Future of the Brewers? Everything you need to know about Milwaukee's international signing class

You don’t have to look far to see the fruits of the Milwaukee Brewers' labor in the international market.

Top prospect Jackson Chourio, a 2021 class signee out of Maracaibo, Venezuela, inked the largest contract extension for a player yet to appear in the major leagues this winter with Milwaukee. Not far behind Chourio in the organization’s rankings is catcher Jeferson Quero, also a Venezuelan native.

Outfielders Luis Lara and Yophery Rodriguez also cracked the Journal Sentinel’s top 10 Brewers prospects list, while others such as Daniel Guilarte, Filippo di Turi, Jadher Arenaimo, Patricio Aquino, Juan Baez and Kevin Ereu are all recent international signees who are ranked in the Milwaukee system by various outlets.

As the 2024 international signing period opened on Monday, a trio of shortstops, one from Venezuela and the other two from the Dominican Republic, highlight another deep class for the Brewers.

Jorge Quintana, Jesus Made and Luis Peña are the three players with agreements in place with the Brewers who are ranked among the top 50 prospects overall in this year’s class.

The group, of course, doesn’t end there. Milwaukee feels good about the depth of its class, which includes a whopping 35 players.

Twenty-one of those players are hitters while 14 are pitchers. Sixteen members of the Brewers' class are from the Dominican, while eleven hail from Venezuela. Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, gua, Panamá, Costa Rica and even Germany are represented.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the players highlighting the Brewers 2024 international signing class.

Jorge Quintana has star potential

Venezuelan shortstop Jorge Quintana is the highest-ranked player signed by the Brewers in 2024 by both MLB Pipeline (No. 12) and Baseball America (No. 19) and shares plenty of similarities with many of the players Milwaukee has taken high in the draft in recent years.

Quintana is a pure hitter. He’s a switch-hitter with a smooth, loose swing, particularly from the left side, with a real chance to grade out with a plus-hit tool. He manipulates the barrel well to get it to the ball and swings with a trajectory that should help him avoid hitting too many fly balls.

The Brewers fell in love with his true ability to hit from both sides without a drop off.

"You compare swings from both sides of the plate," Brewers director of international scouting James Armstrong said. "There are not that many switch hitters, and with the ones that are, there are plenty of them where one swing dominates the other. This is a rare find. That trait in particular is what first drew our attention to Jorge. Couple that with the skills that he’s perfected with repetition and we’re getting a special prospect."

Quintana should hit for a high average at the lower levels of the minors, with plate discipline and added power potential being the two factors that will determine how high he can fly on offense.

He is listed at 6-foot-2 in the Brewers' official signing release but has already grown another inch, Armstrong said, and could keep shooting up and filling out. That leaves lots of room for optimism going forward for the Brewers.

"That’s a long 6-3 with plenty of room for physical projection," Armstrong said. "That physical growth has a potential to take him to another level. That line drive contact the has feel for might turn into potential power.

"On the other side of the coin, tall shortstops often come under a lot of scrutiny of it they're going to stick at shortstop. Jorge just has that proven track record of being that fundamentally-sound shortstop where we’re confident he’s going to play there. Much like his offensive game, though, a lot of it depends on how he grows into that frame."

Jesus Made has power potential to dream on

What stands out most about Made’s game is his power potential from both sides of the plate.

Currently, his right-side swing is mechanically ahead of the left side, but at 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds and with good bat speed, it’s not difficult to project plus power onto him at some point. There is room for significant strength growth, especially on the lower half. Made has an uppercut swing that might be susceptible to velocity up in the zone, but it’s a tradeoff that could be worth it if he taps into his full power-over-hit potential.

The Brewers began to hone in on Made at the time they were scouting current Milwaukee prospect Juan Baez at the same academy. Made was more of a later-developing prospect, and Milwaukee's early familiarity and patience with him paid large dividends.

"In Made’s case he always stood out as a quick twitch athlete who could play somewhere up the middle with a future plus arm," Armstrong said. "He had physical projection to get to a future average range on the power and strength side. But then things really started to click in the box a little later in the process. He started to getting to a higher level on metrics of contact you see now on both sides of the plate."

Made is an above-average runner and multiple scouts we spoke to were convinced he would be able to stick at shortstop. Armstrong went even further in his defensive evaluation.

"He solidified himself as a future shortstop with what I would say is one of the best present arms that we've signed among infielders that people here can remember," Armstrong said.

Luis Corobo receives high praise for his defense

An international scout familiar with the work of 16-year-old Venezuelan catcher Luis Corobo was quick to compare him to a name Brewers fans have come to know in the past couple of years.

“Defensively, he is already at or ahead of where Jeferson Quero was at his age,” the scout said.

That’s no minor compliment. Quero, the Journal Sentinel’s No. 3 Brewers prospect, is lauded across the industry for his advanced defensive skills.

Corobo is firmly-built with a strong lower half that, combined with being a twitchier athlete than it appears at first glance, helps him produce elite pop times – or how long it takes for the ball to get from the catcher’s mitt to second base – of 1.8 to 1.9 seconds regularly. Corobo’s throwing arm has been clocked as high as 86 mph on a couple of occasions.

Development can be slow and sometimes erratic with catchers, but Corobo has the foundations of a strong defensive backstop in place.

Luis Peña’s skills are strength and loud contact

One thing stands out about Peña, in particular: Present power.

Peña is compact and sturdy at 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds, but those numbers don’t quite tell the tale of his frame properly. He’s strong and well-built, and it gives him the best present-day power in the Brewers class.

"It’s big strength," Armstrong said.

The Dominican Republic native explodes toward the ball with his right-handed swing. He has enough burst that he’s able to load his hands backward until the front half of his swing is nearly complete, “winding” his body up in a sense to create lots of force from a rubber band effect before snapping his hands toward the ball.

Down the road it could create timing challenges with breaking balls, but Peña is a plus athlete and the hope is that those types of players are quicker to make adjustments.

"Peña is running 6.3 (second) 60 times, which is double plus on the scouting scale," Armstrong said. "And he’s improving at shortstop on defense. That combination and the combination of pure hitting that he has is rare. It makes him a special prospect."

Joandrew Peña brings a smooth swing with a plus frame

Watch Joandrew Peña take a round of batting practice, his long levers working fluidly and with ease to drive the ball gap-to-gap with authority and you can sense the potential in his bat.

The long, lanky Peña has ample projectable power thanks to his frame (6-foot-3, 180 pounds) and his present easy bat speed.

Peña signs as a shortstop but is likely to move to third base, where his plus arm should carry.

He isn't ranked in the top 50 by MLB Pipeline or Baseball America, but his tools are comparable to other players who are.

The top pitcher the Brewers signed is out of Mexico

Milwaukee signed only one player from Mexico but may have gotten its money's worth from the country anyway.

Victor Emiliano Garcia stands an imposing 6-2 and 225 pounds as a power lefty arm with what Armstrong dubbed "a major-league frame."

Garcia got an early start against top competition by playing against top talent that was three-plus years older than him during the pandemic in 2020. He also was on Mexico's U18 national team at the age of 15.

Garcia throws 91-92 mph from the left side and the Brewers believe more is coming in terms of velocity.

"He’s one of the most physically gifted players we will sign today," Armstrong said.

Dalvin Bodre is another intriguing arm in a hitter-heavy class

Right-handed pitcher Dalvin Bodre isn't the biggest player. In fact, at 5-foot-8, he's rather diminutive for a pitcher. Yet at that size (and being only age 16) Bodre already throws in the 92-93 mph range with his fastball. There's plenty of room for growth in strength for Bodre, a good athlete who throws efficiently from a mechanics standpoint, one scout indicated.

Bodre also shows a solid feel for spinning the ball, which will certainly be necessary for a pitcher of his size.

Brewers 2024 international signing class

Here is the entirety of the Brewers' 35-man signing class.

Position players

• Jose Anderson, CF, Dominican Republic

• Luis Corobo, C, Venezuela

• Yohandy Cruz, SS, Dominican Republic

• Carlos Doñe, OF, Dominican Republic

• Handellfry Encarnacion, OF, Dominican Republic

• Kevin Garcia, C, Venezuela

• Jeremy George, OF, Panama

• Angel Gonzalez, CF, Costa Rica

• Frandy Lafond, CF, Dominican Republic

• Yoneiker Lugo, C, Venezuela

• Juan Martinez, SS, Venezuela

• Jesus Made, SS, Dominican Republic

• Frederi Montero, SS, Dominican Republic

• Juan Ortuno, IF, Venezuela

• Engel Paulino, OF, Dominican Republic

• Luis Peña, SS, Dominican Republic

• Joandrew Peña, 3B, Venezuela

• Moises Polanco, SS, Venezuela

• Kobe Rangel, SS, Venezuela

• Jhoanjel Saez, IF, Dominican Republic

Pitchers

• Dalvin Bodre, RHP, Dominican Republic

• Ayendy Bravo, RHP, Dominican Republic

• Daiyiro Candelo, RHP, Venezuela

• Lonell Downs, RHP, Nicaragua

• Victor Emiliano Garcia, LHP, Mexico

• Lukas Gonzalez, RHP, Panama

• Paul Hoff, RHP, Germany

• Dariel Jaquez, RHP, Dominican Republic

• Wenderlyn King, RHP, Dominican Republic

• Enderson Mercado, LHP, Venezuela

• Manuel Moreno, RHP, Panama

• Christopher Peralta, RHP, Dominican Republic

• Jean Carlos Rodriguez, RHP, Dominican Republic

• Josue Toledo, RHP, Nicaragua

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jorge Quintana, Jesus Made lead Brewers 2024 international signings