With spring training getting underway soon, it’s the season of prospect list reveals. We’ll make our own Brewers Top 25 prospect list reveal here at Reviewing the Brew.
It’s no secret that, entering the 2020 season, the Milwaukee Brewers farm system is among the worst in baseball. After the recent graduations of Keston Hiura, Freddy Peralta, and Corbin Burnes, the Brewers lack top-end talent in their system. In fact, they are the only team in baseball to not have a player in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect list.
While the system is bad, it’s not completely devoid of talent. There are some good prospects in the system, but they don’t have any “sure things”.
While there will be many top prospects lists across the Internet, we’ll add our own list to the group as well.
We’ll list out our Top 25 Brewers prospects over the next week or so, and we’ll start right here at no. 25.
25. INF Felix Valerio
The Milwaukee Brewers acquired Felix Valerio last January from the Mets in the Keon Broxton trade. Valerio, just 19 years old, spent last season with the Rookie-level Arizona Brewers Gold. In 41 games, Valerio hit .306/.376/.389 with 13 doubles. Valerio is an on-base/speed type player that doesn’t hit for much power.
Valerio stole 16 bases last year and was caught five times. He’s basically a lottery ticket prospect that could hit big if everything goes right, but there’s a high chance that he never sees the big leagues. He’s a very raw prospect considering he’s so young. Still, he’s been hitting so far, with a career .314/.397/.417 slash line with 32 stolen bases over 420 at-bats between the past two seasons spent in the Dominican Summer League and Arizona.
He’s entering his age-19 season and is likely to see time in Rookie-Advanced Rocky Mountain this year. The Brewers will have to take it slow with Valerio and we aren’t going to see him in Milwaukee for a long time, if we see him at all. But if he continues to hit like he has so far, Valerio could end up as a solid leadoff hitter down the road.