{"id":670370,"date":"2026-04-08T14:19:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670370\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:19:27","slug":"brewers-sign-not-yet-a-rookie-cooper-pratt-to-a-50-million-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670370\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewers Sign Not-Yet-A-Rookie Cooper Pratt To A $50 Million Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week we discussed Seattle\u2019s long-term contract with shortstop Colt Emerson. Well, the Brewers were not to be outdone. Shortly after the ink on that contract was dry, Milwaukee signed<\/a> their potential shortstop of the future, Cooper Pratt, to an eight-year deal worth more than $50 million. Sure, this about half of what Seattle guaranteed Emerson, but that may be because Pratt\u2019s future value (per FanGraphs<\/a>) is 45. He was originally a sixth round pick in 2023, and signed for just $1.35 million (by comparison, Emerson was a first-round pick and signed for $3.8 million).<\/p>\n

What makes Pratt\u2019s extension so interesting is that he is represented by \u00fcber-agent Scott Boras, who nearly always brings his clients to free agency and allows the market to set their value. But, the 21-year-old pushed for the extension<\/a>, telling reporters:<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the security I\u2019ll have the opportunity to set up like I\u2019ll never have to worry about anything like that, pretty much, the rest of my life. I can just play and play the game like how it\u2019s supposed to be played, not think about it as much and also be able to take care of my family for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal also includes two club options for 2034 and 2035 at $6.3 million each.<\/p>\n

Pratt is somewhat the opposite of Emerson in that he is an elite fielder but has struggled with the bat. Last year at Double-A, he hit just .238 with a .691 OPS. But the Brewers were impressed by his low strikeout rate (15.2%) and nice walk rate (12.7%). Keith Law of The Athletic, when ranking Pratt 99th in his Top-100 prospects, wrote that<\/a> Pratt \u201cneeds to grow into some more power. If he can hit the ball harder on a more consistent basis, he\u2019ll be an above-average regular at shortstop because of all of his other skills, even if he maxes out at 10-12 homers a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-term deal with Pratt is somewhat of a duplicate of what the club did with Jackson Chourio back in 2023, when they signed him<\/a> to an $82 million extension (over eight years) before he made his MLB debut. Chourio has rewarded that confidence by giving the team two seasons with an OPS+ of 118 and 113. After two big league seasons, his slash line is .272\/.317\/.463, and he has become a mainstay in the outfield on two division-winning teams.<\/p>\n

At present, per FanGraphs positional power rankings<\/a>, Milwaukee ranks 25th at shortstop. Joey Ortiz, Jett Willams (acquired from the Mets<\/a> as part of the Freddy Peralta trade), Brice Turang (who is quickly becoming the best defensive second baseman in the game), and David Hamilton, represent the current depth chart for the Brewers at shortstop, meaning, as with Colt Emerson, the door is open for Pratt to push his way to the big leagues in short order.<\/p>\n

Pratt says that he spoke with manager Pat Murphy and president of baseball operations Matt Arnold during spring training, and then consulted with his teammates, including veteran Christian Yelich, to make sure he was in the right place, in the right frame of mind, and making the right type of deal. \u201cIt was hard, but ultimately, hearing everything that had to be said was very beneficial. Hopefully it turns out to be a win-win for both the organization and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historically, Milwaukee has done more with less, spotted talent before others, and made the most of deals like this. Said differently, bet against the Brewers (and Pratt) at your peril.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this week we discussed Seattle\u2019s long-term contract with shortstop Colt Emerson. Well, the Brewers were not to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,3800,1301,22897,25711,17761,753,3875,1513,101,843,59,4280,4,619],"class_list":{"0":"post-670370","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-brice-turang","11":"tag-christian-yelich","12":"tag-colt-emerson","13":"tag-cooper-pratt","14":"tag-david-hamilton","15":"tag-freddy-peralta","16":"tag-jackson-chourio","17":"tag-joey-ortiz","18":"tag-mets","19":"tag-milwaukee","20":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","21":"tag-milwaukeebrewers","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-seattle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116369527128115609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670370","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=670370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}