The 5 best Brewers player development success stories in 2024

The Milwaukee Brewers do not carry a large payroll. They don't buy a lot of big time free agents. In order to succeed year after year, the Brewers have to rely heavily on their player development system.

Not only does that include the farm system and developing prospects to come up to the majors, but when those players get to the big leagues, being able to help them develop their game at the highest level. There's been a lot of that in 2024, the first year under manager Pat Murphy.

The success in developing these players has led directly to success on the field and is a large reason why the Brewers were able to repeat as NL Central champions.

The biggest successes in player development for the Crew this year were these five players.

1. Jackson Chourio

Is there any other way this list could have started? Jackson Chourio is by far the biggest player development success story for the Brewers not only this year, but going back several years.

Chourio has played the whole season as a 20 year old, coming in as a consensus top-2 prospect in all of baseball. He signed the largest contract ever for a player who had not yet made his MLB debut, inking an eight year, $82MM deal back in December. The hype was real, the pressure was real, and the talent was real.

Chourio has developed before our very eyes this season. He was really good the first week of the season, then he slumped through the rest of April and May. He struggled to adjust. But then the calendar flipped to June and Chourio flipped a switch. Ever since then, he's played at an incredibly high level, pushing himself to the forefront of the Rookie of the Year conversation.

The development of Chourio at the big league level at such a young age through all the struggles has led the Brewers to this moment. They don't clinch the NL Central without him. There were moments in May when some were calling for Chourio to be optioned down to Triple-A. The Brewers smartly resisted those calls. They successfully built up his confidence at this level and will reap the rewards for years to come.