The Brewers and prospect Cooper Pratt are reportedly on the verge of finalizing an eight-year contract worth $50.75MM. There will also be two club options worth about $15MM per year, though the value of those options can increase via escalators. The Brewers will need to make a corresponding move to add the Boras Corporation client to their 40-man roster.
It’s a surprising out-of-nowhere extension. Pratt is 21 years old and hasn’t made it to the majors yet. He only just made his Triple-A debut a few days ago. He wasn’t even going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until December of 2027.
Extensions for players with no major league experience are becoming more common but this one feels even a bit more extreme than some of the others. Most pre-debut extensions have been for guys very close to cracking the big leagues. The Brewers themselves did one with Jackson Chourio just over two years ago, an $82MM guarantee, though that one was a bit less surprising. Chourio had finished the prior season at the Triple-A level and seemed highly likely to break camp with Milwaukee in 2024 as he was one of the top three prospects in the sport.
Pratt, on the other hand, mostly features on the back of top 100 prospect lists. Baseball America is the high outlet, putting him at #50. MLB Pipeline has him at #62, ESPN at #70, The Athletic at #99 and he’s not even on the FanGraphs list. He had an okay season at Double-A last year, with a .238/.343/.348 line and 107 wRC+, and only just cracked the Triple-A level to start this season.
Perhaps it speaks to the Brewers being quite high on Pratt’s future. Though his offense was middling last year, the plate discipline was clearly good. His 12.7% walk rate and 15.2% strikeout rate were both strong figures. He only hit eight home runs but could perhaps add more power in time. He stole 31 bags last year and is considered a solid defender at shortstop.
If the Brewers have faith in Pratt’s long-term future, there’s sense in locking him up now. That’s especially true with him being a Boras client. That agency isn’t quite as extension-averse as its reputation but the extensions they have done have almost always been for guys who have reached their arbitration years. According to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, which has data going back to 2006, the Carlos González deal from back in 2011 is the only pre-arbitration extension for a Boras client.
In that context, perhaps the Brewers felt it was worth it to take a gamble on Pratt, even though he is still so early in his career. If they waited until he had been in the big leagues for a few years, the price would go up if he had any kind of success. From the perspective of Pratt, this is a chance for him to lock up some notable earnings and stave off any chance of a bust. Perhaps he will find himself underpaid if he becomes a star, but he’s not the level of surefire, can’t-miss prospect that Chourio was. He could play out this contract, including the options, and still reach free agency after his age-30 season.
What remains to be seen is how this impact Milwaukee’s short-term plans. Even if Pratt is signed to a big league deal, he doesn’t need to be on the active roster, as he could still be kept in the minors on optional assignment. Joey Ortiz was their everyday shortstop last year. He put up a rough .230/.276/.317 line at the plate but stole 14 bases and was credited with 12 Outs Above Average. He is still in that job and has a massive .455/.500/.455 line so far this year but in a tiny sample of 12 plate appearances.
Ortiz is still under club control for many years but the club may pivot away from him at some point if he can’t post better offense over a sustained stretch of time. He does have options and could be sent to the minors, or perhaps be moved into a utility role since he has experience at second and third base. Pratt has fairly limited experience off the shortstop position but could presumably handle second or third if the Brewers asked him to. For now, Brice Turang is a strong option at the keystone. Third base is a bit more open, with David Hamilton and Luis Rengifo in the mix at the moment.
Looking further down the road, most of those guys still have lots of club control. Rengifo is on a one-year deal but Ortiz, Turang and Hamilton aren’t slated for free agency until after 2029. Prospects Jett Williams, Jesús Made and Luis Peña are generally considered top 100 guys who will be in the mix at some point. Williams has already played at the Triple-A level, Made at Double-A and Pena at High-A. At some point over the horizon, the infield could feel quite crowded, which could perhaps lead to a trade.
In the near term, the deal could have other notable impacts. With the deal in place, the Brewers may not worry about Pratt’s service time, since he would be under club control for the ten years regardless. The Prospect Promotion Incentive could also be interesting here. Pratt would be PPI eligible since he is on the aforementioned prospect lists. Even though he missed the first few games of the season, it’s still early enough for the Brewers to call him up for a full year of service time.
However, a player who signs an extension prior to his major league debut is not eligible to earn PPI picks for his team. Unless the two sides agree to the deal in principle and then don’t officially sign it until after Pratt’s debut, then PPI is off the table.
Altogether, it’s a surprising and curious extension, one that seemingly leads to more questions than it answers. Perhaps the coming days will provide some more clarity on the deal and what it means for all the other moving pieces in Milwaukee.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported that the two sides were working on an eight-year deal worth more than $50MM, including those club options. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported the specific guarantee. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that there are escalators on the options. Photos courtesy of Dave Kallmann, Imagn Images.
Get rid of Ortiz now and let Pratt play then
Ortiz is 5 for 12. Don’t think he’s going to the bench until he cools off
And his defense looks improved even from last years superb effort, interesting extension
Guy hasn’t hit much in above Low-A.
I could of course be very wrong, but it seems like a major jump of the gun. He’s been very underwhelming in the minor leagues, and while this would be pocket change for most franchises, we are talking about the Brewers here.
Friggin’ nuts.
wow
never played a game above AA before this weekend (and hit .238 there, .221 in A+)
he will be kristian campbell 2.0
But Kristian absolutely raked in the minors. A .997 OPS in 2024 with 2/3’s of it at AA & AAA.
Oh, my. Surprising investment in a guy who batted .238 with less than 10 HR at AA last season.
It’s almost as if there’s more to evaluating a player than two cherry picked random stats.
Best quote of the day. Congrats Sack!
Seems unnecessary for this player. He’s young for his level but also doesn’t look to be ML ready yet. Good for him locking in $50MM but I figured Made was the SS of the future.
Made will likely move elsewhere in the Infield. Pratt is likely the best SS, defensively of the Pena, Made, Pratt core.
From everything I’ve read. Pratt is a Defensive wiz as short. 9/10. Like a GG caliber in the future. He just needs work on his offense.. which he’ll get there. Made will more than likely move to 2B but that’ll be 2 yrs by the time he gets to brew city
He can be a utility guy on a 8/50MM deal and it will be a steal. Doesn’t have to be a SS.
That being said, I’m a little concerned about the timing. I’m not a brewers fan, I’m a Red Sox fan, and I see a potential for another Kristian Campbell situation – player signs a deal too early and they can’t back it up.
But hey, could be off here
As a Brewers fan I am struggling to think of a deal like this the Brewers haven’t won. Ashby, peralta, chourio (tbd but early returns are a win). Maybe Josh Lindblom coming back from overseas
He doesn’t have much power but he did cut his strikeout rate from 20% in A ball in ’24 to 15.2% in AA in ’25 all while maintaining a very strong walk rate.
This is why Boras is so good at his job leveraging a promising yet incomplete player.
Looks like a poor man’s Kevin McGonigle to me. His numbers don’t stand out except for high walks and a low K rate, but he was 20 years old most of last season while playing competently in AA. I think he’ll work out, but $50 million is a lot of money given the actual accomplishments so far. The dollars look similar to Colt Keith who has turned out fine, but only fine. However, he’s still only 24.
50 million for a glove first prospect with a light bat. Ehhhhhhhh
They’re gonna shell out another crap load of money to player who hasn’t made his ML debut yet?
Yes, just like Chourio. “In Matt We Trust.”
I get teams wanting to sign players long-term but maybe wait until they take the field at the MLB level first
Hopefully, this doesn’t turn into a more expensive Scott Kingery 2.0.
They spelled Luis Pena wrong, or forgot to insert Brice Turang and a 1 to make it 8 for 150 million
What’s weird about this is that he if he’s a glove-first guy, he likely wouldn’t profile well in arbitration. On one hand, at 6’4″, he could fill in a bit and develop more power. On the other hand, does he project better at 3B long term?
All for early career extensions and small market teams being aggressive, but the bat is questionable at this point and a glove-first guy is going to be pennies even thru arbitration. Not really seeing the vision.
At like $6.3M AAV, it wouldn’t really take a lot for him to be worth that contract. If he ends up just being a glove-first guy, it’s not really the end of the world.
It’s not going to be a backbreaker, but arbitration does not reward glove-first guys like it does sluggers. Seems unnecessary, or at the very least, risky. If I’m the Brewers FO I’m more than willing to sweeten the guarantee or drop an option year once I see him succeed against AAA/make MLB. They clearly believe strongly in him.
Wednesday is April Fool’s Day, right?????
Good for the kid. Seems real.
Shortstop of the future… Cooper Pratt
He’s going to have to be because they won’t be able to afford anyone better now.
Locking him up because he will absolutely be Turangs eventual replacement. No way Turang will sign an extension because he will absolutely get more then what Adames got.
Made will be Turangs replacement. Turang will want Nico Hoerner type of contract brewers will obviously not pay him that
You could be right i think that 2027 starting infield will be Fischer first, Turang second, Pratt short and Made at third.
Brewers front office clearly has no idea what it’s doing. /s
They are hoping to extend him till he’s at least 6 foot six.
Im so excited by this, seems like an incredible buy low, dudes a legit SS, and it won’t take much power for him to be a 3WAR guy, and if he everyone gets to what people were dreaming on at draft day, while now having surprising plus D at SS, thats an all-star.
By my back of the napkin math, the Brewers are guaranteeing him $50M now for the right to only have to pay him roughly $10M/year his first 2 years of free agency and $15M/year for years 3 and 4. Could be a huge savings but also a MASSIVE gamble for a guy just starting his AAA career.
Why Him???? With Made, Pena, Fischer and Jett Williams around why would we do this with the only one of this group that can’t hit??? I don’t get it at all
When is he getting called up or do the brewers suddenly have the kind of money that allows for mlb contracts in the minors?
Shocked me