Every year a figure appears who tries to steal the show as a rookie. In 2023 Gunnar Henderson and Corbin Carroll achieved it without much effort. Now in 2024, everything indicates that a Venezuelan prospect It will steal the spotlights.
The 20-year-old Venezuelan signed an eight-year contract worth $82 million with the Milwaukee Brewers before his major league debut. It is the highest figure guaranteed for a player without experience in the majors. He hit .282 with 22 home runs, 91 RBIs, and 44 stolen bases in 128 games combined between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville last year.
Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee’s Venezuelan prodigy, will begin the regular season in the Major Leagues. The Brewers confirmed that the outfielder will be part of their roster at the start of the season next Thursday with a visit to the New York Mets.
Milwaukee’s top prospect, who turned 20 on March 11, will become the first player born in 2004 to reach the major leagues. Chourio, one of the stars who saw action in the inaugural Spring Breakout in mid-March, put himself in the battle for a spot on the big club’s roster, thanks to one of the most impressive performances of power and speed in the Leagues. Minors in recent history.
Jackson Chourio is compared to the also Venezuelan Ronald Acuña
Chourio concluded the 2023 season with 22 home runs and 44 stolen bases in 128 games between Double-A Biloxi (where he played the vast majority of the year) and Triple-A Nashville. In doing so, he became just the fifth teenager to reach the plateau of 20 homers and 40 steals in the minors since 1958, joining compatriots Ronald Acuña Jr. (2017) and Alex Escobar (1998), Andruw Jones (1995) and the Cuban José Cardenal (1961) on that list.
“I know he’s been good to us in the past, but right now he’s a different guy,” Carolina Single-A manager Víctor Estévez told MLB.com in July 2022. “I compare him to an Acuña-type player. . To be honest, I compare any of those young people who came early to the Major Leagues with those types of players,” he said.
Chourio was rated by talent evaluators as “plus-plus” for his speed, and he has used those legs to steal 68 bases in his first three minor league seasons. That running ability has also served him well in center field, where he shows great range after coming in from shortstop.
As a right-handed hitter with the ability to hit the ball well all over the field, Chourio also shows the potential to have at least a power rating of 60 on the scouting scale. His 22 home runs with Biloxi were the most in Double-A for a 19-year-old since 2006, surpassing fellow Top 10 prospect Junior Caminero (20) and other notable hitters such as Fernando Tatis Jr. (16, 2018) and Giancarlo Stanton (16, 2009).
According to the FanGraphs statistics portal, the patrolman projects 17 home runs, 69 runs batted in, 67 runs scored and 25 stolen bases by 2024.
