, with six runs, a triple and three stolen bases over 33 plate appearances. Williams has six walks and 10 strikeouts. Selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, he's known for his blistering speed and doubles power. Neither will come much into play, though, if he can't become a more consistent pure hitter. Jose Meneses Meneses is a very intriguing prospect in the Brewers pipeline, and his start in the AFL is a fine microcosm of his overall baseball profile. He's made three appearances for the Scottsdale Scorpions, and he has allowed one run on no hits in 2 1/3 innings of work. The 21-year-old Venezuelan has handed out three free passes while striking out two. Take a step back to look at Meneses’s overall prospect makeup, and it’s clear what the ceiling and floor look like: a 28.6% strikeout rate this year, but a sky-high 16.9% walk rate. Meneses forces a remarkable 61.5% ground-ball rate. Now it’s just about staying ahead in counts, if he wants to be a major-league contributor someday. View full article

Outside of Jacob Misiorowski in the rotation, the Brewers don’t have a full-fledged superstar on their team. They have a few players who are just below that line, though, and that fraternity has a new member this year. The Crew took Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS over the Dodgers and are on the doorstep of their first National League pennant. The linchpin of the lineup that might finally get that monkey off their back is Jake Bauers. Game 1's Recipe for Success Was Not Sustainable Milwaukee edged out Los Angeles 2-1 in the NLCS opener. While a Brice Turang equalizer of a solo homer, a Luis Lara go-ahead base hit and a lockdown bullpen can clearly lead to a win, it’s not feasible to expect the Dodgers to score just one run a game throughout the series. The Brewers’ offense was second in MLB with 5.1 runs per game, but the Dodgers weren’t far behind, at 4.9 (fourth-best). Playoff games have a reputation for being more pitcher-friendly, as there are more breaks built in for arms to stay fresh, but Los Angeles still managed to score 14 runs (3.5 per game) in a 3-1 series win over the Atlanta Braves to get here. They scored four times in Game 2, too. The Brewers needed to hit well to win that game, and they'll need to do so again to get to the World Series. Bauers’s Career Year That Bauers drew a crucial walk (on 12 pitches, against the great Yoshinobu Yamamoto) is one of the most improbable pages in the storybook of this playoff run to date—unless you've been paying close attention to his breakout 2026 campaign. He was on five teams over the course of six years, but has since found some stability in Milwaukee. Entering the 2026 season, Bauers had 58 home runs over 613 career games; last season brought the first real evidence that he could hit enough to hold onto a full-time role. This year, though, the 31-year-old slugger has hit a new gear. His 28 round-trippers and 86 runs batted in set career highs by wide margins, as Bauers went from a fringe-starter to an everyday contributor with 144 games played. He posted a .389 on-base percentage, playing the Brewers’ brand of baseball to perfection and serving as a true reinforcer in the middle of the lineup. Every championship aspirant needs a thumper. Bauers, who paced the team in homers and had 50 extra-base hits, is just that. Numbers Don’t Lie So where did this power surge come for Bauers, and how is he doing it? For one, he’s working with the same major-league coaching staff for the third consecutive year. Before this stint in the Cream City, he hasn’t had that luxury of continuity. Take a look under the hood, and he isn’t doing this by accident. According to Baseball Savant, Bauers is hitting the baseball on the screws. He ranked in the top 10 percent of major-league hitters in hard-hit percentage, average exit velocity, barrel percentage, sweet-spot percentage and bat speed. The last of those cruised up to a career-best 76.5 miles per hour this year, but one of the real keys is that his launch angle is down to 12.1 degrees. Two years ago, it was at 22.6°. What were popouts or deep flyouts last year more often got out of the ballpark this season, as Bauers found the right trajectory more often. The Knockout Blow What makes Bauers so important to the Brewers’ success? Look no further than last year’s NLCS showdown, a 4-0 sweep for the Dodgers. Shohei Ohtani went 3-for-3 with three homers and a walk in Game 4. Milwaukee can be pesky, and Bauers can be part of that. He kept the line moving in Game 2, and it was Christian Yelich who delivered the scoreboard-flipping hit. Sooner or later, though, there’s going to come a point where they have to put up a crooked number and swing momentum to put the Dodgers away with authority. The most efficient way to do that is through one big swing, and Bauers is the most likely candidate to get that job done. Image courtesy of IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect View full article

Jake Bauers was once on five different teams over a six-season span. He has made Milwaukee his home for the last three years, and in 2026, he's enjoyed a career-best campaign. The 31-year-old first baseman has thrashed 28 homers and 50 extra-base hits, and the Brewers will need his potent power if they want to advance to their first World Series of the century. View full video

Job one, done!

Image courtesy of Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin While the big-league Brewers are dancing in the postseason, some of their top-end prospects have extended their seasons into the Arizona Fall League (AFL). The AFL is a showcase opportunity for some of baseball’s brightest young stars to get more reps, and nine of the team’s farmhands are in it this year, per MLB.com. Let’s dive into some of the standout performers so far and how their first few games of action relate to trends they set into motion this summer. Braylon Payne (MIL’s #4 prospect) Braylon Payne’s prospect pedigree is the highest of anybody on this list. Ranked as Milwaukee’s No. 4 prospect here at Brewer Fanatic, the outfielder enjoyed a breakout 2026 campaign, which he divided between the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. The 2024 first-round pick saw a power surge this season. At just 20 years old, he slugged 28 home runs while slashing .277/.358/.552 over 102 games. His AFL sample size is small, but the power has followed the outfielder into the month of October. Payne has gone 4-for-15 (.267) with two doubles, three RBIs and a stolen base through four games. The one aspect he needs to work on is critical, though: swing decisions. While Payne had a 20.0% pull-air percentage (65th percentile, per Prospect Savant), his 28.2% strikeout rate (30th percentile) and 41.3% chase rate (5th percentile) suggest there’s plenty of room to grow. The future Brewer has stayed aggressive in the AFL, striking out six times over 18 plate appearances. Matthew Wood While Matthew Wood isn’t a ranked prospect in the Brewers’ pipeline, he still enjoyed a productive season in Double-A and is parlaying that into a promising start with the Scottsdale Scorpions. The 25-year-old backstop throttled 18 homers, compiled 67 RBIs, and walked (71) more times than he struck out (52) with the Shuckers this year. In fact, that caliber of strike-zone control is something the 2022 fourth-round pick has done throughout his pro career, drawing 241 free passes while going down on strikes just 223 times. That plate discipline has carried over nicely in Arizona. Wood is 3-for-7 with four runs scored, a stolen base and a whopping six walks in just 13 plate appearances. The catcher has proven his worth as a cerebral up-and-coming option for the Crew, and seeing him in the top 10 percent of minor leaguers in strikeout rate, walk rate, chase rate, whiff rate, zone-contact percentage and more is an encouraging sign. Peyton Niksch Peyton Niksch is one of five pitching prospects representing Milwaukee in Scottsdale this year, and he’s been the most impressive so far. Niksch climbed the team’s minor-league ladder this year, playing at three different levels. He dazzled for Low-A Wilson, logging a 3-1 record with a 2.70 ERA (26 2/3 innings) with the Warbirds. Upon getting a promotion to Wisconsin, he looked even better, going 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA in 16 frames. He ran into some trouble in Biloxi, allowing an 8.63 ERA with a WHIP that ballooned to 2.13 over 24 innings of work. In the AFL, Niksch has served well as a pure strike-thrower. The 22-year-old right-handed pitcher has made two appearances (one start), allowing just one run on two hits over 4 2/3 innings of work. He has four strikeouts and no walks in 16 batters faced. He doesn’t blow people away, as shown by his 8.4 SO/9 rate, but generating weak contact can be an equally effective way to find outs—especially for a hurler with plus control. View full article

The Milwaukee Brewers take a 2-0 lead into game three of the NLDS, and in order to complete the sweep, they'll have to hone in on these three aspects. View full video

The first two games of the Milwaukee Brewers’ playoff journey have been must-see television, but the job isn’t done. After a raise-the-roof 3-2 victory in Game 1 and a Jackson Chourio walk-off single for a 4-3 triumph in Game 2, the Crew needs one more win to advance to the League Championship Series for the fourth time since they switched to the National League. Here's what Pat Murphy’s squad must accomplish to get there. Keep Stealing Bases to Put Pressure on the Defense The Brewers have won the NL Central four seasons in a row, stamping their ticket to the postseason and earning some playoff home games to go with it. How did they get there without an offense known for its power? Partially, it was by being aggressive on the base paths. While the strong crowds at American Family Field certainly helped with putting pressure on a streaking San Diego Padres team, stealing an extra 90 feet has been their brand for the last few seasons. The Brewers stole 162 bases in the regular season this year, good enough for fifth in baseball. The Padres stole 164, slotting in slightly ahead of the Crew. So far in this series, though, the Crew is 3-for-3 in that department (one each from Bryce Turang, Garrett Mitchell and Christian Yelich). Yelich’s stolen base came on a 1-0 count against a Mason Miller fastball, a scenario wherein most baserunners wouldn’t try their luck. He forced the issue, anyway. San Diego, on the other hand, is 0-for-1, after Dustin Harris was caught stealing in the fifth inning of Game 2. The Padres already have their backs against the wall. They're playing to extend their season for the rest of this series. The Brewers can make their lives that much harder by staying aggressive. Dustin May Needs to Provide Some Length Both bullpens have recorded exactly 27 outs, though it hasn't quite felt like they've absorbed equally heavy loads. Jacob Misiorowski went just four innings in the series opener (Antonio Senzatela, Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, DL Hall and Trevor Megill followed), and Logan Henderson provided five innings on Sunday night (JoJo Romero, Uribe, Ashby and Megill followed). While the team gets an off day, that’s still three high-leverage arms (Ashby, Uribe and Megill) who have gone in back-to-back contests. In his last eight starts of the regular season, Brewers starter Dustin May went five or more innings just once. There’s a scenario where the Padres take Game 3 at home and extend this series. If that were to happen, the war of attrition really kicks in for these relievers. May going four innings (if not five) will be critical for the Brewers’ success, because it will give them a chance to turn to Robert Gasser or Kyle Harrison for some length, too, and not to need all of the traditional high-leverage options. Keep the Clutch Hitting Rolling The Brewers are only 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position over the first two games, with their fourth base knock being Chourio’s two-run single to send the 41,683 fans in attendance into a roaring frenzy. But the hits and at-bats don't document the walks that set the stage for Chourio's heroics. Nor is hitting with runners in scoring position the only way to be clutch William Contreras’s solo home run in Game 1 was a clutch hit. Milwaukee’s backstop stepped up in a 2-2 ball game and provided the go-ahead run. The Padres are just 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position. It’s a thin margin, but that’s been the difference between a 1-1 split and the 2-0 advantage the Crew has as they make the trek out west. Game 3 of the NLDS is on Tuesday at 8:30 PM CT. If Milwaukee can steal bases, get significant innings out of May and continue to come through in the clutch, they’ll be dancing to the NLCS yet again. Image courtesy of USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect View full article

Image courtesy of Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Freddy Peralta is in the final year of his contract, and it may be tempting for many to want him to don the blue and yellow yet again. This would not work, and it could prove catastrophic for the future of Milwaukee’s rotation if they tried a move like this. Let’s break down Peralta’s 2026 season, and the three different reasons bringing him back would be a poor decision. This is a two-part article: read the counterpoint here. Building A Strong Reputation Before diving into the reasons Peralta shouldn’t be back with the Crew, it’s important to highlight the portfolio he’s built for himself. For years, he has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. This is someone who has a career record of 75-51, a 3.79 earned run average, and over 1,200 strikeouts in just north of 1,000 innings. Peralta is a two-time All-Star, and the 30-year-old even surpassed 200 strikeouts in three straight seasons from 2023-2025. A Season To Forget Milwaukee traded Peralta to the New York Mets ahead of this season, losing their ace along with a depth arm in Tobias Myers. In exchange, the Crew got utility Jett Williams and right-handed pitcher Brandon Sproat. Since that deal, Peralta has had one of the worst seasons of his big league career. This year, the now Tampa Bay Rays starter is 5-9 with a 5.37 earned run average, striking out 116 hitters over 117 1/3 innings in 23 starts. Peralta’s 1.52 WHIP is 44 points higher than the value he produced last year in his final campaign with the Brewers. The fastball-heavy hurler has been getting hit hard, allowing 19 homers while allowing a batting average of .260 or better on four of his six pitches. No Guarantee He's "Back" Peralta’s walks are up at 9.2 percent (38th percentile), and his below-average strikeout rate of 21.8 percent (43rd percentile) hasn’t been encouraging either. This is somebody who has lost a tick on his fastball velocity, as his primary offering is gliding in at just an average of 94.2 miles per hour, his lowest mark since 2022. There’s no guarantee he returns to his form with the Brewers; The Cubs tried this with Jake Arrieta, who won a Cy Young with the team in 2016 before having some subpar seasons with the Phillies. When he re-joined the northsiders five years later, his earned run average ballooned up to 7.39, almost three full runs higher than a 4.64 mark a pair of years prior. While it’s fun to imagine Peralta magically returning to form as soon as he dawns his old threads, this is someone on the other side of 30 years old who relies on power and is struggling mightily. Innings Inefficiency Even when Peralta was at his best, the former Brewers’ ace has always had a tough time finishing off hitters. The 30-year-old throws a lower-than-average percentage of pitches inside the zone, leading to a pitches per plate appearance rate north of 4.1. This results in those taxing, 100-pitch starts that sometimes just get Peralta through five innings. That’s how bullpens get taxed, even on some of his better days. Holding Down Controllable Talent As it stands, Milwaukee has one of the better rotations in baseball while still developing more up-and-coming arms. Jacob Misiorowski is competing for an NL Cy Young award, Kyle Harrison has been a remarkable secondary option, and other names like Coleman Crow, Logan Henderson, and more could be controllable, affordable arms that should fill out the rotation. Peralta, even after a down year, will demand more revenue per year than most, if not all, of those players right now. With the salary cap looming, combining production with affordability is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, Peralta doesn’t provide that combination. View full article

While it may be tempting to bring back two-time All-Star Freddy Peralta, the Milwaukee Brewers should not make the decision. Peralta is in the midst of the worst year of his big-league career, and in this video, we'll go over the three reasons that making him a member of the Crew again would be a poor decision. View full video

This is true. The depth is insane. What's the NLCS official prediction?

Agreed!