The Brewers haven't had a prospect like Jackson Chourio in a while. On Tuesday, he showed why in his Wisconsin debut.

GRAND CHUTE – Jackson Chourio has arrived in Wisconsin, just a 90-minute drive from his potential future big-league home, and Milwaukee Brewers fans aren’t the only ones eager to fill up their tanks and make the trip up Interstate 41.

“We’re gonna wear out a path on the freeway up to Appleton,” Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan said.

Chourio, the 18-year-old phenom who has emerged as not only the top prospect in the Brewers system but as one of the best in all of baseball, made his high Class-A debut with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Tuesday night in front of a near-capacity crowd at Fox Cities Stadium.

And he made quite the first impression.

In his first at-bat, Chourio drilled a single up the middle and displayed his speed by advancing first to third on a bloop hit. He then drew a walk his second time up, laying off a pair of breaking balls with two strikes on him. Chourio's third plate appearance was the most impressive, lacing a 1-2 pitch 320 feet to the opposite field for a run-scoring double.

Teams often say that players will tell them with their play when they are ready for a promotion.

Chourio screamed it.

He made his debut with the Class A Carolina Mudcats on May 3 and did nothing but mash. As the youngest position player in the Carolina League, Chourio hit .324/.373/.600 with 12 homers, 47 runs batted in and 10 stolen bases in 62 games.

Now, less than three months later, the reserved, cheerful Chourio is the youngest player in High-A ball by nine months.

“It’s a little bit of a special case with a player of this age and Jackson being so young, but he dominated Carolina League pitching,” Flanagan said. “We saw this as a good opportunity with a month and a half left in the season to take on a new challenge and see how he adjusts to High-A baseball. You never pin it on one thing, but he handled his business well in Carolina and we all felt it was time.”

Chourio arrived in Appleton on Monday, a team off day, and met the rest of the Timber Rattlers prior to Tuesday’s game against the Cedar Rapids Kernels. He immediately put on a display in batting practice, regularly rocketing balls 100 mph or greater off the bat.

“He’s how young? Eighteen?” said pitcher Antoine Kelly, who represented the Brewers alongside Chourio at the MLB Futures Game earlier this month, with astonishment.

Chourio had his eyes on a promotion in recent weeks but his focus and his feet in Carolina, where he hit .339 with 12 extra-base hits and a 1.080 OPS over 14 games in July.

“I stayed focused all the time on what I was doing down in Carolina but at the same time I maintained the mindset that I wanted to go up,” Chourio said.

Due to his play relative to his age, Chourio shot up prospect rankings while with the Mudcats. He was nowhere near the top of any prospect lists to begin the year but was a name to keep an eye on due to his five-tool upside. Now, he is widely considered Milwaukee’s top prospect and is ranked as the No. 20 prospect in baseball by Baseball America.

“I got to see how special his talent is in spring training when he played a couple games for us,” Timber Rattlers manager Joe Ayrault said. “In the spring we don't have a big mix of rosters going around so we got to see him play a few games. And then, of course, you see the highlight reels on Instagram of his games. The Carolina Mudcats do a great job on Instagram and seeing a lot of his highlight reels on their grid was fun.”

Chourio, by all accounts, relishes the expectations that are starting to be shouldered on him.

“I stay calm, relaxed about it,” he said. “I don’t mind it. I enjoy it.”

Brewers fans swarmed the ballpark to catch Chourio’s debut. On an average weeknight home game, the Timber Rattlers usually pre-sell anywhere from 2,400 to 2,600 tickets; on Tuesday, that number was north of 4,000. Many of those were strictly to see Chourio.

Jarrett Cayo of Green Bay, donning a Josh Hader all-star jersey, was among that group.

“I came to see Chourio because I think he’s one of the best hitting prospects we’ve seen since Ryan Braun for the Brewers,” Cayo said. “I mean, the excitement for him online is incredible. As soon as I saw video of him taking batting practice, I bought a ticket and got ready to drive down. You can tell there’s electricity with us fans.

“And the fact that he’s only 18 years old is insane.”

Is it equally exciting for Chourio to play in front of a nearly sold-out stadium of Brewers fans?

“Sí, claro,” Chourio affirmed. “I’ve been waiting and looking forward to this.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers top prospect Jackson Chourio shines in Timber Rattlers debut