2 The Bigs

By Chris Corso:

When seeing the headlines that the Milwaukee Brewers are close to signing a 19-year-old to a record-setting contract extension it’s worth taking a look into that young player at 2thebigs.com

That player goes by the name of Jackson Chourio and he’s currently the No. 2 ranked prospect on MLB.com before hitting 20 years old. The Venezuelan was signed for $1.8 million by Milwaukee in 2021 as a 17-year-old and hit their minor league system running.

Running as fast as any prospect in the history of baseball to Triple A. Chourio, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound outfielder hit the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and instantly hit .296 with five homers in 45 games at 17. In 2022, he started in Single-A and hit .321 with 81 hits in his first 61 games! I repeat 81 hits in 61 games! He finished the season in Double-A with a combined .288 average, 20 long balls and 75 runs batted in. Reminder he was still only 18 years old at this point.

In 2023, he mastered Double A. He totaled 143 hits and 89 RBI in 122 games, both top-5 at that level for the season, jolting a call-up to Triple-A. These contact stats are absolutely unheard of for a teenager who is just getting his feet wet at the minor league level. Keep in mind, Chourio is an international prospect and was working through a move to the United States. In Triple-A in 2023 he got six games of experience and tallied up seven hits. Chourio has excelled as one of the top contact bats in all of minor league baseball before even turning 20. Also, let’s not forget the power numbers. He slashed 22 homers in Double-A last season and drove in a total of 91 runs. Oh, and he stole 44 bases last season. This guy has it all and he certainly can be the center fielder of the future in Wisconsin.

Now do you realize why the Brewers want to lock him up so early?! Maybe compare this deal to the likes of Ronald Acuna signing with the Braves for eight years and 100 million in 2019. The deal may have seemed crazy at the time for Atlanta, but now it’s looking like they have saved themselves a couple of hundred million by investing in the National League MVP early.

I am expecting this contract to be north of $100 million for less than that time of Acuna’s by a few seasons. This contract will break records, but I promise you that it will be a bargain in the end. If you don’t know who Chourio is now, you will know very soon.

A good way to gauge how much people believe is his Bowman 2022 Chrome Auto. A PSA 10 Orange Refractor o/25 just sold for $6,500 at the end of October. Good luck getting his first auto for an affordable price at this point. But it could be a bargain in the long run just like the Brewers record-setting contract coming soon.