The Brewers might have already found their next great catching prospect

Up until last month's re-ranking, the Milwaukee Brewers' top prospect according to MLB Pipeline was catcher Jeferson Quero, a 22-year-old on the cusp of his big league debut. Quero's displacement atop the Brewers' best prospects list has less to do with his performance on the field and more to do with now-top prospect Jesús Made's impressive follow-up to his 2024 breakout season. In fact, little can currently be judged on Quero's development, as he only just returned to the field after missing the entire 2024 season and the first two months of the 2025 season to injury. Regardless, Quero is expected to debut either later this season or early next year, offering the Brewers a clear succession plan for William Contreras. It was less clear, however, who would replace Quero as the organization's top catching prospect — that is until Marco Dinges burst onto the scene.

The Brewers drafted Dinges in the fourth round of last year's MLB Draft after he spent one season with Florida State. Dinges had previously played for a JUCO, Tallahassee State College, during which time he spent 43 days in the hospital with a rare immune deficiency known as Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). As pointed out in an article published last summer by Peter Holland Jr. of the Tallahassee Democrat, "43" became Dinges' baseball number when he arrived at Florida State following his recovery.

Despite being a walk-on at Florida State, Dinges was the team's everyday DH and posted an impressive slash line of .323/.415/.583 with 15 HR in 64 games played. He walked more times than he struck out and collected more RBI than games he appeared in. His resilience and toughness on and off the field were more than enough to indicate that Dinges would find success at the next level, and wow has he ever found it.

Brewers catching prospect Marco Dinges doesn't skip a beat after promotion to High-A Wisconsin

Being a catcher in the minor leagues can sometimes lead to premature promotions — the position defensively is so specialized and in such high demand that when injuries occur, catching prospects can sometimes be asked to make a jump to a level that they aren't ready for. However, that wasn't the case with Dinges, who was more than ready for a promotion when he was called up to High-A Wisconsin late last month after Matthew Wood was promoted to Double-A to fill in for the injured Ramón Rodriguez.

Prior to his promotion, Dinges was hitting .353/.500/.576 with 12 extra-base hits in just 26 games for the talented Low-A Carolina Mudcats. Despite the Mudcats' roster consisting of names like Jesús Made, Luis Peña, and 2025 breakout prospect Josh Adamczewski, it was Dinges who led the team in OPS at the time of his promotion.

Now, through 16 games of High-A ball with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, Dinges is showing that his time in Carolina wasn't a fluke. Though he's not reaching base half of the time like he incredibly was with the Mudcats, he's still hitting for a .322 batting average, and has already slugged two home runs for the T-Rats. Additionally, despite uncertainty about his catching ability behind the plate after not making a start at catcher during his time at Florida State, Dinges is catching a majority of his games and has already thrown out 13 runners this year.

Though it is still early in the season, it appears the Brewers have once again struck gold with a mid-round pick, and this time it might have yielded them their successor to Jeferson Quero in the long-term catching plans. Keep an eye on Dinges' professional career as his will be a fun one to watch.