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There are new roster rules in place for Major League Baseball this year, as each franchise will have a 60-player pool to draw from during the upcoming 60-game regular season. With no minor league baseball being played this year, most orgs have chosen to include some of their top prospects in the player pool in order to continue their development in some fashion this season. The Milwaukee Brewers are no exception, as they recently announced the addition of a dozen prospects to their player pool. These players will not report to Summer Camp at Miller Park and are not in competition for the Opening Day roster, but they will head to the alternate training site at the Timber Rattlers’ stadium in Appleton.
The group consists of:
LHP Clayton Andrews
RHP Phil Bickford
RHP Dylan File
RHP Antoine Kelly
LHP Angel Perdomo
LHP Ethan Small
RHP Trey Supak
C Mario Feliciano
IF Brice Turang
OF Thomas Dillard
OF Tristen Lutz
OF Corey Ray
In addition, outfielder Tyrone Taylor will be at the alternate training site in Appleton after he was previously optioned there a few weeks ago.
Milwaukee’s minor league contingent includes the org’s top-4 prospects according to MLB Pipeline — Turang, Small, Feliciano, and Lutz, and two more prospects in the top-10 in Antoine Kelly and Corey Ray. Supak, Taylor, Dillard, File, and Andrews are also ranked in the top-30. Unranked Bickford and Perdomo (who is currently quarantining with a positive case of COVID-19) both posted terrific seasons as relief pitchers last year and obviously improved their stock in the eyes of the front office.
With these additions to the player pool, Milwaukee now has 58 of their 60 slots filled. One player who could still potentially be added is first-round draft pick Garrett Mitchell, who last week finalized his first professional contract with the org, which includes a deferred $3,242,900 signing bonus. Said President of Baseball Operations David Stearns: “We’re still working through that. 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.”
As for the minor league players who were not invited to participate in Summer Camp or to work at the alternate training site, their only option to face live competition this year is to play independent baseball. Two Brewers’ prospects have already started down that road in the American Association, with right-hander Nick Belzer suiting up for the St. Paul Saints and right-hander Anthony Bender joining the local Milwaukee Milkmen.