By Joe Browne

The Milwaukee Brewers have quietly been one of the best teams in baseball all season long. One again, they are running away with the NL Central crown as the season winds down. Despite a vast amount of change and a little amount of player acquisition this offseason, the Brewers are still a force to be reckoned with. Jackson Chourio, the twenty year old former top prospect has been a major reason for the Brewers success this year. Prior to the 2024 season Choruio inked a 8 year 82 million dollar extension with the Brewers before he even stepped foot in a MLB clubhouse. An aggressive move by Brewers GM Matt Arnold that so far has paid off. Milwaukee will reap the benefits of this decision more and more as the years go on.

Getting Chourio on that cheap of a deal for the production that he will provide is remarkable. Through his first 127 career big league games Chourio is slashing a respectable .276/.331/.466 with 19 homers and 20 swipes to boot. With his next homer, Chourio will become just the fifteenth rookie in MLB history to achieve a 20/20 season. Chourio has done all of this despite his sluggish start to his young career. Through his fifty games Chourio posted a measly .210 average and only five home runs. In his next 77 games Chourio has caught fire hitting .316 with fourteen home runs and has raised his overall numbers to a very respectable clip as previously mentioned. He has pulled his OPS up just a tad shy of the .800 mark to .798. Also, his OPS+ is currently sitting at a very solid 119. Chourio has done it on both sides of the ball as well, recording a 84th percentile 3 outs above average in the outfield. The best part about this budding star is that this is just the beginning for him and the best is yet to come. Chourio is far from a finished product; he has improvements to make in his discipline. In his rookie campaign Chourio has chased 32.5% of the time which is not terrible but also not great. He also has only walked in 7.2% of plate appearances.

As Chourio matures as a big league hitter I fully expect him to lower his chase rate and in turn increase his walk rate. It is easy to forget that this kid is still only 20 years old. When the Brewers lock up the NL Central in the coming days, Chourio will not be (legally) allowed to drink. It is mind boggling to think about how the Brewers have been led by a 20 year old kid since Christian Yelich’s season ending injury. Before we know it, Chourio will get his first taste of postseason baseball and it will certainly be a treat to watch. Without Chourio’s production in the last 3 months it is hard to see the Brewers in the position that they are currently in. He is quickly molding into the new face of the franchise for the Brewers and leading the charge in this new era of Brewers baseball.

Sources:

Baseball Reference

Baseball Savant

FanGraphs

MLB.com

Statmuse

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