Milwaukee Brewers 2020 Top 25 Prospects List: Nos. 11-15

14. LHP Antoine Kelly

20-year old Antoine Kelly was a great pitching addition in the Brewers’ prospects. A second round pick in 2019, Kelly has a powerful fastball that’s in the high 90’s and he’s still working to improve his slider and changeup.

Kelly is a major project, and the Brewers knew that when they drafted him. They took a safer pitching prospect in Ethan Small in the first round, so they felt comfortable taking a high-risk, high-reward pitcher like Kelly in the second. Kelly is a fireballer that lacks control of his pitches at the moment and will need to develop a second above-average pitch if he’s going to be an impactful big leaguer someday.

It’s a rarity to find lefties that have a fastball nearing 100 MPH, especially for someone being so young and talented. He got the most mound time with the AZL Brewers Gold where he pitched 28.2 innings and posted a 1.26 ERA, .208 opponent AVG, and a 0.91 WHIP. He also played for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, but that time was very short as he was assigned to the Timber Rattlers on August 29th of 2019, and the next day he was assigned back to AZL Brewers Gold.

In his minors career, his overall ERA is a 2.84 which is pretty impressive even though it’s a small sample size. With him being just 20 years old, Antoine Kelly does have a lot of potential stored in him.

The Brewers could try to be aggressive with Kelly and put him in Low-A Wisconsin to start the 2020 season, but he’s likely going to spend some time with the Rookie-Advanced Rocky Mountain Vibes.

In all likelihood, Kelly is ticketed for the bullpen if he were to make the big leagues. If he can put it all together, he could be Josh Hader-level dominant. Standing at 6’6″ and 205 pounds, the left-hander Kelly has rare potential. If the Brewers can continue to harness that potential, Kelly will rise up these rankings in the future. For now, he’s a long ways from the big leagues and lands at No. 14 on our list.

13. C Payton Henry

Still just 22 years of age, catcher Payton Henry is one of the Crew’s top catching prospects. Henry was given an invite to big league spring training in 2020. The chances of him earning a roster spot are quite slim, however. Given he hasn’t yet played above High-A, it wouldn’t be right to put him against the big league guys, but his talent could benefit the Brewers in other ways.

Drafted out of high school in the 6th round in 2016, Henry has slowly and methodically moved his way through the Brewers farm system.

He spent 2016 and 2017 in Rookie ball, spending the first year in Arizona and then moving up to the now defunct Helena Brewers the following season. Henry spent all 2018 with Low-A Wisconsin and all of 2019 with High-A Carolina. Collectively, he’s posting .242/.326/.395 slash line through his entire minor league career. He’s projected to spend some time in the 2020 season with Double-A Biloxi but there’s a chance he ends up back in Carolina, at least to start the season.

There’s a lot of very exciting tools in Henry’s arsenal. A strong defender, Henry is elite at throwing out base-stealers, with a career clip above 35%. Henry is also considered to be an above-average thrower and receiver, as well as possessing strong leadership skills in handling a pitching staff.

Offensively, Henry has a ton of raw power that he’s starting to reach in games more often, with 14 home runs in 2019. He had 10 long balls the year before and seven homers the year before that. The power numbers keep on trending up for Henry, and that is key for his future. If he’s going to be an everyday regular catcher down the road, he’ll need his bat to keep him in the lineup, but his glove is not going to keep him from the big leagues.

Henry and Mario Feliciano were selected in the same 2016 draft class, both out of high school and made up a powerful tandem for the Carolina Mudcats last year. Feliciano is considered the better prospect of the two, and we’ll see his final spot on this list later in the week.

With a non-roster invite to spring training, there is a chance Henry could be closer to the big leagues than originally thought. While we most likely won’t see him in Milwaukee this year, we could see him here in 2021 at the earliest.

12. OF Carlos Rodriguez

For only being 19 years old, Carlos Rodriguez is proving himself to be a potential big league regular down the road.  At the time of his signing, the Venezuelan native was only 16 years old and was ranked 26th in the Top 30 International Prospects in 2018 by MLB Pipeline.

Between Rookie levels Arizona and Rocky Mountain in 2019, Rodriguez posted a .329/.346/.416 slash line, which isn’t bad for a 19-year old player, especially in his first full season stateside. He still has a lot of growing to do, but with him being so young, he’s got all the time in the world to develop and show why he could be a viable addition to the Milwaukee Brewers big league roster one day.

Rodriguez’s two best tools are his speed and defense in centerfield. Sticking in centerfield is key for his value in the big leagues, considering he doesn’t hit for much power. If he can continue to hit above .300 like he did last year, the lack of power will not be a concern. Rodriguez would profile as a top of the order type hitter with his speed and contact ability.

His maturity level and overall talent could put him on a faster track to the big leagues. He’s not quite a raw of a prospect as other 19 year old international signees might be. Rodriguez will likely start the 2020 season in Low-A and if he succeeds there, could find himself in High-A before the year is over. If he continues to hit this well in full season ball, Rodriguez will continue to make gains up this list. For now, he falls at No. 12.

11. RHP Zack Brown

Expected to be added to the 40-man roster in 2019, Zack Brown fell just a little shy of making the cut. Instead the Brewers chose Corey Ray and J.P. Feyereisen. Brown was not selected in the Rule 5  Draft, so he stayed in the organization and could come at 2020 with a vengeance.

In 2019, he spent all of his season in Triple-A with the San Antonio Missions. It was a downward spiral for Brown as he posted a 5.79 ERA and gave up 16 home runs in his 23 starts and two relief appearances. Compared to his 2018 stats where he posted a 2.44 ERA with just eight home runs allowed in Double-A, it was obvious that the Brewers weren’t the happiest with his 2019 season, hence why he wasn’t added to the 40-man roster.

Triple-A began using MLB baseballs last year, and both leagues saw a massive surge in home runs, which could have negatively impacted Brown’s season last year. It could’ve simply been a fluke year because of the baseball change.

Prior to his 2019 season, the Brewers saw him as a potential key member of their pitching staff in the future, with his performance resulting in him being ranked as one of the best pitching prospects in their system.

Brown sits in the mid-90s with his fastball and has a bunch of different variations of that pitch he can throw. He also has a plus-curveball and his changeup is pretty solid as well. When all three of his pitches are working, Brown can be unstoppable on the mound. He’s a ground ball pitcher, which is the type of pitcher you want to be when Miller Park is your home stadium.

He has high expectations set upon him since being made the Crew’s 5th round pick in 2016 and had a bad year at the worst possible time. Every year prior to 2019 was filled with mostly positives.

2020 should be a better season for Brown, but given his struggles in Triple-A last year, he falls to No. 11 in our initial prospect list, with high bounceback potential. He could find himself in Milwaukee before the season is over if he can get back on track.

We’ve made it through over half of our Top 25 Brewers prospects list now, and the Top 10 is coming up soon.