MILWAUKEE – It will be a few more days before Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, the Top 100 prospect duo acquired by the Brewers from the Mets in the Freddy Peralta trade, report to American Family Fields of Phoenix for the start of Spring Training. Neither Sproat nor Williams will know anybody but each other. But they’re sure to fit right in.
Sproat is a promising 25-year-old pitcher coming off his first taste of the Major Leagues – four starts with the Mets last September. If that sounds a little familiar, it’s because the Brewers are loaded with starters just like that. Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson all will head into 2026 with less than a year of big league service. Even Quinn Priester, the closest thing to a veteran starter the Brewers possess beyond franchise mainstay Brandon Woodruff, has less than two years of service time, as does Robert Gasser.
COMPLETE BREWERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
Then there is Williams, whose speed, positional versatility (the Brewers list him as an infielder/outfielder) and size (he’s 5-foot-7) make it seem like he was destined to join a Brewers team with 5-foot-8 outfielder Sal Frelick and 5-foot-7 third baseman Caleb Durbin in the projected Opening Day lineup.
“Looking from top to bottom of the lineup and the way they play,” Williams said, “it’s a bunch of short guys that are a little bit scrappy. So, it’s similar to me. The way they play the game is similar to how I play.”
“I think a lot of players with the Brewers organization are people who go to work every single day and keep their head down,” Sproat said. “There’s really not much to it, just constantly grinding through the good and the bad. That’s something that I think I have in common with that.”
Williams (Brewers’ No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, overall No. 51) and Sproat (Brewers’ No. 6, overall No. 100) are planning to room together during Spring Training while they get their bearings, but their new teammates are already making them feel welcome. Besides conversations with manager Pat Murphy and pitching coach Chris Hook, Sproat said he heard from Woodruff, Frelick, Brice Turang and DL Hall in the wake of the trade. And Williams described a feisty conversation with Murphy, who has an affinity for scrappy, undersized players that goes all the way back to Dustin Pedroia at Arizona State.
“I was telling Murph, ‘You’re going to have to drag me off the field,’” Williams said.
Both have Draft pedigree; Williams was New York’s first-round pick (14th overall) out of high school in the Dallas area in 2022, and Sproat was a high pick twice, drafted in the third round by the Mets in ‘22 and again in the second round in ‘23 from the University of Florida. But only Sproat has touched a Major League field so far. The Mets called him up in September during a push for the postseason and Sproat delivered a 4.79 ERA in four starts, beginning with a pair of quality starts against the Reds and Rangers.
That big league experience followed a Triple-A campaign in which he went 8-6 with a 4.24 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 121 innings during his second season of pro ball.
“Now I know how those games are, how the environment is,” Sproat said. “That was super fun to be a part of. So going into camp, you kind of have an idea of what it’s going to be like.”
Williams’ path to the Majors was slowed by a right wrist injury in 2024 that required surgery and forced him to ponder what life would be like without baseball. But he bounced back to a .261/.363/.465 slash line and a career-best 17 home runs in ‘25, finishing the season with 34 games at the Triple-A level.
Williams has experience at second base and center field beyond his primary position, shortstop, which could come into play considering how the Brewers are stacked at the position. After Joey Ortiz and Turang in the big leagues (who don’t project for free agency until the 2029-30 offseason), Milwaukee’s system features stud shortstop prospects Jesús Made (Brewers’ No. 1, overall No. 3), Luis Peña (Brewers’ No. 2, overall No. 26) and Cooper Pratt (Brewers’ No. 4, overall No. 56) expected to begin 2026 at the upper levels of the Minor League system.
“Coming to a new organization, I think me and Brandon have a good knowledge of knowing what to do, of trying to help everybody win,” Williams said. “I think that’s pretty much it.”