Brewers: 3 Untouchable Prospects At The 2021 Trade Deadline

Brewers Untouchable Prospect #2: OF Hedbert Perez

One of the most exciting international prospects the Brewers have signed in a long time, Hedbert Perez has been making noise ever since the Brewers got him in 2019. He didn’t get to play in any official games until this year, due to the minor league cancellations last year, but that hasn’t stopped Hedbert.

Despite being just 17 years old last year, the Brewers invited Perez to the Alternate Training Site in Appleton and he actually performed extremely well despite facing advanced pitchers that were either close to the big leagues or had big league experience.

Perez has a smooth left-handed swing and just absolutely rakes, hitting for both average and power. He has good speed and is a strong defender. He has all the ingredients to be a five-tool outfielder in the future.

That’s not someone you just willingly trade away, even if he his a few years away from the big leagues.

Perez is one of the best young prospects in baseball, even if the popular lists don’t have him in their Top 100s yet. The Brewers know what kind of talent they have and they should not and likely are not going to be willing to part with him.

Milwaukee liked him enough to include him in spring training as well, bringing him over for a few Cactus League games, getting him some ABs against big league caliber pitching, including a chance to face Trevor Bauer.

Perez is currently in the Arizona rookie league, and so far he’s hitting .385 with a 1.061 OPS. It’s a relatively small sample size but he’s finally putting some official numbers up to back up the scouting reports we’ve read on him the past two years.

This is someone to hold on to.

Brewers Untouchable Prospect #3: LHP Ethan Small

The Brewers have a group of three left-handed pitching prospects all clustered in the Top 10 of the Crew’s prospects list: Ethan Small, Aaron Ashby, and Antoine Kelly. All three are exciting prospects in different ways and there’s plenty of reason to keep all three.

But as for which one should be untouchable, that decision is difficult. All three of them very well could be. If the Brewers had to choose just one to make untouchable, Small might have the best case for that status.

To this point in the minor leagues, Small has a 1.52 ERA in 18 starts. He didn’t have that many outings in 2019 and then no season last year has cut down his total number, but he’s dominated when he’s out there and the lack of a season in 2020 certainly hasn’t impacted his performance to this point.

Small is a little behind Aaron Ashby as he was drafted a year later and Ashby already made his big league debut, albeit a forgettable one. But Small has a very high floor and a high ceiling in the starting rotation, while Ashby still has a little more variance, but is in all likelihood a starter going forward.

Small, being the Crew’s first round selection in 2019, might lead the Brewers to hold onto him a little more closely than Ashby, who was a fourth rounder. But if you just take a straight look at the stuff they have and what they bring to the organizations as pitchers today, neither one really stands out as someone they should be willing to give up.

In 2022, there will be a rotation spot open with Brett Anderson‘s pending free agent departure. Small, Ashby, and Eric Lauer will be competing for that spot. Who gets that spot may determine who ends up being available, if any of that group, at the 2022 deadline. For now, however, keeping Small and those guys in the organization is imperative.

The Brewers will want to keep their first round selections, which is why Small and Mitchell are on this list. Perez has earned his spot as well as a top international signee, and he’s the crown jewel of the Crew’s recent investments into the international market.