Brewers’ prospects to train in Appleton
Best minor-leaguers added to player pool
There will be a large contingent of Milwaukee Brewers prospects taking part in workouts at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in the days and weeks to come.
The team announced Thursday that it had added 12 players to its 60-man player pool and transferred the group to its alternate training site in Appleton.
Shortstop Brice
Turang, the Brewers' top minor-leaguer according to the Journal
Sentinel, and outfielder Corey Ray headline the group, which eventually will be rounded out with players in summer camp who don't make the initial 30-man roster.
“The truth is, we don't know what that's going to look like once the season starts,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said Thursday, before the list was released.
“I think the likelihood is you'll see us add players who are both upper-level prospects who we think have the ability to contribute at the major-league level if they're needed, and I also think you'll see a handful of lower-level prospects who likely would not ever be considered for the major leagues at this point.”
Turang, Milwaukee's first-round pick in 2018, would fit into that second category along with catcher Mario Feliciano, outfielder Tristen Lutz and catcher
Thomas Dillard.
Pitchers added to the group who likely wouldn't have a chance to crack the majors this season would be right-handers Phil Bickford and Dylan File and left-handers Ethan Small, Antoine Kelly and Clayton Andrews.
Minor-leaguers who potentially could make their debuts this season would be left-hander Angel Perdomo, who was slated to participate in summer camp but is quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19, and right-hander Trey Supak.
Feliciano, Small, Andrews, Perdomo and Supak participated in their first major-league spring training before the pandemic halted play.
Turang, 20, is quite familiar with Appleton after spending the first part of last season there with Class A Wisconsin before being promoted to advanced Class A Carolina. In 129 total games, he hit .256 with three home runs and 37 runs batted in after logging a career-high 473 at-bats.
Feliciano (third), Lutz (sixth) and Ray (10th) are the other position players in the Sentinel's top 10 invited to camp. Ray, Milwaukee's first-round pick in 2016, is coming off an injury-marred 2019 but was previously on the 40-man roster and could add depth for the Brewers this season.
Small, the Brewers' first-round pick last season, is ranked second behind Turang on the Journal Sentinel list. He started five games for the Timber Rattlers last season after signing and posted a 1.00 earned run average with 31 strikeouts in 18 innings.
Among the group of pitchers, Supak appears to have the best shot at making his major-league debut this season after being named the Southern League's pitcher of the year at Class AA Biloxi before finishing at Class AAA San Antonio.
Perdomo turned heads with his performance in spring training, and the diminutive Andrews already has beaten the odds to get to this point.
Bickford had a great 2019 at Carolina to make himself relevant again, and the fireballing Kelly, taken after Small in the second round last year, is hugely intriguing as the team's fifth-ranked prospect.
Including outfielder Tyrone Taylor, the first player sent to Appleton late last month, 58 of the spots on the Brewers' 60-man player pool are filled.
Stearns was asked if first-round pick Garrett Mitchell, who signed his deal Wednesday, might land one of those final two slots.
“We're still working through that,” Stearns said. “I think Garrett's in the discussion, but we really haven't determined what that full group is going to look like. We're frankly probably not going to determine what that full group looks like for a while.
“We will announce some additional names that will get going up in Appleton; we're also likely to leave ourselves a little bit of space on that list and evaluate what happens as we go through the rest of camp.”
Getting Turang & Co. to Appleton will help make something out of what's otherwise been a lost season for minor-leaguers. Any extra at-bats, field time and coaching theyl receive will be a major plus.
But what happens to the roughly 250 or so other players in the organization who didn't make the cut? With the season canceled, their options to further their development have been limited.
“Minor-league players are allowed to explore independent league opportuniJournal ties,” Stearns said. “It has to be something that they propose, they explore. We are allowed to permit them to do that if they choose to. We're still unsure whether any of our players have interest and will find opportunities that they would like in indy ball at this point. That's one path.
“Our player development staff, our minor-league coaches, are in regular contact with the hundreds of minor-league players we have. They are all on an individualized training program. Some of them have better access to facilities than others, and that's the challenge that we have to work with.
“Some are able to basically simulate a season, and for pitchers, create a workload that would be representative of a minor-league season through throwing simulated games. Some don't really have that capacity. Some are forced to work out in their garage or their apartments or play catch in their backyards. We've done our best to individualize programs and development plans for each of our minorleague players.
“It's been a lot of work, but it's certainly something that we're going to continue to have to do here as this remote world continues.”