Jesús Made's resounding walk-off keeps Brewers hype train rolling early in 2025

It has been a good week for Brewers mega-prospect Jesús Made.

It is worth a reminder that Made is still a week away from his 18th birthday, a milestone which he'll hit on May 8th. He opened this season as the youngest player in the Class-A Carolina League, his first professional action in the United States. To say things are going well would be an understatement.

Made is hitting .320/.407/.507, almost equal to the numbers he posted last season in the notoriously pitcher-weak Dominican Summer League. In the last week, Made has kicked things into another gear, carrying the offense for the Carolina Mudcats, the Brewers' Low-A affiliate.

It started on Sunday, when in a matchup with the Columbia Fireflies, Made went 2-for-5 and blasted a grand slam in the midst of a wild fourth inning in which both teams scored eight runs apiece.

Made collected two more hits on Sunday, then after Monday's off-day, he had a four-hit game on Tuesday against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, an effort that included another homer and an RBI single; the only out he made in that game was a groundout that knocked in a run, and he also scored three times. Finally, he put an exclamation point on this four-game run with another two-hit night on Wednesday, which included a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning.

In these four impressive games, Made went 10-for-20 with six runs scored, two homers, nine RBIs, and two stolen bases (without getting caught). He's not getting cheapies, either: Brewers Player Development's X account noted that of his last 19 hits, 10 of them have left that bat with an exit velocity over 100 MPH.

Comparisons to a star

Though people around the Brewers organization hesitate to put any unwanted pressure on Made, there are clear parallels with the Brewers' current major-league phenom, Jackson Chourio. Both were international free agent signings who tore up the Dominican Summer League when they were 17. Both started their age-18 season at Class-A Carolina, and Made's current numbers compare nicely with Chourio's: in 62 games there in 2022, Chourio hit .324/.373/.600 with 12 homers and 10 stolen bases. Made may not hit those power numbers, but he's a more patient hitter (remember his .407 OBP at the moment), and he's already got eight stolen bases in nine attempts.

The top prospect-ranking sites already have Made in their top 100. Coming into this season, he was ranked 17th by Baseball America, 56th by MLB Pipeline, and 35th by Baseball Prospectus. If Made keeps up what he's been doing so far this season, we're likely to see what we saw with Chourio after his 2022 season, when he jumped to the top ten of all three lists, with a ranking as high as #3 (at Baseball America).

It will be interesting to see if the Brewers keep Made on the same track as Chourio if he continues to excel at Low-A Carolina. In 2022, Chourio was promoted to High-A Wisconsin in late July and played 31 games there before getting promoted a second time to Double-A Biloxi for the last week or so of the minor league season. Brewer fans in central Wisconsin should keep an eye out: if things go as hoped, they should get a chance to see Made up close sometime later this summer.