2025 Milwaukee Brewers player grades
Here are our Milwaukee Brewers player grades for 2025, based on analysis by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Brewers beat writers Todd Rosiak and Curt Hogg.
Former Milwaukee Brewers top prospect Corey Ray, who appeared in one big-league game during Milwaukee’s 2021 season, has reportedly been hired as the Washington Nationals first-base coach.
Ray had been the baserunning coordinator for the Chicago Cubs and manager of the team’s Arizona Complex League team.
Ray, 31, was taken by the Brewers with the fifth overall pick in the 2016 draft out of the University of Louisville. The Chicago native was named the organization’s minor league player of the year and 2018 and had his best season in the minors at Class AAA Nashville in 2021, posting an .825 OPS.
He also netted a cup of coffee in the big leagues that season, where he appeared in one game during a Brewers run to the NL Central championship. He walked and scored a run in three plate appearances in a narrow 4-3 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 24 that season.
Ray looked back at his big-league journey in a chat with the Journal Sentinel in 2023.
“You try to be coachable; the best players, the best people are always trying to grow, always trying to learn,” he said. “My problem was I was trying to learn from too many people at once.
“Part of my career was me feeling entitled,” Ray said. “(I was thinking,) ‘I’ve got all these accolades; you should just put me in the major leagues,’ when in actuality, if you’re playing for a team that’s trying to win a World Series, you’ve got to earn it. You’ve got to be able to help them win a World Series when you’re up there. I don’t know that I forced their hand enough, through the injuries, through the ups and downs and through the inconsistencies, where they felt they needed me to help them win a World Series.”
Oddly enough, Ray will replace another ex-Brewers player as first-base coach in Washington, with Gerardo Parra holding the role last year. Bullpen coach Ricky Bones and catching/strategy coach Henry Blanco also played for the Brewers. Their future on the 2026 team is a little cloudy with new manager Drew Butera still assembling his staff.