Milwaukee Brewers sign pitching prospect Zach Mort

Much of the offseason for the Milwaukee Brewers has seen a focus on adding depth pieces at the minor league level. Earlier today, the team announced that they had added a new hurler down on the lower end of the farm system, rolling the dice on former Cubs’ draftee Zach Mort.

An eighth-round pick by the North Siders back in 2018, Mort has put up solid run prevention numbers across two full minor league seasons. In 37 games (22 starts) and 134.1 innings between the short-season and Low-A levels, Mort owns a 3.89 ERA with 7.17 K/9 versus 2.95 BB/9. Though he posted a strong 3.13 ERA in 60.1 innings in the Midwest League in 2019, his strikeout (5.37 K/9) and walk (4.03 BB/9) numbers both backed up and a 4.51 FIP suggests that he was the beneficiary of some good fortune. With no minor league season during the shortened COVID campaign, Mort was cut loose by Chicago on May 28th, 2020.

Baseball America wrote that Mort, who turns 24 in May, had “average stuff across the board and gets his fastball up to 93” in their pre-draft report in 2018, but Mort stated on his personal Twitter account that his velocity was down in 2019 prior to being let go by the Cubs. He has since posted videos of him hitting 95-96 MPH with his fastball, including this video showcasing his fastball and breaking stuff: