Welcome back to the Minor League Roundup!
As a reminder, you can find this roundup — covering everything you need to know about each of the Brewers’ minor league affiliates — every Tuesday morning right here on Brew Crew Ball. For consistency, all organizational prospect rankings will reference MLB Pipeline unless otherwise noted.
Triple-A Nashville Sounds (26-19)
Opponent this week: Iowa Cubs (Chicago Cubs)
Record this week: 6-0
Standout performances:
Luis Lara (No. 5): 9-for-20, 3 RBI, 8 BB, 5 K Cooper Pratt (No. 4): 8-for-20, 3 2B,
2 HR, 9 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K Jett Williams (No. 3): 6-for-16, 1 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 5 BB, 4 K Garrett Stallings: 6 2/3 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K Tyson Hardin (No. 17): 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
Tyson Hardin’s name appearing here isn’t an error on my part — he was promoted to Triple-A Nashville on Sunday. Hardin had been struggling in Double-A, especially compared to his breakout season last year, pitching to a 7.29 ERA over seven starts with the Shuckers. However, his first start with the Sounds was a massive improvement, as Hardin went seven innings while allowing just one earned run against the Iowa Cubs.
Garrett Stallings, Kaleb Bowman, and Thomas Pannone (remember him?), all had scoreless weeks. Robert Gasser, who made his season debut with the Brewers on Sunday, went four innings, allowing one earned run and striking out seven.
Infield prospects Cooper Pratt (.400) and Jett Williams (.375) each had a pair of home runs. After this week, Pratt’s OPS is now up to .745. He’ll have good stretches and bad stretches as the bat continues to develop, but it’s nice to see him raking after a somewhat rough couple of weeks.
Luis Lara continues to do Luis Lara things, reaching base in 17 of 28 plate appearances. Enough said. His breakout is for real; the question is whether or not there’s a spot for him this year. As Pat Murphy has said, Lara will need to play regularly when he comes up, and with Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich back, there’s less room in the lineup than there was a month ago.
Brock Wilken had another down week, bringing his average down to .174 on the season. He struggled to hit for average last year in Double-A, but he was consistently hitting home runs. Those have been hard to come by in Triple-A, as he has just two all season. Jeferson Quero also had an off-week (4-for-21), although he homered and only struck out twice.
Next week’s opponent: @ Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays)
Double-A Biloxi Shuckers (17-21)
Opponent this week: Montgomery Biscuits (Tampa Bay Rays)
Record this week: 3-3
Standout performances:
Mark Coley II: 6-for-16, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 BB, 6 K
Mike Boeve: 9-for-25, 1 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K
Mark Manfredi Sr.: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
Manuel Rodriguez: 5IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Tanner Gillis: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Brett Wichrowski: 5 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
Mike Boeve (.360) and Mark Coley II (.375) were the only Shuckers to hit above .300 this week. Boeve, ranked a top 10 organizational prospect at the start of last season, is quietly heating up — slashing .294/.368/.471 (.839 OPS) in 85 at-bats over the last month. The only Shucker with a higher OPS in as many at-bats is outfielder Damon Keith, who has the second-best OPS (.954) and the best batting average (.305) on the team.
Coley II, signed as a minor league free agent after the Marlins cut him in April, is a new name in the roundup — mostly because he hasn’t done much all year. He had just five hits entering the week, and even after this week, he’s still hitting 11-for-52 (.212) with an OPS under .600. With that being said, his profile is one the Brewers tend to like, so he’s worth keeping an eye on. Coley is a speedster (64-for-75 in steals for his career) who hit .253 over 249 at-bats with the Marlins’ Double-A affiliate last year.
The new No. 1 overall prospect in baseball, Jesús Made, had another bad batting average week (5-for-24), although he did notch his first multi-homer game as a member of the Brewers organization. Dylan O’Rae (5-for-21), Blake Burke (6-for-25), and Keith (5-for-25) all cooled off this week as well.
Manuel Rodriguez, Tanner Gillis, and Brett Wichrowski all showed up in their starts this week. Jaron DeBerry gave up six earned runs over 12 innings, but struck out 18 batters and issued just three walks.
Next week’s opponent: vs. Birmingham Barons (Chicago White Sox)
High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (20-16)
Opponent this week: South Bend Cubs (Chicago Cubs)
Record this week: 1-4
Standout performances:
Josh Adamczewski (No. 10): 8-for-15, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Braylon Payne (No. 12): 7-for-17, 3 2B, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K
Daniel Dickinson (No. 28): 4-for-14, 1 2B, 5 RBI, 2 BB, 7 K
Braylon Owens: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Garrett Hodges: 4 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 5 K
J.D. Thompson (No. 14): 4 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Josh Adamczewski hit over .500 on the week and has a 1.038 OPS this season. Nothing out of the ordinary for a guy with one of the prettiest swings in the organization. Hopefully, we’ll get to see him in Double-A this summer.
Braylon Payne hit .412 with a couple of homers. One of them went *checks notes* 460 feet into the right-field bleachers. He’s now up to eight home runs on the season, behind only Andrew Fischer (10).
Speaking of Fischer (No. 6), he’s the reason Payne didn’t even have the longest homer on the Timber Rattlers this week. Fischer only had one hit this week, a 477-foot nuke of a home run. For what it’s worth, he struck out six times in 14 at-bats — at this point, there’s enough of a sample size to where the strikeouts are more than a little concerning. Still, this is his first full season as a member of the organization, and I have confidence that a guy who had a 14.6% strikeout rate in his final season in college will be able to work out the kinks.
Other than Adamczewski and Payne, Daniel Dickinson was the only Timber Rattler to hit over .200 this week (min. 10 at-bats). He hasn’t had a great start to the season (.206 batting average, .574 OPS), so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
Playing time for Dickinson may be slightly harder to come by in the weeks to follow because No. 2 prospect Luis Peña should be back soon. Peña has officially been cleared to play after missing nearly a month due to a scary incident in a game last month. Per Curt Hogg, he is scheduled to join the Arizona Complex League Brewers sometime this week.
It was a rough week for Wisconsin’s pitching staff, which allowed 74 runs in just five games this week, including 24-plus runs in two separate games this week (yes, you read that right). The Timber Rattlers allowed nine runs or more in all four of their losses, winning 11-6 in their fifth game. One of the bright spots on the pitching staff was 2025 10th-rounder Braylon Owens (3.45 ERA in seven appearances), who put together another solid outing. His ERA leads all Timber Rattlers pitchers this season.
Former second-rounder J.D. Thompson also pitched well after getting lit up for four runs over two innings in his last outing. One really can’t put too much stock in Thompson’s ERA (6.00) given that he’s only pitched nine innings this year, and the underlying stats actually look really good. He hasn’t allowed more than two hits or walks in any outing this year and is striking out more than a batter per inning. Keep an eye on him as he starts to get comfortable in High-A.
Next week’s opponent: @ Great Lakes Loons (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Single-A Wilson Warbirds (19-19)
Opponent this week: Hill City Howlers (Cleveland Guardians)
Record this week: 4-2
Standout performances:
Pedro Ibarguen: 5-for-11, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K
Brady Ebel (No. 13): 7-for-21, 2 2B, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 4 K
Jose Meneses: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Enderson Mercado: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Brady Ebel bounced back this week, leading the Warbirds in hits with seven. Nineteen-year-old Pedro Ibarguen, someone I said to keep an eye on a few weeks ago, is now hitting .353/.433/.510 over the last month in his first full season in Single-A. He’s been with the organization since 2023, when he was signed as an international free agent, but is still super young and looks to be developing into a productive player in Wilson.
Another position player who I haven’t given much love to this year is outfielder Jose Anderson, also 19, who hit another home run this week to bring his season total to eight. Anderson is hitting just .172 with a .276 OBP, but he leads the Warbirds in home runs and is tied for second with seven doubles. He needs just three more home runs to tie his career high, set last year in over 200 more plate appearances.
Wilson’s hitting stats weren’t particularly gaudy, but a couple of pitchers put together great weeks. Jose Meneses made two scoreless appearances, allowing six hits but striking out five over 5 2/3 innings. Meneses, a 21-year-old lefty, now has a 1.80 ERA through 20 innings. Enderson Mercado went six innings while allowing four hits and a lone earned run. Jarrett Bonet, named the organization’s Pitcher of the Month in April, allowed four earned runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings while striking out eight.
Next week’s opponent: vs. Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Orioles)
Player of the Week
Jett Williams, who had a 1.628 OPS this week and a .981 OPS — with five home runs — over the last month. If the Brewers decide they want more offense out of the left side of the infield than Luis Rengifo, Joey Ortiz, and David Hamilton are currently providing, the versatile Williams figures to be the next man up. He probably wouldn’t be the everyday shortstop, but a super-utility role — one that gets his bat in the lineup more often than not — isn’t out of the question. Even if he doesn’t reach the majors until later this season, it’s encouraging to see the Brewers’ No. 3 prospect heating up after a slow start.
Play of the Week
It’s only May, but Jordyn Adams may have already made the play of the year:
