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The Milwaukee Brewers announced a list of nine prospects who are invited to the team’s spring training as non-roster invitees. The group is headlined by shortstop Jesús Made, who ranks as the team’s No. 1 prospect and as a consistent top five MLB prospect across expert rankings.

🚨 Jesús Made in big league camp 🚨

The Brewers have added these prospects to the list of Spring Training non-roster invitees:

INF Luke Adams
LHP Tate Kuehner
OF Luis Lara
INF Jesús Made
INF Cooper Pratt
C Ramón Rodríguez
3B Brock Wilken
INF/OF Jett Williams
C Matt Wood

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) January 27, 2026

Plenty has been said about Made on this site, so I’ll direct you to the latest article from Adam, our minor league reporter. The same can be said about shortstop Cooper Pratt and utilityman Jett Williams, who are also consistently in the top 100 prospects. You can read more about them here.

The other six prospects included in the non-roster invitees are 1B/3B Luke Adams (team No. 10 prospect in 2025), LHP Tate Kuehner, OF Luis Lara (team No. 14), C Ramón Rodríguez, 3B Brock Wilken (team No. 19), and C Matt Wood.

While Adams, Lara, and Wilken all rank among the team’s top prospects, Rodríguez and Wood are arguably the most interesting names of that group, as the team’s catching depth is close to zero beyond William Contreras. After Danny Jansen left for Texas in free agency and Eric Haase agreed to a minor league deal with the Giants earlier this month, it seems all but certain that the team’s backup option behind Contreras is Jeferson Quero, who is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster.

After Quero, though, Rodríguez and Wood seem to be the next two men up. Rodríguez, 27, was a 30th-round pick by the Dodgers all the way back in 2016. He’s bounced around in minor league free agency since then, appearing in the Orioles’ system for a few seasons before signing with Milwaukee in late 2023. He spent 2025 with Double-A Biloxi, hitting .359/.457/.484 with two homers, 19 RBIs, and eight runs scored across just 21 games.

Wood, who turns 25 in March, was a fourth-round pick by Milwaukee in 2022. He split the 2025 season between High-A Wisconsin and Biloxi, hitting .256/.372/.380 with seven homers, 43 RBIs, 41 runs, and 10 steals over 89 games between the two levels.

Just to quickly touch on the other players included here:

Adams, who turns 22 in April, was a 12th-round pick in 2022 and spent most of 2025 at Biloxi. In 64 games with the Shuckers, he hit .232/.409/.450 with 11 homers, 38 RBIs, 50 runs, and 10 steals.

Kuehner, who turns 25 in February, was Milwaukee’s seventh-round pick in 2023 out of Louisville. He turned in a great season at Biloxi, pitching to a 2.50 ERA with 112 strikeouts across 100 2/3 innings. He was promoted to Triple-A Nashville late in the year and didn’t have much success with the Sounds, with a 5.59 ERA and five strikeouts over 9 2/3 innings before an injury ended his season in late August.

Lara, 21, was an international signee out of Venezuela in 2022. He spent all of 2025 at Biloxi, hitting .257/.369/.343 with a pair of homers, 40 RBIs, 79 runs, and 44 steals. While he doesn’t bring a ton to the plate, he’s one of the best defensive players in Milwaukee’s system, with a 60 FV grade (on the 20-80 scale) for both his arm and his fielding.

Wilken, 23, was Milwaukee’s first-round choice in 2023 out of Wake Forest. He spent the 2025 season with Biloxi, hitting .226/.387/.489 with 18 homers, 46 RBIs, 46 runs, and a pair of steals across 79 games as he dealt with some injury troubles.

The pre-2026 prospect rankings lists continue to swoon over Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo.

In ESPN’s top 100 list published today, Kiley McDaniel ranks Basallo as MLB’s #4 prospect, behind only the consensus top three in baseball, Konnor Griffin (Pirates), Kevin McGonigle (Tigers), and Jesús Made (Brewers). ESPN’s ranking is the highest that Basallo has received among the prospect publications thus far, though he’s been a top 10 guy for all of them. MLB Pipeline and The Athletic both ranked Basallo at #8 and Baseball America #9.

Basallo is one of three Orioles prospects to appear on ESPN’s list, along with Trey Gibson (#46) and Dylan Beavers (#57).

McDaniel praises Basallo’s “huge bat speed and raw power” and writes that the youngster reminds him of “some Salvador Perez, a bit of Gary Sánchez, maybe a sprinkling of (whispers) Jim Thome.” I think any Oriole fan would be happy if Basallo’s career follows the path of Perez, who has 303 homers in 14 seasons and is still going strong for the Royals. And if Basallo hits anything like the Hall of Famer Thome, well…look out, baseball.

McDaniel is also more bullish on Basallo’s defense than some, calling his work behind the plate “acceptable.” (Yes, that qualifies as bullish.)

In terms of blocking and framing, Basallo is below average but respectable and is capable of improving a bit more. His arm is a true weapon, even though his exchange keeps his pop time from landing in plus-plus territory. In an automatic strike-calling future, this skill set could fit well.

As for the Orioles’ other prospects, ESPN joins Baseball America and MLB Pipeline in putting Beavers on its list. (The Athletic excluded him.) McDaniel touts Beavers as “likely a solid every-day right fielder in the big leagues,” predicting him for “an above-average on-base percentage” along with 15-20 home runs and stolen bases.

The biggest surprise on ESPN’s list was Gibson, the 23-year-old undrafted free agent who reached Triple-A in 2025 in his third season in the organization. McDaniel isn’t the only prospect writer who’s high on Gibson — BA also included him, at #72 — but he’s the only one to include him in his top 50 and rank him ahead of Beavers.

McDaniel calls Gibson a “supinator” — a pitcher who has a bias toward cutting the ball — and compares Gibson to current Orioles ace Kyle Bradish, former Orioles ace Corbin Burnes, and former O’s draft pick Nolan McLean, now ranked as the #13 prospect in baseball for the Mets. McDaniel is impressed by Gibson’s assortment of pitches, with a fastball that can hit 98 mph “backed up by three standout breaking balls and headlined by a plus curveball.” He pegs Gibson as a future MLB contributor in some capacity.

Gibson has massive, 7-foot extension and his higher arm slot means he works primarily with a riding four-seamer and vertical curveball versus McLean’s running two-seamer and sweeper, but the general shapes are quite similar. There’s a high floor for this type of arm — Gibson is almost a slam dunk to be a later-inning reliever if starting doesn’t work — but there’s also No. 2/No. 3 starter upside with one more tick of command refinement.

Unlike the three other publications, ESPN’s list doesn’t include High-A outfielder Nate George among the top 100 prospects.

A complete list of which Orioles are ranked on each prospect list so far, with publications such as FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus still to come:

• Baseball America: Basallo (#9), Beavers (#21), Gibson (#72), George (#86), Luis De León (#95)
• MLB Pipeline: Basallo (#8), Beavers (#69), George (#93)
• The Athletic: Basallo (#8), Wehiwa Aloy (#73), George (#78), Ike Irish (#85), Enrique Bradfield Jr. (#97)
• ESPN: Basallo (#4), Gibson (#46), Beavers (#57)

Jose Franco has been within the Cincinnati Reds farm system since way back in 2019, and in that seven-year stretch has seen plenty. After a strong 57.1 IP debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2019, he – like every one else – lost the 2020 season, and by the time 2021 rolled around he’d been brought stateside to take on A-ball batters with the Daytona Tortugas at just 19 years of age.

It didn’t go very well.

He trudged through two seasons in the Florida State League with some tough results only to then lose the entire 2023 season to Tommy John surgery. By the time he got back on the mound in 2024, though, something began to click for the then 23 year old, and he’s been on the rise up the system rankings ever since – and now finds himself on the 40-man roster.

Last year saw him pitch to a 3.11 ERA and 1.26 WHIP across 110.0 IP split between AA Chattanooga and AAA Louisville, his fastball flirting with 100 mph with great deception as he fanned over a batter an inning. While his secondary pitches are still a work in progress, it’s that heater that has him on the cusp of the big leagues, where he already looks like he’d be a solid reliever even if those secondary pitches never round into form.

If they do, though, suddenly the Reds have a 260 lb righty who can beef up their rotation options in a hurry.

Franco lands on this year’s Community Prospect Rankings in spot #11, which he rightly claimed with nearly 32% of the vote on a crowded (and talented) ballot. I’d add the photo of the voting totals here, but it somehow did not save properly before I cleared out the Google Form, so it’s lost to history unless you’re willing to simply take my word for it.

There’s no doubt veteran Harrison Bader improves the Giants outfield defensively. He’s got the flair, the hair, and the hardware, not to mention eight years of consistently excellent defensive metrics, to back up his reputation as one of the best center fielders in the game.

Considering the 2025 Giants outfield defense ranked dead last in many meaningful categories, this is a good get and a necessary one. The signing is a rising tide that lifts all ships. Thanks to Bader’s range, left field will get smaller, penning Heliot Ramos in and allowing him to focus on being more consistent within his patch of grass. Jung Hoo Lee is a far better fielder than last season’s numbers suggest. In 2026, he’ll have a season’s worth of first-hand experience in his back pocket. He’ll know the dimensions of outfields better, be better acclimated to playing outdoors, be more assertive — but with Bader now as the meat in the outfield sandwich, Lee will take this progress, along with his natural athleticism and strong arm, and focus on right field. Considering Oracle’s tough dimensions in the corner, it’s a position that deserves a player’s full attention.

What feels more up in the air is what Bader can do with his bat. The 31-year old has been a defensive first player for his entire career. He’s a harbor seal: graceful in the water, incredibly awkward on land. A wide flat lawn is Bader’s happy place. When he gets his cherubic curls bouncing as he tracks a liner into the gap, everything is gravy. Give him a glove and he’s zero to hero — he looks like the cartoon version of Hercules too.

But swap leather for wood, and Bader’s grace goes out the window. Hitting for Bader is all 12 of Hercules’ labors, from the Nemean Lion to Cerberus, rolled into one frustrating task. He’s been a free swinger who doesn’t walk much. When he makes contact, it’s rarely hard-hit. His career 96 OPS+ has him a hair below average — and that’s after a bit of a lift from a 114 OPS+ in 2021 (103 G) and a 117 OPS+ in 2025 (146 G). In the intervening three years, Bader didn’t log an OPS above .657. Success with the club has been few and far between. 

Then, after years in the wilderness, bouncing from team to team, Bader set career-highs with 146 games played and 501 plate appearances logged between the Twins and Phillies. He slashed .277/ .347/ .449, his .796 OPS, another career mark at the plate. 

Some nice, productive numbers there — but there’s plenty to suggest they’re a little fluke-y. For instance, his expected stats, like .220 xBA and .374 xSLG, were not only well below his actual results and in the bottom quarter percentile compared to the rest of the league. After hitting .258 against fastballs as a Met in 2024, Bader’s average jumped to .319 against the heater — but his .252 xBA suggests there wasn’t any significant change in the quality of contact. Did he just get lucky? Was he just catching an unsustainable amount of breaks, with squirrely balls in play finding gaps and holes? Those kinds of things to happen. Bader’s .359 BABIP was the highest in his career by far and another significant jump from 2024’s .276 average. 

While there’s plenty to doubt about some of Bader’s seemingly inflated offensive numbers in 2025, there are foundational differences that might give us some hope that the improvements are viable.

Bader made some important changes to how he set up at the plate. He maintained the same distance from the plate and depth in the box but closed off his stance a bit, but shortened the distance between his feet by about ten inches and closed off his stance from 16 degrees open to 12 degrees open. This tweak simplifies his lower half as he steps into his swing. Instead of having to pull his front foot back and in at pitch release, the front foot starts further back and has a much quieter move to its position when the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand.

This fundamental adjustment in how Bader sets up at the plate could lend some credibility to the offensive numbers last year. The quality of contact did improve: His 40.3% Hard-Hit rate was a career high as was his 10.2% Barrel percentage (not including 2020). The harder contact came from a much quicker swing speed, jumping from a 71.2 MPH (38th percentile) in 2024 to a 73.5 MPH (71st percentile). Statcast points out that a “fast swing” at 75 MPH or quicker is akin to hitting a ball 95 MPH or faster. Good things happen when you pass that threshold. Fast swings mean harder hit balls in play which generally translate to higher averages and more damage.

Bader started making those quality cuts at a much higher clip than ever before, going from uncorking a  Fast Swing 20% of the time to doing it 37% of the time. Now he didn’t catapult himself into the upper-echelon of bat tracking gods like Kyle Schwarber or Aaron Judge, but those swing improvements did land him among a relatively high-tier. Bader’s 2025 bat tracking metrics would’ve put him comfortably in the top-3 of fast-swingers on the Giants line-up clustered right alongside Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman.

The swing isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s got good bones. That being said, it’s hard to argue with history. Players don’t typically improve as hitters in the early-30s, or in San Francisco, and Bader will be both in his early-thirties and playing in San Francisco in 2026. So yeah, it’d be realistic to expect some sort of regression back to his mean offensively. The positive improvements and adjustments he made in 2025 aren’t cures to every ingrained bad-habit. You’d be right to point out that a fast swing still has to make contact with a baseball.

All those qualifications and realism aside — what happened last year happened. People change, and there’s the possibility that Bader is a better, not badder, batter than we thought.

Now that the 2026 Top 100 Prospect lists are out, it’s time to take a look at some of the Braves prospects who could make a push to be included on the 2027 versions of the Top 100 Prospects in the game. Of course Cam Caminiti will not make this list, as he is already a consensus Top 100 prospect in the game. We also won’t include JR Ritchie, who made the Top 100 on both Baseball America and Pipeline – only missing on Keith Law’s list among the three big lists released so far.

Didier Fuentes

Fuentes is one of the two easiest choices for this list after exploding last year, going from A-ball to the big leagues in the same season. Sure, he struggled in his brief MLB stint but it was apparent that the then-20-year-old wasn’t quite ready for the show. Fuentes will be given more time to develop this year, and isn’t likely to be forced into a role he isn’t ready for again as last year’s promotion was related to injuries. It would likely take improvement with his secondary pitches for him to move into the Top 100, whether his slider or splitter. If he could turn the slider into a second plus pitch, or make his offspeed pitch into an above-average offering to join his plus fastball and above-average strike throwing ability.

Owen Murphy

The other easy pick for this list is Murphy, who looked great in his small sample size after his return from Tommy John surgery last summer. Murphy was trending towards the Top 100 in early-2024, but going down with his elbow injury stunted that progress. Now that he’s healthy and in his second year post-TJ, the Braves will better be able to turn him loose this season. Murphy has three average or above pitches along with average command, so a full and healthy season could push him up the rankings this year.

Diego Tornes

While it may seem questionable to include a player who hasn’t played above the DSL, but Tornes is the type of prospect who could force himself up the rankings. Tornes was the top international signee by the Braves last year, has received great reports from coaches, and has five tools that grade out as average or better. He will get a chance to hit his way to full-season ball, which is likely what he will need to do to rise enough for the Top 100. With Tornes it is more likely a matter of when, and not if, he makes a Top 100.

You'll want to keep an eye on Diego Tornes 👀

At just 17 years old, he has an EV of 105.4 mph and an average EV of 88.1 mph 😳

Breakout prospect candidates for every NL team in 2026: https://t.co/TjJu5sGlj4pic.twitter.com/HBIYrcb0e6

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) October 25, 2025

John Gil

A quick look at his stat line shows Gil posted a .731 OPS with 25 doubles, a triple, and seven homers over 100 games with Augusta last year. What it doesn’t show you is the fact that he hit six homers with 10 doubles and the triple over his final 30 games there – which coincides with his return from injury in late-July. Gil has always had the hit tool and double-plus speed, but if this brief power spike can translate to this year he has only started to scratch the surface of his potential – even if Gil doesn’t homer once every six games this year, just some growth to make him a more well rounded hitter would go a long way.

Conor Essenburg

A bit of a sleeper pick here, as Essenburg was the Braves fifth round pick last year and has yet to make his pro debut. Still the reports from him from the summer and fall were promising for the former Illinois prep two-way star. As Essenburg focuses solely on hitting for the first time in his life, there is plenty of room for growth for the young slugger.

Briggs McKenzie

McKenzie wasn’t the Braves top pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, but he was the one who received the highest signing bonus. McKenzie will need to add more strength to hold his velocity deeper into games as well as gain more experience with his lightly used changeup, but he has all of the ingredients to push his way up the rankings this year or next.

Tate Southisene

As the Braves first round pick last year, Southisene is a candidate to push his way into the Top 100 for next season. I tend to think this is a bit aggressive, and that would likely be two years away for him as he needs to continue adding strength and adjusting to the pro game. Still he is a player with draft pedigree and has all five tools that are at least average.

Luke Sinnard

Another sleeper pick, Sinnard was the Braves third round pick in 2024 despite not appearing in a game that spring due to injury. His injury kept him out from June 2023 until April 2025, and while he missed some time with minor injury last year he did show why the Braves drafted him. Sinnard only threw 72.1 innings split between both levels of A-ball, though he did also make five starts in the Arizona Fall League after the season ended. Sinnard will be in his second season removed from Tommy John surgery, and the imposing 6’8” hurler has already shown he can miss bats with three of his pitches in the fastball, slider, and curve. If he can use this year to tighten his stuff and command, he is a player who could surprise from the Braves system.