Brewers: 5 Top Prospects Who Didn’t Live Up To The Hype

The Milwaukee Brewers have had several hyped prospects come through their minor league system. However, there were a bunch that did not pan out. Here are five Brewers prospects who never saw the big league success most imagined.

Prospect hype is a dangerous game. You can look at the scouting reports and the video and think that your team has the next Clayton Kershaw or Mike Trout coming through the minor league system. You can imagine them having all sorts of success at the big league level, and in some cases, the team clears the way at the big league level for these prospects to take over. Look at what the Brewers did for Keston Hiura.

With Keston Hiura shooting his way through the minor league system, hype surrounding him grew almost every day. The Brewers cleared the way for him in the middle of 2019 and so far, he’s lived up to the hype.

But for every Keston Hiura that realizes his potential, there are at least five prospects who never come close. Let’s take a look at five Brewers prospects that never lived up to the hype surrounding them.

1. Mat Gamel

The elder brother of current Brewers outfielder Ben Gamel was the heir apparent at first base after Prince Fielder signed his massive contract in free agency. We knew Fielder was likely to leave, and it was finally time for Gamel to take over.

Mat Gamel had been making cameo appearances in the big leagues since 2008, including getting a 61 game stint in 2009. Primarily a third baseman, Gamel spent several years in Triple-A, just waiting for a big league opportunity. He started playing more first base in 2011, and became the starting first baseman in 2012 after Fielder left.

We had seen good things from him, and heard good things about his ability, and he was finally getting a chance to play every day. Then, on May 1, 2012 against the Padres, Gamel was chasing down a foul pop up and tore his ACL, which ended his season.

Gamel was hitting .246 with one homer and six RBIs at the time of his injury.

Then in 2013, as he was set to return from injury and take the starting first base job once again, he tore his ACL again in spring training. He never played another game in affiliated baseball.

He played in 2015 in independent ball with Somerset and Camden, but hit .185 that season and hung up his spikes after that.

Gamel was once thought to be the future at first base for the Milwaukee Brewers, and instead ended his big league career with just 240 at-bats and a .229/.305/.367 slash line. Injuries derailed his career before it could really get started.

2. Hunter Morris

Right around the time Mat Gamel went down with an ACL tear the first time, Hunter Morris was accelerating his path to the big leagues. A fourth round pick by the Brewers out of Auburn in 2010, Morris was lighting up the Double-A Southern League.

In 2012, Morris hit .303/.357/.563 with a league-leading 28 home runs, 40 doubles, six triples, and 113 RBIs en route to the Southern League MVP award. He exploded onto the scene and was one of the top first base prospects in all of baseball.

With an abundance of raw power from the left side of the plate, Morris seemed like the perfect fit at first base moving forward, and the opportunity was right in front of him in 2013 with Gamel out with injury.

The Brewers invited Morris to spring training in 2013, and perhaps the opportunity to win the Brewers starting first base job with a great spring put too much pressure on him, but he looked absolutely terrible at the plate that spring. In 12 games and 26 at-bats, Morris had only three hits and a .115 batting average. He missed his opportunity for that job and went to Triple-A for a little more seasoning.

While most were expecting Morris to light up the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League just like he did in the Double-A Southern League, he continued to take major steps backwards. In 2013, Morris hit just .247 with 24 homers and a .766 OPS. His OBP dropped 47 points and his slugging percentage dropped 106 points from 2012 to 2013.

In 2014, Morris continued to struggle, this time his power had left him, with just 11 homers in 103 games that year, dealing with an injury as well. In April 2015, the Brewers traded Hunter Morris to the Pirates for a PTBNL or cash.

It really was a disappointing turn for the Brewers as they were going to be initiating a rebuild shortly after that trade. The Brewers have had so much turnover at the first base position since Prince Fielder left after the 2011 season, and these first two prospects, Mat Gamel and Hunter Morris are a big reason why. They were the two big first base prospects in the minor league system at the time and neither could take over the starting job. That’s why we had to have a year of Yuniesky Betancourt and Juan Francisco at first base, and so many others since.

Morris had such a high ceiling and it was easy to dream on that raw power and ability. But he also had a low floor and he wasn’t able to get far off the ground. Morris never got a chance to make his major league debut.

4. Tyrone Taylor

In the 2014 edition of MLB’s Prospect Watch, Tyrone Taylor was the Milwaukee Brewers top minor league prospect, and he had reached Double-A that season. It took him until September 2019 to make his major league debut.

Taylor spent the next three years in Double-A and didn’t really get much traction as his batting average dropped down to .260 and then to .232. In 2017, injuries limited Taylor to just 32 games.

Finally getting up to Triple-A in 2018, Taylor had some improved offensive numbers as his power finally arrived, hitting 20 home runs with a .278 batting average, although this was Colorado Springs, so that needed to be taken with a grain of salt. His previous season high in home runs was nine, and that was in 2016.

Taylor had a pedigree of an above-average hitter that found ways to get on base and then use his speed to steal bags, but he hasn’t been able to quite put it all together. Now 26 years old, Taylor isn’t yet too old to find success, but his days as a prospect are probably behind him. By now, after eight years in the farm system, the Brewers know what they have in Taylor, and he could, at best, serve as a backup outfielder.

Taylor is currently the sixth outfielder on the depth chart, behind Avisail Garcia and Ben Gamel for the reserve spots.

For being a second round pick, and vaulting up to Double-A as quickly as he did, Taylor should be a big league regular by now, but instead he’s fighting for a 40 man roster spot and will start the 2020 season, whenever it does start, in Triple-A.

5. Gilbert Lara

The Brewers gave young shortstop Gilbert Lara a $3.1MM signing bonus in July 2014, which is still to this day a record for the club. He was the 4th ranked international prospect for that signing period and the Brewers paid a heavy price to get him, and they were very excited about his bat.

He had 60 grade power as a 17 year old and while his defense was seen as a work in progress, his raw power and big size (6 foot 4) was plenty to dream on. He spent the first few seasons in rookie ball, and didn’t really have great numbers, hitting .240 with a .606 OPS and one home run in 2015 and then hitting .250 with a .613 OPS and two home runs in 2016.

It was finally time to send him up to Low-A Wisconsin in 2017 and continue his development. But he was not ready for full season ball, hitting just .193 with a .496 OPS and three home runs for the Timber Rattlers.

What was weird was that Lara’s bat was the reason the Brewers wanted to sign Lara, and his defense was considered subpar, but he actually was playing a good defensive shortstop and his bat was nowhere to be found. It had somehow switched on the Brewers.

In 2018, Lara returned to Low-A Wisconsin and did better, hitting .249 with five home runs and a .634 OPS, but it seemed clear at that point the Brewers would not be getting a good return on their investment at the big league level. In August 2018, the Brewers traded Lara to the Nationals in the Gio Gonzalez trade.

The Brewers probably paid Gio Gonzalez less money over the year-plus that he was a Brewer than they paid to get Gilbert Lara. But the Brewers certainly got more out of having Gio Gonzalez in their organization than they did with Lara.

Lara signed when he was 16, and is currently 22 years old, so there’s still a chance that he can turn into a solid big league player for the Nationals. In 2019, Lara hit 13 homers and made it up to High-A. There’s still time for him, but for the Brewers, the best thing they got out of signing him was trading him for Gio Gonzalez.

There are many more examples of Brewers prospects who never lived up to their hype or draft status. Just take a look at the Crew’s first round picks from 2009 through 2016 if you want to sadden yourself. There’s plenty of disappointing prospects to go around, and plenty of hype left unfulfilled.