Milwaukee Brewers Dynasty Sleepers, Breakouts, and Busts

With dynasty season ramping up, I figured it was time to talk about some sleepers, breakouts, and busts for each team. You can find my rankings and reports to see how I value players for your dynasty leagues, but I also feel like it’s helpful to truly identify whether I believe a player can be a breakout or not. Here is where I call my shots on players I think require a call to action in dynasty, whether it be to buy or sell that player.

While you are here, be sure to check out the updated Milwaukee Brewers top prospect list, updated with new international prospects:

Milwaukee Brewers Dynasty Sleepers, Breakouts, and Busts

MLB Sleeper: Joey Ortiz, SS, 26, 5’9”/183

After being traded from Baltimore to Milwaukee in the Corbin Burnes deal, the pressure was on for Ortiz to perform in his rookie season. While showing some solid things, Ortiz slashed .239/.329/.398 with 11 home runs and stolen bases a piece.

The positives we saw out of Ortiz were his high-end contact and approach. He posted an 83 percent overall contact rate and a 90 percent in-zone mark. While the chase rate of 24 percent is strong, Ortiz needs to show more aggression. His 53.5 percent zone-swing rate was 14 percentage points below the MLB average, and his heart-swing rate was 20 percentage points below the league average. Simply put, Ortiz did not take advantage of good pitches to hit.

Ortiz’s exit velocities were down quite a bit from what he posted in the minors. His average exit velocity of 88 mph was a notable drop from 2023, but his 90th percentile exit velocity of 105 mph showed that Ortiz can still be an above-average power hitter. He will have to lift the ball more as he ran a near 50 percent ground ball rate. The good news is, when Ortiz gets the ball in the air, he pulls it over 45 percent of the time.

It is worth noting that Ortiz was playing a new position at third base in 2024 and he played with a neck injury. Now in 2025, he is healthy and back at his natural position, shortstop. I don’t think Ortiz is going to be a monster of a hitter, but 15 home runs with 15 stolen bases is a real possibility and the batting average should only rise.

MLB Breakout: Garrett Mitchell, MIL, 26, 6’3”/224

I won’t lie to you: Garrett Mitchell is probably the hardest player for me to evaluate. When on the field, he has put up good numbers, especially in 2024, though it was just 224 plate appearances. Mitchell hit eight home runs and stole 11 bases in the small sample while slashing .255/.342/.469.

The crazy thing is, since being drafted in 2020, Mitchell’s career-high plate appearances is 357 at this point. He has averaged just 254 a season in his four pro seasons. A wide variety of injuries have kept Mitchell out, so for him to break out, he obviously needs to stay healthy.

The other question mark is contact skills. Mitchell made contact on just 71.7 percent of zone swings and 65 percent overall. So, the contact skills are not all that different from Wallner, who we previously discussed. Mitchell did show a massive jump in plate discipline, seeing his heart-swing minus chase rate improve by ten percentage points in 2024.

Mitchell also has a strong bat speed of 76 mph on average. The exit velocities don’t jump off the page, and 57 percent of his batted balls were on the ground, which is also an issue. He does hit the ball much harder in the air, having a 95 mph on fly balls and 96 on line drives. While the fly balls were limited, Mitchell also pulled just 14 percent of them.

For all the questions, Mitchell has a sneaky 20-homer/20-stolen-base upside. This would likely come with a strong on-base percentage as well. He might be a lower-probability and risky pick as a breakout, but I want at least one share of Mitchell to see where it goes.

MLB Bust: Brice Turang, 2B, 25, 6’0”/188

If you play in a league that values the glove, then you can probably disregard what I am going to say about Turang, given he won a platinum glove last season. He also might have been a league-winning steals source for you as he swiped 50 bases. Unfortunately, I just can’t stomach this kind of profile.

Turang has strong contact skills as the foundation of his profile. Running an 88 percent in-zone contact and 86 percent overall mark are both quite strong. The approach is close to average with a chase rate, heart-swing, and zone-swing rate all right at MLB average.

There is no power to speak of as Turang ranked below the tenth percentile for MLB hitters in barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and bat speed. He also put 54 percent of batted balls on the ground and had a 100.8 mph 90th percentile exit velocity.

Having a .665 OPS is pretty rough for a season-long number, but things got progressively worse all season. In 297 plate appearances from July forward, Turang slashed just .214/.275/.277 with one home run. Sure, he stole 22 bases, but the rest of the profile hurt your fantasy team.

With an ADP of 137!! Yes, you read that correctly. Turang is being drafted just for his steals. I can’t consider paying that price tag. If you roster him in dynasty, I would cash out and sell. In redraft, Turang is an easy avoid.

Milwaukee Brewers Prospect Sleeper: Bishop Letson, RHP, 20, 6’4”/170, A

Letson was an 11th-round pick in the 2023 MLB draft who received an above-slot bonus of $482k. His first full-pro season was strong, as Letson posted a 3.13 ERA across 63 innings with 57 strikeouts and 27 walks.

With plenty of projection on his 6’4” frame, there is room to add to his fastball, which presently sits in the 92-95 mph range, but Letson has already been up to 98 mph. It is an elite extension, which allows the pitch to play up even more. The two-seam regularly has north of 15 inches of horizontal movement, while his four-seam has more carry through the zone.

Letson’s slider has a two-plane break, getting good horizontal movement and nearly 30 inches of horizontal separation from his two-seam to the slider. The changeup is still a work in progress, but it does have heavy fading action. If the pitch further develops this offseason, Letson will have a strong arsenal.

For his age and larger frame, Letson threw strikes at an above-average clip this season, nearly 63 percent. He misses bats and does a good job keeping the ball on the ground. The upside is tremendous here, especially if the fastball continues to tick up.

Milwaukee Brewers Prospect Breakout: Blake Burke, 1B, 21, 6’3”/236, A+

Burke was one of the more underrated power profiles in the 2024 draft, hitting 20 home runs and having 51 extra-base hits while slashing .379/.449/.702 in his junior season at Tennessee. Burke struck out 15 percent of the time and walked around 11 percent of the time. There are quite a few similarities between him and White, who put up big-time exit velocities and makes respectable contact but also chases a bit.

Burke’s exit velocities were 98th percentile among all college hitters as he posted a 95 mph average exit velocity with 110 mph at the 90th percentile. Topping out at 117 mph, Burke has a 54 percent hard-hit rate.

The contact was also respectable as Burke posted an overall contact rate near 84 percent with an in-zone mark north of 88 percent. The issue is, Burke chases a ton out of the zone, coming in north of 32 percent on the chase rate. The good news is he still made good contact on pitches out of the zone.

Burke is a heavy line drive hitter and does a good job getting to the pull side. The power is evident. He has risks at a corner-only profile, but he also brings a lot of likes to the table. If you want a power specialty, Burke might be your guy.