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.
LOS ANGELES – The Trade Deadline could have gone much differently for the Brewers, who had a variety of offers out to the Tigers for left-hander Tarik Skubal that would have taken a big chunk out of MLB Pipeline’s top-ranked Milwaukee farm system.
For a team like the Brewers that can’t simply backfill via free agents, prospects are particularly valuable. It’s why president of baseball operations Matt Arnold always talks about being “responsible” in talking about trades, and said he made some offers in the runup to the Deadline that bordered on "irresponsible" in terms of the prospect capital it would have cost the club.
COMPLETE BREWERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
“We rely on those guys,” said Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine, one of the lieutenants who worked alongside Arnold as the club considered upgrades. “Does our financial standing preclude us from going out and making intelligent investments? No, not at all. Mark [Attanasio] and our ownership group have been very supportive of that when it makes sense.
“But yes, there is obviously a premium on cost-controlled players. They certainly carry more value to us than they do to the Dodgers or Phillies or Cubs.”
He offered an example.
“Take a fourth outfielder,” Kleine said. “If you need to go out and sign that as a bridge, you’re probably talking about $7-$8 million on a one-year deal. That’s a meaningful amount of money for us. For a large market team, who cares?”
The Tigers wound up going a different direction and trading Skubal to the Dodgers, and while the Brewers pivoted to acquiring other arms at the expense of a handful of MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospects – outfielder Alexander Frias tops among them – they preserved the very top of the system.
“It’s not always exciting or sexy in the moment,” Kleine said. “I get it. We’re human, too. We feel the same emotions [at the Trade Deadline] as everyone else. It’s just our jobs to look out for the best interests of the organization in the short term and the long term, and balancing those two.”
The Brewers’ Top 30 received a fresh re-rank this week to account for Deadline departures, as well as some additions via the MLB Draft.
Here’s a look at the Brewers’ top prospects:
1. Jesús Made, SS (MLB No. 1)
2. Luis Peña, SS (MLB No. 21)
3. Josh Adamczewski, OF (MLB No. 88)
4. Luis Lara, OF (MLB No. 89)
5. Brady Ebel, SS (MLB No. 99)
Biggest jump/fall
Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the preseason list:
Jump: Ricki Moneys, SS (Preseason: NR | Midseason: No. 16) – Once the Brewers got the name just right (there were some questions about the spelling before Moneys signed in January as part of Milwaukee’s most recent international signing class), he went to work living up to the many nickname options available, posting a .923 OPS in 49 games in the Arizona Complex League as a 17-year-old. Twenty of Moneys’ first 51 pro hits went for extra bases.
"Electric,” said Brewers director of international scouting and player personnel Taylor Green. “The power, to me, is what stands out right away for somebody who is definitely going to stay on the infield. He's got the natural power to right-center field that makes him stand out amongst the peers. He’s a special talent, a special player -- one of many we have in this class."
Fall: Ethan Dorchies, RHP (Preseason: 20 | Midseason: NR) – A 10th-round pick in 2024 out of the same Illinois high school that produced Brewers starter Quinn Priester, the 6-foot-5 Dorchies put himself on the map with a stellar season at three levels in 2025. He is 4-8 with a 5.40 ERA in 20 starts for High-A Wisconsin so far this season and is still only 19 years old – nearly four years younger than the Midwest League average.
Other movers of note: Adamczewski from No. 11 to No. 3, Ebel from No. 15 to No. 5, OF Braylon Payne from No. 14 to No. 7, RHP Tyson Hardin from No. 19 to No. 8, RHP Josh Knoth No. 24 to No. 10, IF/OF Jett Williams from No. 3 to 11
New to the list
Here are the players added to the Top 30 from outside the organization:
No. 17, Sawyer Strosnider, OF (Draft)
No. 18, Trey Ebel, SS (Draft)
No. 21, Julian Garcia, RHP (Draft)
No. 26, Kyle Jones, OF (Draft)
Best tools
Players are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools -- 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is plus and 70-80 is well above average. Players in parentheses have the same grade.
Hit: 60 -- Jesús Made
Power: 65 – Andrew Fischer
Run: 70 – Braylon Payne (Luis Peña)
Arm: 60 – Made (Luis Lara, Brade Ebel, Marco Dinges, Eric Bitonti)
Defense: 70 -- Lara
Fastball: 60 – Josh Knoth (Bishop Letson, Julian Garcia)
Curveball: 60 – Coleman Crow (Garcia)
Slider: 60 – Knoth (Frank Cairone)
Changeup: 50 – J.D. Thompson (Jaron DeBerry)
Cutter: 55 -- Crow
Control: 55 – Tyson Hardin