{"id":544232,"date":"2026-01-29T15:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/544232\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:57:14","slug":"brewers-prospect-rankings-offseason-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/544232\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewers Prospect Rankings Offseason Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

By this point in the year, most of the major publications \u2014 other than Baseball Prospectus, which deserves its own article \u2014 have released their list of the top 100 prospects in baseball heading into the 2026 season. I already covered the Brewers prospects named to MLB Pipeline and Baseball America\u2019s lists, but ESPN and The Athletic both included Brewers who weren\u2019t named to either. Also of note: Keith Law ranked the Brewers\u2019 farm system as the best in baseball earlier this morning.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can find our coverage of Pipeline\u2019s list here<\/a> and Baseball America\u2019s here<\/a>. For those of you trying to keep track of which prospects were named to which list:<\/p>\n

Baseball America: SS Jes\u00fas Made (#4), INF Luis Pe\u00f1a (#47), SS Cooper Pratt (#50), SS\/2B\/CF Jett Williams (#71), RHP Brandon Sproat (#81), RHP Logan Henderson (#96)<\/p>\n

MLB Pipeline: Made (#3), Pe\u00f1a (#26), Williams (#51), Pratt (#64), Sproat (#100)<\/p>\n

The Athletic (Keith Law): Made (#3), Pe\u00f1a (#27), Williams (#45), C Jeferson Quero (#74), Sproat (#75), Pratt (#99)<\/p>\n

ESPN: Made (#3), Pena (#26), Williams (#32), Henderson (#64), Pratt (#70), Sproat (#73), Quero (#75), RHP Bishop Letson (#91)<\/p>\n

Made, Pe\u00f1a, Williams, Pratt, and Sproat are viewed as consensus top prospects. ESPN, however, expanded the list to include Quero (also included by Law), Henderson (also included by Baseball America), and Letson. Let\u2019s examine why some outlets felt these players deserved inclusion while others did not:<\/p>\n

Quero was a consensus top prospect as recently as last year (ranked No. 43 by Baseball America, No. 47 by MLB Pipeline). He could very well be an above-average hitter (for a catcher) at the big-league level. He\u2019s also a solid receiver and has drawn rave reviews from Brewers\u2019 minor league coaches for his work with pitches. The draw with Quero, the first thing mentioned in any scouting report on him, was always his rocket of an arm. Back in 2023, he was posting pop times as low as 1.86 seconds.<\/p>\n

The question with Quero isn\u2019t his upside, it\u2019s his health. Quero tore his right labrum during the first game of the 2024 season. He missed the entire rest of the season, the first two months of 2025, and since returning, his arm hasn\u2019t looked the same. The 23-year-old Venezuelan had a caught stealing rate of just 18.9% last season, leading to long-term concerns about his defensive viability and explaining why he was left off both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America\u2019s lists this year.<\/p>\n

Labrum injuries are fickle, as I wrote about last year<\/a> in anticipation of Quero\u2019s return. It\u2019s possible that his arm is merely working back to full strength, that a full offseason of rehab and training will have him looking more like the Quero of old before the summer. It\u2019s also possible that his arm will never be the same and that the Brewers may need to adjust expectations as to who Quero will be as a big leaguer.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee adding him to the 40-man roster may signal that they see him spelling Contreras, not as an eventual everyday catcher. There\u2019s an argument to be made that if Milwaukee saw him as the catcher of the future, they would give him more playing time to develop in Triple-A. Then again, the recent signing of Reese McGuire (albeit to a minor league deal with a spring training invite) might signal that they do intend to give him that time.<\/p>\n

Even if his arm isn\u2019t ever what it was, or 90% of what it was, The Athletic senior baseball writer Keith Law is more optimistic about his bat than most outlets. Law thinks that his bat will translate to the majors regardless of how his arm recovers, stating that, \u201cQuero has always been a high-contact hitter who likes to swing the bat, and he kept that up with a 36.8% chase rate in Triple A while still striking out only 14% of the time because he doesn\u2019t miss pitches in the zone much and actually makes more contact on balls out of the zone than most hitters\u2026 I do believe the bat will keep coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Either way, we should have a more definitive answer on what Quero will be at the major league level by the end of the season. If Quero\u2019s arm returns to above average, his bat makes him a solid starter and potential future All-Star. If it doesn\u2019t, he may be more of a backup\/rotational catcher, which is still a valuable piece to have.<\/p>\n

Letson is one of my personal favorite prospects in baseball, so it\u2019s great to see him recognized by ESPN. Letson only started 11 games last season due to a shoulder injury. When he came back in August, he made four High-A starts and one start in Double-A Biloxi. Three of those starts were great, while two of them (including his lone appearance in Biloxi) didn\u2019t go very well.<\/p>\n

ESPN thinks the main question with Letson \u201cis his health,\u201d but he also has \u201cmost of the markers (they) look for in projecting a breakthrough season, so front-line potential is still within reach.\u201d Letson\u2019s command has also left something to be desired, but that\u2019s often part of the natural development process \u2014 especially considering his age (21). ESPN notes that ranking Letson in the top 100 prospects is an \u201caggressive stance,\u201d but \u201cpresuming he\u2019ll be healthy in 2026\u201d he should justify the ranking because of his \u201cmassive extension,\u201d \u201cstarter feel,\u201d and \u201cabove-average stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t even say \u201cabove-average stuff.\u201d The 6\u20194\u201d right-hander is downright electric at times, and his stuff plays up even more due to his elite extension. Jacob Misiorowski\u2019s delivery averages around 7 1\/4 feet<\/a> of extension, which would put him in the 99th percentile leaguewide<\/a>. Letson is three inches shorter than the Miz, yet Baseball Savant\u2019s scouting report<\/a> compares his extension to Misiorowski. He doesn\u2019t throw super hard, normally sitting around 93-94 mph, but hitters have less time to see the pitch and react because Letson releases the ball closer to home plate than your average pitcher. Elite extension also creates a more challenging downhill angle for hitters and disrupts hitter\u2019s timing. If he bulks up (Letson weighs about 170 pounds), he could add a couple ticks to his velocity anyway.<\/p>\n

Letson\u2019s arsenal features a four-seam and sinker that both have the potential to be above-average offerings at the major league level. The same is true of his low-80s slider with sharp sweep, which has proven to be a swing-and-miss offering at the minor league level, and a mid-80s changeup with arm-side fade that looked improved last season. Per Baseball America<\/a>, Letson has the best fastball and the best slider in the Brewers organization. All of those pitches worked for him in the minors \u2014 Letson pitched to the tune of a 2.40 ERA across 11 appearances (nine starts) between High-A Wisconsin and Double-A Biloxi. As ESPN said, if he stays healthy next season, he\u2019s a definite breakout candidate.<\/p>\n

Henderson is slightly more of a known quantity among Brewers fans because of his impressive performance in Milwaukee last season (1.78 ERA in five appearances). Henderson wins because of his command, his fastball shape (despite slightly below-average velocity), and \u2014 above all else \u2014 his plus changeup, which you may remember from last season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The concern with Henderson is that his heavy reliance on his fastball and changeup could leave him vulnerable as hitters adjust to either pitch. During his five big league appearances, Henderson threw either a fastball or changeup on more than 85% of pitches. His cutter and slider aren\u2019t very good (40\/45 grade), but so far \u201chis ability to throw his changeup in any situation\u201d has made \u201chis cutter and slider useful in small doses.\u201d ESPN notes that this approach has worked thus far, so it would be \u201csilly\u201d to expect it not to continue working at the major league level.<\/p>\n

The major leagues feature the best of the best, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s \u201csilly\u201d to question his prolonged effectiveness as a starter who relies on two pitches. It\u2019s rare, although definitely not unheard of, that a starting pitcher has experienced continued success with a two-pitch arsenal. I do have faith in the Brewers \u201cpitching lab\u201d to turn one of his other pitches into a serviceable offering.<\/p>\n

The worst-case scenario is that he gets hit around a bit next year as hitters get more major league film on him, but even in that scenario he\u2019d probably still be highly effective out of the bullpen. Still, I think odds are he\u2019ll be a solid starting pitcher. Milwaukee probably wouldn\u2019t have traded Freddy Peralta (and Tobias Myers) if they didn\u2019t think Henderson could give them anything in the rotation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By this point in the year, most of the major publications \u2014 other than Baseball Prospectus, which deserves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,843,59,39030,4280,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-544232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-brewers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brewers","10":"tag-milwaukee","11":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","12":"tag-milwaukee-brewers-prospects-minor-leagues","13":"tag-milwaukeebrewers","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}