The Milwaukee Brewers have graduated a number of quality hitting prospects in recent seasons, with the likes of Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, and Brice Turang emerging as bona fide big leaguers. Most notable among the arrivals is, of course, Jackson Chourio, who debuted this past spring just weeks after celebrating his 20th birthday. The sweet-swinging wunderkind wasted little time in establishing himself as one of the game’s brightest young stars.
More talent is on the way. Milwaukee’s pipeline is rife with promising young bats, one of whom possesses the raw talent to potentially follow in Chourio’s footsteps. Jesus Made not only put up a 169 wRC+ in the Dominican Summer League, the 17-year-old switch-hitting shortstop logged impressive contact rates, chase rates, and exit velocities. With barely over 200 professional at-bats under his belt, he is already a Top 100 prospect (his exact placement on our list is yet to be determined).
Brenton Del Chiaro has been front and center in the development of Chourio, Made, and others within the Brewers system. Recently promoted to assistant director of player development, the 45-year-old former catcher has been Milwaukee’s minor league hitting coordinator since December 2021. Prior to that, he served as an assistant hitting coordinator, and as a hitting coach in the Arizona Complex League.
In the latest installment of our Talks Hitting series, Del Chiaro discusses several of the system’s top prospects, as well as the philosophies that the hitting department adheres to.
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David Laurila: How will your role change with the new title?
Brenton Del Chiaro: “Actually, not very much. It’s just a little bit of additional responsibility. I will continue overseeing hitting while also interacting with our full-season managers. I’m also going to have some lower-level roster responsibilities. So, still day to day with the hitting, but now interacting and overseeing our managers at the full-season affiliates and having some input on lower-level roster construction and playing time grids.”
Laurila: You’ve been a hitting coach for affiliates at different levels, including in the Los Angeles Angels organization. How does assessing hitters as a coordinator differ?
Del Chiaro: “The simple answer is that it’s a zoomed-out perspective. As a hitting coordinator, you’re thinking about the group as a whole, and obviously our prospects. You’re thinking about what’s best for the department. How do we push progress forward? How do we expedite development?
“At an affiliate, you have the initiatives that have been created, and you’re more in the trenches. You’re face to face with the players, so you have a better read on how they tick, how they learn, how they operate, how they communicate. You’re getting to know them on a more personal level. I want to believe that I’ve got great relationships with most of our players, but I’m not going to have those close relationships that our staff members have. So, global view is the simple answer, versus the zoomed-in view.”
Laurila: What is the difference in the assessments themselves?
Del Chairo: “It’s going to be more of a data-informed assessment [as a coordinator]. One of the things that I always try to keep perspective on is how the sample size is small. I’m typically at an affiliate for four to six days, two to three times a year. For me to make a hard judgment on a player, or a final decision or assessment on a player, could be detrimental to their development. I lean into communication with the coaches, communication with that player, but more so with what the data is presenting. What is their trajectory like from a player developmental goal standpoint?”
Laurila: What data are most important to you?
Del Chiaro: “There a number of things. Contact rates, mostly in-zone contact rates. What are the chase rates? Are they making good swing decisions? Are they able to impact the baseball? How are they faring with their projections throughout the course of the year? But yes, contact and chase rates — are we putting the ball in play? Are we putting the ball in play in the air? Those are the kind of things I’m focused in on.”
Laurila: You can see that data without actually seeing the players, so what are you paying attention to while you’re at an affiliate?
Del Chiaro: “When I’m there, it’s kind of, ‘What are we doing from a swing path perspective? What is the groundball rate?’ I’ll be looking at video as I prep to go into an affiliate, so when I’m there it might be, ‘What is causing some of these potential inefficiencies in the swing? Is it timing? Is it a breakdown in swing decisions? Is it an actual technical issue?’ It can be a whole slew of things, so I try to have the whole picture before I go in. Obviously, I make sure that I’ve got constant communication with our hitting coaches.
“One of the players that we had a lot of conversations about this year — you’re probably going ask about him — is [2023 first round pick] Brock Wilken. One of the things I had to to keep in mind with Brock is that it was his first full season and he was navigating Double-A at 22 years old. Plus, he had a catastrophic accident; he got hit in the face by a 95-mph fastball. And something that most people don’t know is that his first child was born this year. This is a 22-year-old dealing with Double-A while mentally getting over the hurdle of coming back from a severe injury while his life has changed; he is now responsible for a child. That’s a lot to deal with. For me to come in and say, ‘Well, your swing kind of needs some improvement here or there’… it’s like, ok, let’s step back and make sure we have all the information before just jumping into what might be wrong with the player physically.”
Laurila: I had been planning to ask about Wilken, and also about the hitters you took in the second and third rounds last year. Outside of one being drafted out of college and the other out of high school, how do Mike Boeve and Eric Bitonti compare?
Del Chiaro: “You’re talking about two different types of hitters. Mike is a precision, contact-oriented hitter who is very in tune to the mental approach of the game. He is in tune with his game planning and how he is being pitched. He is a very cerebral hitter, whereas Eric has all of the physical traits that you would desire in a hitter. He passes the eye test. He is 6-foot-4, 230-plus pounds as an 18-year-old. He is a massive human being with elite bat speed. His damage profile is off the charts for a high school hitter. There is more swing-and-miss than a Mike Boeve. As a young player, he is learning the way he moves, learning how his body reacts to certain pitch types. His learning curve is going to be bigger than Mike’s.
“One of the lines that we use quite a bit in our department is, ‘Learn your learners.’ Some of the high school kids are used to being told what to do. Things are dictated to them, so their ability to think for themselves and understand what’s best for them is more limited than what a college hitter may have been exposed to. Our college hitters, like Mike and Brock, tend to have a better idea of what they want to do, so our development approach for them is a little more targeted. The funnel is a little wider for high school kids.”
Laurila: Is Sal Frelick a good comp for Boeve as a hitter?
Del Chiaro: “From a contact-rate standpoint, yes. But Sal prides himself on being able to put the bat on the ball regardless of where it is, in zone or out of zone. For him, it’s, ‘I’m not going to strike out.’ Mike is more like, ‘I’m not swinging out of the zone.’ That is something that is very impressive about him. What impressed me the most this year about Mike was the approach to his in-game approach. What I mean by that is, he would go into the game having the information from our advance reports, with a certain approach of how he was going to attack this pitcher. Then, after the first at-bat, he would come back and write down in his notebook all the pitches he saw, where they were, and the sequence of those pitches. He would then either maintain his approach in the next AB, or he would alter it. He showed an extreme, advanced level of hitting approach.”
Laurila: Let’s jump to the top prospect in the organization. What make Jesus Made as good as he is at such a young age?
Del Chiaro: “The physical presence is number one. I had the privilege of being next to him [in mid-November in the Dominican Republic] and compared to a year ago, he’s gotten taller and filled out more. The presence and the physical maturity that he possesses for a 17-year-old is astonishing. He is much more physically mature than Jackson Chourio was at that age.
“The intent Jesus has swinging the bat, the focus he has when swinging the bat, the pride he takes in swinging the bat, is impressive. There isn’t much that he’s afraid of when he steps into the box. There isn’t a certain pitch type that gives him problems. There isn’t velocity that gives him issues. He is there with the intent to do damage on every swing. It’s really exciting to see what he does, and from both sides of the plate.”
Laurila: Physical maturity aside, how does he compare to Chourio at the same age?
Del Chiaro: “His ability to impact the baseball. Jackson tapped into the damage a little bit later, like two or three years. We’re talking about a kid that is pushing a 104 [mph] exit velo. You just don’t see that very often at his age. The other comparison is that he makes a little bit more contact than Jackson did at this age. Jackson had a little bit more chase. Jackson had an aggressive approach, which is something that we love as hitting coaches. We’d rather have someone that you’ve got to pull the reins back on than push to get going. Jackson was like, ‘I’m going to go get it; if it’s anywhere near the zone, I’m swinging.’ Jesus has a little more of a refined approach, less chase out of the zone. He makes the swing decisions count. That’s probably the main difference between the two at this age.”
Laurila: Is there anything in particular that he needs to work on, or does he mostly just need to continue to get better?
Del Chiaro: “Right now, we’re just going to let it take its course. If I had to be picky, I guess it would be, can he get the ball off the ground a little bit more? Ultimately, it’s just understanding pitches that he can handle a little bit better, zones that he can handle a little bit better, understanding how he’s being pitched. That’s just going to come with maturity and experience, accruing more plate appearances.”
Laurila: Luis Pena is only a few months older, and he actually put up better numbers in the DSL than Made. How does he profile?
Del Chiaro: “This is another physically mature player. He just turned 18 years old, and having been around him recently in the Dominican, what’s astonishing to me is that he only hit one home run this year. He doesn’t hit the ball as hard as Jesus. Jesus, from a technical standpoint, has got a little bit of a forward move in the center mass right now; there is a little bit of a drift forward. Luis is centered. He’s balanced. He gets an aggressive swing off in the zone, for the most part. I think what probably hindered him a little bit is the chase. This is a young hitter who is excitable, who is probably trying to keep up with what Made is doing and kind of force the issue a little bit more. But there are a lot of positive ingredients coming out of Luis Pena.”
Laurila: Cooper Pratt is emerging as a notable prospect…
Del Chiaro: “The steal of the draft. You can put my name on that. He’s a kid who [won the minor league Gold Glove at shortstop]. He played at three different levels and was co-Minor League Player of the Year for us [along with Made]. It’s really hard to find a hole in Cooper’s game. Coop is a baseball player through and through. For us to get him in the sixth round… again, he’s the steal the draft. We’re absolutely excited to have him the organization. As he gets stronger, he’s going to impact the baseball a lot more, but it’s really hard to find holes in Cooper’s game right now at such a young age [20 years old].”
Laurila: What can you tell me about this year’s first round pick?
Del Chiaro: “Braylon Payne, high school outfielder from Texas. Wow, what an athlete. Braylon comes in at 6-foot-2 and almost 200 pounds. High bat-to-ball skills. He can put the ball on the ground and run. Elite speed. For a left-handed hitter that has that ability, it will be really exciting to see what he can do when he figures his body out, how he moves.
“I think the biggest developmental path for Braylon moving forward is patience, understanding who he is as a hitter. One of the things that was undersold was how hard he hits the baseball. He finished the year with an exit velo of 103 mph, but he hit two or three homers in Instructional League, and we’re talking like 111 exit velos. So, he’s got more in there than what we were told. His physicality, his bat speed, his ability to put the ball in play… for a high school kid, it’s really impressive. We’re excited about the raw tools.”
Laurila: Any final thoughts, either on specific prospects or on organizational hitting philosophies?
Del Chiaro: “Philosophically, we pride ourselves on the ability to co-design with our athletes. Our hitters have a say in their development. We’re not dictating to them what they need to do. We come to them with suggestions that are evidenced-based and backed by data, but ultimately we’re not going to force our players to do something they don’t want to do. As an organization and a department, we’re data-informed, but we’re not data-driven.
“Our players understand the buckets they’re placed in, but we give them a menu of options for how they’re going to go about their training. We’ve found that that approach has led to a high success rate in hitting development. It has opened a line of communication with the players to where they feel they have a seat at the table. They have a say.
“If you come into the organization and you’re a unique mover, and all of a sudden we say, ‘You can’t do that,’ and we take that away from you and it doesn’t work, then we better be able to bring it back. If we can’t bring it back, then we’ve set ourselves up for failure. So it’s ‘You be you.’ Move the way you want to move, and if the pitching tells us we need to make adjustments, we’ll make the adjustments. But until that happens, we’re going to continue to let you move the way you move. ‘You be you’ is something that we implement, and talk about daily.”
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Earlier “Talks Hitting” interviews can found through these links: Jo Adell, Jeff Albert, Greg Allen, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Bates, Jacob Berry, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Justice Bigbie, Cavan Biggio, Charlie Blackmon, JJ Bleday, Bobby Bradley, Will Brennan, Jay Bruce, Triston Casas, Matt Chapman, Michael Chavis, Garrett Cooper, Gavin Cross, Jacob Cruz, Nelson Cruz, Paul DeJong, Josh Donaldson, Brendan Donovan, Donnie Ecker, Rick Eckstein, Drew Ferguson, Justin Foscue, Michael Fransoso, Ryan Fuller, Joey Gallo, Paul Goldschmidt, Devlin Granberg, Gino Groover, Matt Hague, Andy Haines, Mitch Haniger, Robert Hassell III, Austin Hays, Nico Hoerner, Jackson Holliday, Spencer Horwitz, Rhys Hoskins, Eric Hosmer, Jacob Hurtubise, Tim Hyers, Connor Joe, Jace Jung, Josh Jung, Jimmy Kerr, Heston Kjerstad, Steven Kwan, Trevor Larnach, Doug Latta, Royce Lewis, Evan Longoria, Joey Loperfido, Michael Lorenzen, Mark Loretta, Gavin Lux, Dave Magadan, Trey Mancini, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Marcelo Mayer, Hunter Mense, Owen Miller, Colson Montgomery, Tre’ Morgan, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Daniel Murphy, Lars Nootbaar, Logan O’Hoppe, Vinnie Pasquantino, Graham Pauley, David Peralta, Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Brent Rooker, Thomas Saggese, Anthony Santander, Drew Saylor, Nolan Schanuel, Marcus Semien, Giancarlo Stanton, Spencer Steer, Trevor Story, Fernando Tatis Jr., Spencer Torkelson, Mark Trumbo, Brice Turang, Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Josh VanMeter, Robert Van Scoyoc, Chris Valaika, Zac Veen, Alex Verdugo, Mark Vientos, Matt Vierling, Luke Voit, Anthony Volpe, Joey Votto, Christian Walker, Jared Walsh, Jordan Westburg, Jesse Winker, Bobby Witt Jr. Mike Yastrzemski, Nick Yorke, Kevin Youkilis
