Brewers: Ranking The Crew’s Top 3 September Call Up Candidates

We’re just a few days away from September (hard to believe, isn’t it?) and the active rosters expanding for the final month of the regular season. The Brewers will get two extra roster spots. Most likely it’ll be one position player and one pitcher. Who are the top candidates?

By far the most intriguing decision for the September roster expansion for the Brewers will be on the position player side. The bullpen has been fluid all year and that extra spot could change over the course of the month, but the position player group likely won’t.

The Brewers offense could use an extra sparkplug and there are a number of prospect candidates down in Triple-A.

Let’s rank the top three position player options for the Brewers to call up for the September roster expansion.

Brewers September Call Up Candidate #3: OF Sal Frelick

It’s been a quick rise for 2021 first round pick Sal Frelick. The Boston College product started the season in High-A Wisconsin and has already risen to Triple-A Nashville. With Nashville, Frelick is knocking the cover off the ball, hitting a stellar .446/.520/.554 with 29 hits in just 17 games.

The majority of his games in Triple-A have been multi-hit performances and that slash line is just unreal. He’s drawn nine walks and struck out just six times. His 1.074 OPS in Triple-A is massively impressive given how he’s in his first full season in pro ball.

However, he’s still young and it is early in his career for the Brewers to call him up to the big league roster. That’s not to say he wouldn’t be deserving of the call, but there is more at play here than just the numbers in an impressive, but still small sample size.

When it comes to service time and Super Two eligibility, keeping Frelick down until the beginning of next year might make more sense in the long run for Milwaukee. They can put him on the Opening Day roster next year if he earns the job and if he performs well enough to earn some award votes, such as Rookie of the Year, the Brewers could even get a draft pick out of that as well. If he loses eligibility by coming up late this year, then the Brewers wouldn’t get that.

There’s still a good chance that even if Frelick does get the call this September, he would retain enough eligibility to count as a prospect on next year’s Opening Day roster and still get that draft pick. But it’s something to consider.

Given how he started the year in High-A, only has a limited sample in Triple-A, and isn’t on the 40 man roster currently, I’m putting Frelick as the No. 3 candidate for the call up.

Ranking the Brewers top 3 September call up prospect candidates

Brewers September Call Up Candidate #2: OF Esteury Ruiz

The Josh Hader trade presented an inflection point in the Brewers season. They traded away a beloved All Star closer, and received only one big league contributor in return at the moment. It should’ve been two, but I digress. They also received two prospects, one of whom is Esteury Ruiz.

Ruiz was the only position player the Brewers added to their organization at the Trade Deadline. He has dominated Triple-A this season and previously earned a call up with the Padres, so he has some big league experience, although just a handful of at-bats.

He is fast, he has been an on-base machine, a stolen base machine, and could provide a massive spark atop the lineup. Since joining the Brewers organization, Ruiz is hitting .304 with a .381 OBP, and 17 hits in 15 games.

There are two things working in Ruiz’s favor for a September call up, the first is that he was a key piece in the Josh Hader trade. Getting production from him on the big league club could help the clubhouse understand the trade better and get them back to normal. Secondly, Ruiz is already on the 40 man roster.

Unlike Frelick, the Brewers would not need to clear a 40 man roster spot to add Ruiz to the active roster when it expands in September. That makes it much easier to choose Ruiz and see what he can do in this lineup while giving Frelick a bit more time in the minors. Ruiz has been in the upper level all season and already has some big league time.

Because of the way in which he was acquired and the fact he’s already on the 40 man, Ruiz gets ranked as a much more likely candidate to earn that September call up than Frelick.

He was incredibly close to getting the top spot on this list, and I debated making him and this next prospect 1a and 1b.