It's a great time to be a part of the Milwaukee Brewers, as the big league club is right in the middle of their latest contention window and their farm system is getting more and more attention around the industry by the day.
The Brewers don't exactly have the shiniest farm system in the league, but they've been quietly churning out talent on both sides of the ball for a few years now. Some of the names in the high minors haven't quite made it to The Show just yet, but 2025 should be a big year for most of them.
A pair of promising young minor leaguers have been featured in the headlines more than others as of late. While neither of them are highly ranked in industry-wide prospect rankings, all the helium around them shouldn't be simply shrugged off.
Two Brewers minor leaguers are racking up the hype ahead of 2025
To start things off: Ernesto Martinez Jr. is back with the Brewers, as relayed by MLB.com's Adam McCalvy and independent journalist Francys Romero. The 6-foot-6 behemoth of a man has previously been a part of the Brewers' system since all the way back in 2017.
Martinez is a long and lanky player with some still-developing power and some wheels to go along with it. This past season, he played all 110 of his games in Double-A with the Biloxi Shuckers and quietly performed really well. Along the way, he recorded 30 doubles while hitting 13 home runs, driving in 62, going 20-for-25 in stolen base attempts and hitting .284 with an .832 OPS. Not too shabby.
With this performance in mind, it's easy to see why he was brought back. He'll be in big league camp come 2025 spring training, so he may not be that far off from his first look in the big leagues.
Martinez was ranked No. 45 in Reviewing the Brew's midseason top 50 prospect rankings back in August. His age is likely going to take most of the prospect shine away, but his talent on both sides of the ball appears to be legit.
Then there's Juan Baez, who landed in the No. 25 spot in Reviewing the Brew's latest ranking. The 19-year-old just wrapped up a highly encouraging stint in this year's Arizona Fall League all while being the seventh-youngest player in the event.
Baez stands at 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, so he's not a very big guy. He's shown little to no power since debuting in the Brewers' system back in 2022, but that didn't stop him from hitting two home runs (after hitting just one this past season) in only 22 games in the AFL. He also drove in 15 while sporting an impressive .877 OPS.
Since he's still so young and raw, this is a seriously encouraging showing from Baez. Not often do players of his age immediately show off the on-base skills that Baez has throughout his minor league and AFL performances. Again, he's many years away from the big leagues, but don't forget this player's name.