These 6 Brewers are worth watching in Spring Breakout

March 12th, 2024

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.

The Brewers are taking an especially exciting roster into their Spring Breakout showcase.

Four Brewers prospects ranked in MLB Pipeline's Top 100 prospects for 2024 are participating in Sunday's game against the Royals at Surprise Stadium, as well as 24 of the team's Top 30 prospects.

Let's look ahead to the weekend. Here are six Brewers prospects to watch at Spring Breakout.

1) OF Jackson Chourio (Brewers No. 1, MLB No. 2)

Chourio isn't just the headliner of the Brewers' Spring Breakout roster, he's one of the headliners of the entire event. MLB's top three overall prospects are all participating in Spring Breakout: No. 1 Jackson Holliday and No. 3 Paul Skenes -- who are facing off against each other when the Orioles play the Pirates -- and No. 2 Chourio in between them.

Spring Breakout will be a big opportunity for Chourio to display his dynamic power-speed skill set with the start of the season fast approaching. Chourio is pushing to make the Brewers' Opening Day roster, and if he stands out against other top prospects, it can only help his cause.

2) C Jeferson Quero (Brewers No. 3, MLB No. 35)

Quero has been one of the stars of Spring Training. His defense behind the plate made him a top prospect, and it's been incredible in the Cactus League. The 21-year-old has already caught five basestealers, tied with the Mets' Francisco Alvarez for the most of any catcher this spring. Quero's most recent came against the A's in Las Vegas with a Major League-caliber pop time of 1.89 seconds (the MLB average pop time to second base is 2.00 seconds).

With William Contreras already established as one of the best all-around catchers in the Majors, and now Quero on the rise toward the big leagues, the Brewers have quite the catching pipeline in place. That's why manager Pat Murphy said of Quero last week: "That kid is -- I mean, that's the gem of our organization right now."

3) RHP Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers No. 2, MLB No. 33)
4) LHP Robert Gasser (Brewers No. 6, LHP No. 9)

Misiorowski, the Brewers' top right-handed pitching prospect, and Gasser, their top left-handed pitching prospect, are both on the team's Spring Breakout staff. If they make it into the game, you'll get to see how they get things done with very different pitching styles.

The 21-year-old Misiorowski has big-time power stuff. His wipeout pitch combo: an upper-90s fastball that can easily hit triple digits (like at last year's All-Star Futures Game) coupled with a wicked, late-breaking slider. The 24-year-old Gasser pitches smarter, not harder. His lower-90s velocity plays up thanks to a low release point that makes it look like a rising, faster heater, and he puts hitters away with a big "sweeper" slider.

5) 3B Brock Wilken (Brewers No. 7)

Wilken was Milwaukee's first-round Draft pick last year, selected 18th overall out of Wake Forest, but he turned heads from the jump at his first Spring Training. In his first run with the big league club, the 21-year-old was raking with the best prospects around the league.

Wilken played in six Cactus League games before he was reassigned to Minor League camp, and in those first six games, he batted .714 (5-for-7) and reached base safely in nine of his 11 plate appearances (five hits, three walks and a hit by pitch). The only thing he didn't do was homer. But Wilken has excellent power -- maybe he'll go deep at Spring Breakout.

6) SS Cooper Pratt (Brewers No. 10)

Another 2023 draftee, the 19-year-old Pratt was picked five rounds after Wilken -- but make no mistake, the young shortstop is a first round-caliber talent. Pratt was actually ranked the No. 45 overall prospect entering the Draft by MLB Pipeline, but teams thought he was going to go play for Ole Miss. The Brewers took a shot on him, Pratt signed and now he's one of the top 10 prospects in their system less than a year out of high school.

Pratt hasn't gotten as much Spring Training action as the other prospects here -- he's been working mainly at Minor League camp -- but he has tons of potential and a sweet line-drive swing. Spring Breakout could be the best opportunity to see him yet.