Sustained playoff contention can take a toll on organizational depth for midmarket teams. That has been the case over the last few years for the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Crew have reached the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, which is a franchise record. That stretch was close to being a five-year streak had the team not fallen just short of making the postseason back in 2017.
To do that, the Brewers had to bring in external talent. And since they aren’t a team that can afford to just pay for a sudden influx of talent, they have often had to “pay” for those players by giving up prospects from the farm system.
From the mega trade for Christian Yelich back in 2018 to various offseason and midseason trades that have taken place since, Milwaukee has given up a ton of prospects in recent years. The result has been a farm system that has generally ranked toward the bottom of the league.
Well, things are finally starting to look up for the team’s prospect depth once again. In MLB Pipeline’s midseason organizational rankings, the Brewers ended up putting much more distance between themselves and the cellar.
In their midseason re-rank, MLB Pipeline finally moves the Brewers farm system back into their Top 20.
MLB Pipeline ranked the Milwaukee Brewers farm system as the 25th best system out of 30 before the 2022 season began. Now, they view it as the 19th best system in all of Major League Baseball.
Having one of the single best minor league players around in Jackson Chourio certainly helps. The 2021 international signee has burst on to the scene with strong performances at the Arizona Complex, Low-A Carolina, and High-A Wisconsin on his way to being named Pipeline’s 11th best prospect in baseball.
He is not the only highly regarded Milwaukee Brewers prospect by MLB Pipeline, however. Their top 100 MLB prospects list also includes 2021 first round pick Sal Frelick (No. 49) and 2020 4th round pick Joey Wiemer (No. 89).
Speaking of draft picks, recent drafts have helped rapidly restock the Brewers system and improve their organizational ranking. Their top 30 prospects list according to MLB Pipeline includes three draftees from 2020, five from 2021, and five from the 2022 draft that took place just last month.
International signees have been good to the Brewers recently as well. With Chourio leading the way, 11 of the team’s top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline were international signings of Milwaukee.
MLB readiness often plays a part in these rankings too and there you also see the Brewers in a good spot. According to Pipeline’s projections, 11 of the team’s top prospects have either broken through to the majors or are expected to do so by next year.
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Who knows whether prospect graduations or future trades end up bringing the Brewers’ organizational ranking back down over the next year. For now, it’s nice to see the farm looking a bit stronger once again.