Milwaukee Brewers 2020 Top 25 Prospects List: Nos. 16-20

Our Brewers Top 25 prospect list continues with a trio of 2019 draftees who have all impressively kickstarted their professional careers. But we start with a player expected to bounce back from a fluke injury that sidelined him for all of last season.

20. RHP Bobby Wahl

Bobby Wahl was essentially the headliner in last year’s trade that sent Keon Broxton to the Mets and brought our No. 25 prospect Felix Valerio to Milwaukee. Hopes were that, even with just 14 games of MLB experience under his belt, he would be able to quickly contribute for the Brewers.

Those hopes evaporated early when Wahl tore his ACL during a Spring Training outing in 2019 and ended up sitting out the entire regular season. Now healthy, the hard-throwing right-hander gets a second try at making an Opening Day roster.

There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to Wahl’s potential as a key back-end bullpen arm. Drafted in the 5th round in 2013 by Oakland, Wahl has racked up 292 strikeouts in 159 career innings of minor league action, good for a 16.53 K/9. That’s Josh Hader territory.

His finish to Arizona Fall League offers optimism as well. Wahl’s start in Arizona was rough (eight earned runs in a combined inning of work over two games), which wasn’t surprising considering it was his first game action in months. But for as bad as those first two games went, the final four went that much better as he gave up just a hit and a walk with no runs over four innings while striking out seven.

Stats aside, his pitch profile itself is what shows big potential as a quality setup man. Wahl’s dominant pitch is definitely his high-90s four-seam fastball. He does sprinkle in a slider, curveball, or change up randomly, but the fastball is clearly his bread and butter.

Wahl has one of the best chances of any player on our list of breaking through to the big league club this upcoming season, but it’s still possible he starts the season in Triple-A. For now, he enters our list at No. 20.

19. LHP Nick Bennett

Left-handed pitcher Nick Bennett is the first of the Brewers’ 2019 draftees to enter our Top 25 list. Drafted in the 6th round out of Louisville, he was the third of several left-handed pitchers that were taken by Milwaukee in last year’s draft.

Bennett’s college stats were largely solid, ending his collegiate career by going 20-6 with a 3.49 ERA and a 1.214 WHIP and totaling 206 strikeouts to 70 walks. His numbers ballooned just a bit in his final year at Louisville, jumping to a 4.40 ERA and 1.398 WHIP, but that was largely due to a forearm strain that he suffered that year. That could be part of how the Brewers were able to get him as late as they did.

Bennett was assigned to organization’s Rookie Advanced League affiliate Rocky Mountain Vibes in July to begin his minor league career. All he did there was give up just two whole earned runs in 12 2/3 innings, good for a 1.42 ERA, over six appearances.

That performance got him a swift promotion to the Low-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, where he continued to impress. There he compiled a 2.21 ERA in five outings, held batters to a .192 batting average, and struck out 24 while walking just four. His final three appearances were all starts.

Bennett is said to have good control and uses as his main pitches a low-90s fastball along with a big, quality curveball that he has the confidence and competence to throw whenever needed.

Bennett will likely start the year back at Wisconsin with the chance of quickly moving to High-A Carolina if he continues on his current track. We’ll see if he profiles as a reliever or starter, but at this point we place him at No. 19 on our Preseason Top 25 list.

18. C/OF Thomas Dillard

Catcher/outfielder Thomas Dillard is the next 2019 draftee on our list, having been picked in the 5th round last year right before Bennett. He was part of another draft trend for the Brewers, being the second of a handful of catchers that the team drafted in 2019.

Dillard’s offensive numbers in college at Mississippi were plenty impressive. He had a slash line of .286/.419/.505, good for a .924 OPS, in three seasons for the Rebels. He also clubbed 31 homers and swiped 34 bags while scoring 145 runs in 181 career games.

After playing just four games for the Brewers’ Rookie Arizona League Blue team, Dillard was promptly shifted to Low-A Wisconsin where he played out the rest of the season. He had a bit of a slow start there, but really came along to finish out the season.

In 51 games for the Timber Rattlers, Dillard slashed .246/.398/.386 while swatting six homers. His ratio of 43 walks to 50 strikeouts was right on par with his ratio on college and he continued to show the ability to steal a base when needed, nabbing seven steals while never being caught.

There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about Dillard. Drafted as a switch-hitting catcher who sometimes can play the outfield, he actually played 33 of 51 games at first base for Wisconsin, a position at which the organization could use much more depth.

A switch hitter with an knack to get on base who can play multiple positions is a great asset to have. If he continues to show the ability to do all those things well, he won’t be at No. 18 on our list for long.

17. C Nick Kahle

Another Top 25 spot, another member of last year’s Brewers draft class, and also another catcher. Nick Kahle, drafted in the 4th round out of Washington, was the first of all of the catchers that Milwaukee selected in the 2019 draft.

Kahle had plenty of success offensively for the Huskies, finishing his collegiate career with a .296/.423/.458 slash line. In his final year in college, he led his team in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, RBI, and walks.

The 21-year-old righty ended up spending pretty much his entire season at Rookie Advanced Rocky Mountain, short of a quick two-game stint with High-A Carolina at the end of the season, and ended up doing rather well for himself.

In 40 games with the Vibes, Kahle slashed .255/.350/.475. His .475 slugging percentage and his .825 OPS were the highest on the team of anyone who played more than 10 games.

Kahle profiles as a solid hitter with the potential to gain power in the future and an average defender. However, he was named Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 defensive team his final season in college so perhaps he has it in him to exceed that part of the projection.

Unlike Dillard, Kahle is likely to stay at catcher for the foreseeable future. He’ll probably be working on those catching skills at Low-A Wisconsin this upcoming season and hopefully continues to rise in the rankings as the next big catching prospect.