No. 2 prospect Chourio, 3 more Brewers among top 50

MILWAUKEE -- Jackson Chourio has some new company in the top half of MLB Pipeline’s latest ranking of the Top 100 prospects in baseball.

Chourio, who inked a record-setting contract extension with the Brewers in December, held firm as baseball’s No. 2 overall prospect, ahead of right-hander Jacob Misiorowski (No. 33) and catcher Jeferson Quero (No. 36). Milwaukee’s biggest riser is infielder Tyler Black, who moved up five spots to No. 46 in the updated ranking, which was unveiled Friday night on MLB Network.

It’s not the most players the Brewers have had in the Top 100 -- they had a record-tying five last season before Sal Frelick graduated from prospect status -- but it is the first time the Crew has had four players ranked within the Top 50.

All four of the Brewers’ top prospects have a chance to shed that status as soon as this season, particularly Chourio by virtue of his talent and his eight-year, $82 million contract. The deal put him on the 40-man roster and positioned the 19-year-old as the frontrunner to be Milwaukee’s Opening Day center fielder.

Black has the next-clearest path to the roster, given that the Brewers remain unsettled at third base as of this week. Andruw Monasterio is essentially the incumbent, coming off a .678 OPS last season. Offseason pickup Oliver Dunn ranks 23rd among the Brewers’ Top 30 prospects and has a shot, but Milwaukee loves Black’s strike zone discipline and his ability to put the barrel of the bat to a baseball, and it was impressed by his work defensively last season. He finished with a .930 OPS between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville.

For Misiorowski and Quero, it might be a midseason callup. The Brewers will continue developing the 6-foot-7 Misiorowski as a starting pitcher after he struck out 110 batters in 71 1/3 innings from Single-A Carolina to Double-A Biloxi last year, but a callup to the bullpen is always possible for a top pitching prospect to gain his first Major League experience. And while Quero sits behind William Contreras, Eric Haase and non-roster invitee Austin Nola on the depth chart, he’s held his own at every level, including as a 20-year-old in Double-A last year.

How the Top 100 is determined

The MLB Pipeline team compiles the rankings using input from industry sources, including scouts, scouting directors and other evaluators. The rankings are an aggregate analysis, taking the players’ skill set, upside, proximity to the Majors and potential immediate impact to their teams into account.

The list only includes players with rookie status in 2024, meaning players who debuted in ’23 but did not accumulate the service time (45 days on the active roster), at-bats (130) or innings pitched (50) to graduate are eligible again this year. First-year players who fall outside of the international pool money rules laid out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement -- that is, who are at least 23 years old and played in international leagues deemed professional -- are not eligible. That excludes some older rookies debuting after careers in places like Japan, Korea and Cuba, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto.