Brewers name Wiemer, Small Minor League Players of the Year

With the regular season coming to a close, and a full year of minor league evaluation under our belts – the NL Central champion Brewers were finally able to name their organizational players of the year.

There were several standouts after a year off from minor league play, however, the two players the Brewers selected, Joey Wiemer and Ethan Small, were undoubtedly the right choices.

Brewers Minor league hitter of the year: Joey Wiemer

Minor League Levels: A/A+

Stat line: .295/.403/.556 with 27 homers, 77 RBI, 86 runs, 63 BBs and 30 SBs in 109 Games

The Brewers minor league hitter of the year should come as no surprise, Joey Wiemer put on a show this season.

The former 4th round pick played the 2021 season with reckless abandon. He coupled his unconventional lumbering swing with good speed and an elite arm en route to a stock-rising campaign. Wiemer was one of just three players in the minor league this season to join 25-25 club. Narrowly missing a 30-30 season – which has only been done 4 times in the last decade (Kyle Tucker, Luis Robert, Joc Pederson, and George Springer) – pretty good company.

Wiemer certainly garnered the attention of both the Brewers organization, as well as the national pundits. I would argue that nobody in the Brewers organization saw their stock rise more than Wiemer this season, and for those reasons he was an easy selection for the Brewers minor league hitter of the year.

Brewers Minor league pitcher of the year: Ethan Small

Minor League Levels: AA/AAA

Stat line: 1.98 ERA with 92 K’s in  just 77 1/3 innings pitched

The Brewers 2019 1st round pick and MLB pipeline’s 5th ranked Brewers prospect Ethan Small brings home the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2021.

This is certainly an ideal outcome given the relative lack of success previous 1st round pitchers have turned in for Milwaukee – albeit under a different regime.

Simply put, Ethan Small was dominant across both levels this season. In Double-A Small held his opponents to a (.184) batting average and after his promotion to AAA he held those opponents to a (.216) batting average. Teams just couldn’t figure him out.

Although he registered just 17 starts on the year, Small showed upper management that they’ve got another good one waiting in the wings. We’ll see Ethan Small in Milwaukee next season, you can bet on that.

It was a banner season for both of these players, and down the stretch they left little doubt as to who should win the award.