Brewers top prospect's latest award continues eerily similar path to Jackson Chourio

It's no secret that the Milwaukee Brewers have an incredible prospect in Jesús Made rising through the minor leagues at a rapid pace. After his breakout season in the Dominican Summer League (DSL) a season ago, Made followed up with a 2025 campaign that saw him compete at three different minor league levels. Starting the season with the Low-A Carolina Mudcats, Made was promoted to High-A, where he joined the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, at the beginning of August. Once the T-Rats' season wrapped up, Made was promoted to the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers for their final week of the regular season and lone postseason series.

Made put up respectable numbers at all three levels, but what really stood out was his month in the Fox Cities, during which the 18-year-old infielder dominated the High-A competition, posting a .915 OPS in 27 games as the youngest player at the level. Despite being neck-and-neck with fellow infield prospect Luis Peña during their time spent together in Carolina, when the two were promoted to High-A together, it was Made who took the next step and therefore earned the eventual promotion to Double-A.

For his impressive season, the first full professional season of his life, Made was named the Brewers' 2025 Robin Yount Performance Award winner, which is what the organization has begun calling their Minor League Player of the Year awards. As reported by MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, among other team insiders, Made and right-hander Tyson Hardin are this year's recipients of the coveted honor.

McCalvy also noted on the social media platform X, that Made is just the third player in franchise history to win multiple Minor League Player of the Year awards, joining Taylor Green, who earned the honor in both 2007 and 2011, and Jackson Chourio, who was deemed the organization's best minor leaguer in both 2022 and 2023. For Made, joining Chourio on another list continues what has been an eerily similar start to their careers.

Jesús Made continues to mirror Jackson Chourio's minor league career with second-consecutive Minor League Player of the Year award

Both signed as shortstops as part of the Brewers' international free agent class, Made and Chourio share plenty of similarities when it comes to their progression through Milwaukee's farm system. While Chourio never ended up starting a professional game at shortstop, as the Brewers quickly decided his defensive fate was in the outfield, he too burst onto the scene with a head-turning season in the DSL. Back in 2021, Chourio slashed .296/.386/.447 in the DSL, displaying the same impressive blend of power and speed that Made has shown off during his first two seasons in the organization.

Made's DSL season was actually more impressive in pretty much every way, but both players earned promotions to Low-A, skipping over the Arizona Complex League, following their debut seasons. In his second season, which coincides with Made's 2025 season, Chourio started the year with the Carolina Mudcats, was promoted to High-A for about one month of games, and then joined the Biloxi Shuckers for their final six games of the season.

Sound familiar? It's practically the exact same path that Made took this year.

Now, despite Chourio winning his second Minor League Player of the Year award in his third season and Made winning it in each of his first two seasons in the Brewers' organization, the comparisons continue as the two become the only players in franchise history to win the elusive honor in back-to-back seasons.

If the rest of Chourio's minor league career is any indication, which history tells us it will be, Made will remain in Biloxi for most of the 2026 season, with the potential for a late-season promotion to Triple-A if all goes well, and start knocking on MLB's door as early as next September. Assuming the Brewers exercise the same patience that they did with Chourio, they will hold off on Made's debut until the 2027 season. Obviously, that is assuming that everything goes according to plan and Made continues to demonstrate his preparedness for the next minor league level, but as of now, all signs point to Made continuing to follow Chourio's path through the minor leagues.

Following next season, should Made show an ability to hit Double-A pitching, as Chourio did back in 2023, it's not out of the question that he earns a similar contract extension to the one the Brewers gave Chourio back in December of 2023, which would put the team's current top prospect on track to make their Opening Day roster in 2027.

There's certainly a lot of time between now and then, and any number of things could happen. However, as fans continue to hold a cautious optimism that Made is the Brewers' next Chourio, the former continues to prove that he's exactly the player that the bullish prospect analyzers believe he is. Today's announcement of Made taking home his second consecutive Minor League Player of the Year honor is just the latest example of his similarities to Brewers' star outfielder.