Brewers Come Up Empty In MLB Pipeline Top 100 Prospects List

MLB Pipeline released their annual Top 100 prospects list on Saturday afternoon, looking at the best minor league prospects in baseball, and the Milwaukee Brewers were nowhere to be seen.

During the middle of last season, many outlets ranked the Milwaukee Brewers farm system among the worst in baseball. Despite some optimism on the prospects in the organization from fans and the front office alike, MLB Pipeline’s new Top 100 list only further confirms how far down this system has fallen.

Just a few years ago, the Brewers had one of the best farm systems in MLB, headlined by Orlando Arcia and a bevy of other Top 100 prospects, the Brewers once boasted eight players on this list. Now, just a few years later, there is no one.

Most of that is due to the graduation of prospects and trades to improve the big league club (i.e Christian Yelich, Mike Moustakas). The sad part is, a lot of those prospects really haven’t turned out to be much in the big leagues. Arcia was one of the most prized prospects the Brewers have ever grown through their system, and of course, his bat hasn’t turned out as we had hoped.

But going back to that 2016 list, (that Arcia graduated from mid-season) they had Lewis Brinson (traded for Yelich), Corey Ray, Josh Hader, Luis Ortiz (traded for Jonathan Schoop), Phil Bickford, Trent Grisham (traded to San Diego), Brett Phillips (traded for Moustakas), and Isan Diaz (traded for Yelich). Of them, only Arcia, Hader, and Ray remain in the organization and Hader is the only one that has made a profound impact in the major leagues to this point.

Prospects are far from a sure thing, but having only one of those eight Top 100 prospects turn out as expected is still a pretty low success rate. Which has put this roster in the current predicament that it’s in.

Falling Off The Table

The Brewers farm system as a whole looked a lot better when it had stud hitting prospect Keston Hiura topping their prospect list. Hiura had worked his way into the Top 10 on MLB Pipeline’s list last year before his call up. Now that he has graduated from the list, there really isn’t much top-tier talent behind him.

The best prospect currently in this system as of last year’s rankings is shortstop Brice Turang, who will likely start 2020 in High-A Carolina. He ended the 2019 season just barely on the Top 100 at No. 98. He did not make the initial Top 100 this year.

The reason for his drop is likely due to his struggles in High-A Carolina after a mid-season promotion from Low-A Wisconsin. He hit just .200 with a .615 OPS in 170 ABs with the Mudcats. Keep in mind, Turang was just 19 years old last season and was very young for that level.

Still, a strong start to 2020 and with a few graduations from players in the Top 100, and we could see Turang on this list quite soon.

The Brewers will see their Top 30 organizational prospects list get released by MLB Pipeline sometime in February. Then we’ll see who follows behind Turang, or if someone else has surpassed him.