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
Current record: 68-55
Record this week: 3-2
This week’s opponent: @ Norfolk Tides
Next week’s opponent: @ Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp
Standout performances:
Eric Brown Jr.: 6-for-11,
1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K Sal Frelick: 5-for-14, 2 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K Brock Wilken: 6-for-18, 3 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 5 K Tyler Black: 5-for-18, 1 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 4 K Coleman Crow: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K Tate Kuehner: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K Tyson Hardin: 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Now that we’re just under a month from the end of the minor league regular season, the Sounds’ roster is a bit less stacked than it was going into the year, with four of the Brewers’ top seven prospects entering the season (Cooper Pratt, Brandon Sproat, Luis Lara, and Logan Henderson) earning call-ups to the big leagues and graduating from prospect status.
Even still, the Sounds’ lineup features a few guys who you might eventually see in Milwaukee.
Luke Adams doesn’t have the in-game or raw power that Andrew Fischer or Blake Burke possess, so he doesn’t generate as many headlines, but he’s shown a knack for getting on base, produced at every level, and currently has a .906 OPS in over 200 at-bats this year. Jett Williams has had a bit of a down year, but he’s still here and was ranked ahead of all four of the Sounds’ graduated prospects entering the season. So is Jeferson Quero, who made his major league debut at the beginning of the year.
I’d also be remiss not to mention the players who weren’t with the Sounds at the start of the season, including catcher Bo Naylor, acquired prior to the trade deadline, who has an .895 OPS in 40 at-bats with the Sounds and could see some time this September as rosters expand. It also includes Burke, who’s only hitting .190 in 42 at-bats with Nashville but had a .970 OPS with 30 home runs in a much larger sample at Double-A.
The Sounds’ pitching staff is still their strong suit, even after the graduations of Henderson, Shane Drohan, and Robert Gasser. Coleman Crow (who’s already thrown 18.2 innings in Milwaukee), Tyson Hardin, and Tate Kuehner all threw four-plus shutout innings this week, and all three are legitimate prospects. Kuehner, probably the least exciting prospect of the three, has only made eight starts this year due to injury but posted a 2.77 ERA over 110.1 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025.
In other news:
— Sal Frelick continues to rehab in Nashville, going 5-for-14 with a pair of doubles and a home run.
— Sproat and Kuehner combined for a seven-inning no-hitter in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Tides.
Double-A Biloxi Shuckers
Current record: 56-60
Record this week: 1-5
This week’s opponent: @ Rocket City Trash Pandas
Next week’s opponent: vs. Knoxville Smokies
Standout performances:
Luis Peña: 7-for-24, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 7 K
Damon Keith: 4-for-15, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 8 K
Dylan O’Rae: 4-for-17, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 6 K
Josh Adamczewski: 3-for-15, 1 2B, 0 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Braylon Payne: 4-for-23, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 8 K
Jaron DeBerry: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
Manuel Rodriguez: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Peyton Niksch: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
J.D. Thompson: 9.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 6 BB, 15 K
Stiven Cruz: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
In what was otherwise a rough week for the Shuckers, Luis Peña keeps doing top-20-prospect-in-baseball things.
The Brewers have a few other extremely talented infield prospects, and Peña’s missed a lot of time this year, so he’s gotten a bit lost in the shuffle compared to last year. With his first week in Double-A now in the books, let’s take a look at Peña’s High-A stat line:
219 PA, .298/.384/.420, .804 OPS, 109 wRC+, 11.0 BB%, 20.5 K%
In Peña’s first week in Double-A, he went 7-for-24 with a home run. Considering the health scares and the time that he missed, this season could have turned out so much better for Peña. At the same time, if hitting .298 in 200-plus at-bats is a less-than-ideal season, that bodes very well for the 19-year-old Peña’s future.
Peña’s .292 batting average led the Shuckers by a wide margin this week. Only three other Shuckers had more than three hits — Braylon Payne (4-for-23), Dylan O’Rae (4-for-17), and Damon Keith (4-for-15). Jesús Made went 3-for-21. Mike Boeve went 3-for-21. Josh Adamczewski went 3-for-15. Andrew Fischer went 1-for-19; his one hit was a home run, of course.
Biloxi’s pitching staff didn’t fare much better, either. J.D. Thompson led the Shuckers in innings with nine over two starts, striking out a whopping 15 Trash Pandas but walking six, giving up eight hits, and ultimately allowing five earned runs. Jaron DeBerry (6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K) and Manuel Rodriguez (5.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) had the two best starts of the week, with Rodriguez picking up the staff’s lone win.
High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Current record: 60-52
Record this week: 2-4
This week’s opponent: Lake County Captains (home, 2026-08-18 to 2026-08-23)
Next week’s opponent: South Bend Cubs (home, 2026-08-25 to 2026-08-30)
Standout performances:
Eric Bitonti: 8-for-23, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K
Daniel Dickinson: 8-for-24, 2 2B, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K
Tayden Hall: 5-for-20, 3 2B, 0 RBI, 6 BB, 4 K
Sawyer Strosnider: 5-for-21, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 4 BB, 10 K
Yannic Walther: 2-for-10, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K
Wande Torres: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Josh Knoth: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
Jayden Dubanewicz: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Jacob Morrison: 7.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 11 K
Ethan Dorchies: 4.0 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
It’s incredible how much talent the Timber Rattlers have had this year, just a couple hours away from Miller Park. Here are some of the prospects who have had at least 150 at-bats with Wisconsin this year:
Andrew Fischer: 1.118 OPS in 191 ABs, 173 wRC+
Josh Adamczewski: 1.036 OPS in 166 ABs, 165 wRC+
Braylon Payne: .930 OPS in 310 ABs, 130 wRC+
Eric Bitonti: .896 OPS in 354 ABs, 126 wRC+
Marco Dinges: .855 OPS in 220 ABs, 121 wRC+
Daniel Dickinson: .846 OPS in 347 ABs, 123 wRC+
Luis Peña: .804 OPS in 188 ABs, 109 wRC+
This list consists solely of players who were considered a top-30 prospect at some point this season, so it also leaves out Luis Castillo (.807 OPS in 330 at-bats) and Tayden Hall (.876 OPS in 265 at-bats).
Fischer, Adamczewski, Payne, Dinges, and Peña have all since earned promotions, but the Timber Rattlers somehow still have plenty of talent left. Bitonti’s 23 home runs speak for themselves, but Dickinson has now posted an OPS over 1.000 and a batting average over .300 in each of the last two months, raising his season-long OPS to .851 in the process.
Joining Bitonti and Dickinson in High-A a couple weeks ago was Sawyer Strosnider, the Brewers’ 2026 second-round pick who was widely mocked as a first-rounder leading up to the draft. Strosnider has one of the best power-speed profiles in the entire class, although he fell to Milwaukee after slumping late in the season with TCU. In his first 43 at-bats with the Timber Rattlers, Strosnider is hitting .302 with an .877 OPS and a home run (caught by his dad, how cool is that?).
As for the pitching staff, Wande Torres, Josh Knoth, and Jayden Dubanewicz all put together solid outings. Torres threw four scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, while Knoth allowed just one run across five innings. Dubanewicz went 5 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits. Jacob Morrison also deserves a mention after striking out 11 over 7 2/3 innings, while Ethan Dorchies allowed three runs on nine hits in four innings of work.
Single-A Wilson Warbirds
Current record: 63-53
Record this week: 3-3
This week’s opponent: @ Salem RidgeYaks
Next week’s opponent: vs. Hickory Crawdads
Standout performances:
Brailyn Antunez: 10-for-22, 1 2B, 1 3B, 8 RBI, 2 BB, 7 K
Handelfry Encarnacion: 8-for-21, 1 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 4 BB, 2 K
Carsten Sabathia III: 7-for-19, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K
Kevin Garcia: 4-for-12, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Juan Ortuno: 7-for-22, 2 2B, 6 RBI, 5 BB, 4 K
Diustin Mayorquin: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Miqueas Mercedes: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Jarrette Bonet: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 3 K
Tyler Renz: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Handelfry Encarnacion (.777 OPS on the season) is still here and doing his thing, but otherwise the Warbirds’ roster looks a lot different than it did to start the season.
Brady Ebel’s in High-A, but his brother Trey, the Brewers’ first-rounder this year, is now in Wilson. The younger Ebel is already looking comfortable, starting his career 6-for-21 with a double and four RBIs.
Jadyn Fielder is now with the Astros, but the Warbirds have another son of a former Brewers fan favorite on the roster. 22-year-old Carsten Sabathia III — son of CC — was drafted in the 20th round of this year’s draft out of the University of Houston. He’s outperformed that draft slot so far, going 16-for-39 (.410) with a pair of home runs.
Another newcomer is Brailyn Antunez, one of the Brewers’ top international free agent signings from last year’s class. Antunez is 35-for-85 (.412) with a 1.256 OPS, seven home runs, five doubles, and a triple. A whopping 12.5% of his plate appearances have ended in an extra-base hit so far in his tenure as a Warbird. That won’t last, and he’s still raw, but he’s shown tantalizing promise — including surprising opposite-field power for his age — and his production thus far is an exciting hint of what he could eventually become.
Wilson’s pitching staff has struggled this year; of the team’s top 11 innings leaders, 10 have ERAs over 4. The 11th is 20-year-old Miqueas Mercedes, whose performance this week brought his ERA down to 3.11 through 66 2/3 innings. Mercedes has struck out 68 batters, but he’s also walked a borderline-unbelievable 45 (6.12 BB/9).
Player of the Week
Eric Bitonti, who went 8-for-23 with three home runs this week. Bitonti bounced back this year after a rough 2025 that saw him slide down prospect rankings. Even though he hasn’t exactly quelled strikeout concerns (34 K%) that have followed him throughout his career, he’s raised his OPS from .762 to .896 while moving up a level and already has a career-high 23 home runs with just under a month left in the season.
As we’ve seen with Andrew Fischer, if a player produces well enough, it doesn’t matter how much he strikes out. Bitonti’s not quite there yet, but he’s showing clear signs of growth. If there’s anyone to be patient with, it’s a prospect who’s still only 20 years old and can hit home runs like this:
Play of the Week
Another Tyler Black outfield highlight!
