How are things on the Brewers' farm? Here are some early awards

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MILWAUKEE -- Here’s some of what’s been happening down on the farm during the first week of the Minor League season, with Brewers senior vice president of player operations and baseball administration Tom Flanagan weighing in with some insights.

Note that for all of the statistical rankings mentioned below, we used 50 plate appearances and 10 innings as the minimums.

March/April MVP

There are plenty of candidates, with Triple-A Nashville’s Luis Lara (Brewers No. 11 prospect, per MLB Pipeline) hitting home run No. 5 on Sunday and posting a 1.000 OPS so far, Double-A Biloxi’s Blake Burke (Brewers No. 17) leading the system with seven home runs while reaching base at a .360 clip, High-A Wisconsin’s Braylon Payne (Brewers No. 13) leading the system with a 213 weighted runs created plus and Timber Rattlers teammate Marco Dinges (Brewers No. 9, whose incredible comeback story was featured on MLB.com during Spring Training) currently third with a 192 wRC+ while getting most of his playing time at catcher.

But Flanagan’s vote would go to yet another High-A Wisconsin player off to a sizzling start. Twenty-year-old Josh Adamczewski (Brewers No. 10), who occasionally appears at second base to keep his infield skills sharp but is mostly regarded as an outfielder, ranks second in the system with a 210 wRC+, second with a 1.239 OPS, second with a .516 on-base percentage, third with a 22.6 percent walk rate and eighth with a 16.1 percent strikeout rate. It continues a rapid rise for the Indiana native, who decided to forgo a scholarship offer from Ball State to sign with the Brewers as a 15th-round Draft pick in 2023.

“Everything is a learning moment,” Adamczewski said during Spring Training. “You watch how everyone goes about their business, from first-rounders to late-rounders. It doesn’t matter who they are, they’re all going to have different stories and different things that work for them, so you digest it all.”

March/April Cy Young

It’s difficult for starting pitchers to separate themselves in the early season these days, so Flanagan highlighted left-handed reliever Mark Manfredi, who has touched 97 mph as part of a velocity uptick that began in Spring Training. The performance has matched, as Manfredi is striking out 37.2 percent of the batters he has faced so far, the third-highest rate in the system among pitchers who have logged at least 10 innings.

Other relievers of note are Nashville’s Brian Fitzpatrick and Will Childers, each of whom has surpassed 10 innings and has yet to yield an earned run. Among starters, Nashville left-hander Tate Kuehner is 1-0 with a 3.42 ERA and is tied for second in the system with 26 strikeouts. He isn’t on the 40-man roster, but he logged time in big league camp and could be an option for the Major League club if the Brewers have to continue digging into their organizational depth.

Most improved

The “small sample” alert especially applies here, since one of the biggest hurdles in pro ball is proving that a player can stay healthy enough, and work hard enough, to succeed over the long season. But Flanagan has been especially impressed so far by Double-A infielder Dylan O’Rae, the 2022 third-round pick who missed the entire 2025 regular season with wrist issues but is quite literally off to a fast start in 2026. He leads the system with 15 stolen bases in 19 attempts. O’Rae also ranks in the top 10 in the organization with a .338 average and a .453 on-base percentage while playing a well-above-average second base, according to Flanagan.

Don’t count him out

We asked Flanagan to identify one player whose April surface numbers don’t wow, but who has great potential for the rest of the season. He mentioned Single-A Wilson shortstop Brady Ebel (Brewers No. 14), whose .152 batting average ranks last among the 38 Brewers Minor Leaguers who have surpassed 50 plate appearances. Ebel, drafted 32nd overall last year, has played solid defense, has walked as much as he has struck out (17 times apiece) and has a .200 batting average on balls in play, which indicates particularly bad luck.

“That bad luck will change,” Flanagan said. “A TON to like with this player.”

Dig deeper

For this category, we challenged Flanagan to name a player who doesn't have eye-popping surface numbers just yet but has great underlying metrics. He mentioned 23-year-old righty Braylon Owens, last year’s 10th-round Draft pick out of the University of Texas-San Antonio. Deception is part of Owens’ arsenal, starting with a high-spin 4-seam fastball with good extension and a low release height.

“He’s got the ingredients to be someone to watch,” Flanagan said.