Baseball has been offering a vexing question to small-market clubs for decades.
In a sport with the wealth gap widening by the year due to local TV deals among other franchise-specific financial streams, how do teams on a tight budget consistently compete?
This is something the Milwaukee Brewers attempt to answer every year.
It turns out the best answer might prove to be almost 2,000 miles away in the Dominican Republic.
In 2017, MLB hard-capped international spending, giving every team a chance to find top-tier talent without needing to have deep pockets in free agency or by going on a decade-long tanking mission to earn top picks in the MLB draft. A year later, Milwaukee bought 30 ½ acres in Santo Domingo Este to eventually open a state-of-the-art facility while concurrently spending $60 million in 2018 under owner Mark Attanasio to renovate their Arizona spring training facility.
The Dominican dream was completed for more than $20 million last year on a 1.3 million-square foot academy. It’s able to house 106 players between 22 dorm rooms and three tryout player rooms. Overall, there are four structures for the academy including a dorm, clubhouse, kitchen and administration building. Inside the clubhouse, a 3,400-square foot gym can be found, five times the size of what it was in the previous facility. Finally, there are two classrooms to help players both complete high school and learn English.
“I’m very appreciative of what the Milwaukee Brewers have done for Latin American players, myself and other Latins that they have,” says star outfielder and native Venezuelan Jackson Chourio. “I think what they do is give us an opportunity to play and do a good job of opening the door for us and giving us that opportunity. The truth is that complex down in the Dominican Republic is awesome. It’s beautiful. When I was down there, it wasn’t quite the same. I’ve gotten the chance to go down there and it’s incredible.”
Every MLB team has an academy in the Dominican Republic, a baseball hotbed that contributes the most players to the major leagues outside of the U.S. But their new crown jewel should help the Brewers attract top talent in Latin America, helping them to continue a streak of success highlighted by six playoff appearances over the past seven years, including four National League Central titles and a 2018 trip to the NL championship series.
“It’s not even close. It’s not even close,” says Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta, comparing the current facility to the previous one. “I remember last offseason I stopped by and it was crazy. I was in shock. I was surprised at how everything looks there. The kitchen is huge. The weight room, the fields, everything. It’s an unbelievable place. I told them to do whatever you need to do to these guys and let them know there’s another level because they probably don’t want to come out of here. This is a beautiful place.”
Chourio came along before the new facility opened, but symbolizes the organization’s commitment to scouting in Latin America.
In January 2021, the Brewers signed the 16-year-old Chourio using their international pool money, along with a $1.9 million signing bonus, the biggest bonus in franchise history for an international prospect.
Once in Milwaukee’s system, Chourio became a baseball comet. He began in the Dominican Summer League and Venezuelan Winter League before going to High-A in 2022, finishing that season with six games at Double-A Biloxi. The next year, Chourio dominated the circuit, slashing .280/.336/.467 with 22 home runs, 89 RBI and 43 stolen bases across 122 games.
Then, before the 2024 season, Milwaukee general manager Matt Arnold did something the Brewers had never done before. He bought out Chourio’s arbitration years before the prospect ever stepped onto the grass at American Family Field, giving him $82 million over eight years.
And while Choruio isn’t the first player to ever sign a long-term deal with a MLB team prior to his first at-bat, his entire journey could be a template to be followed.
“I think it’s certainly something we’re open to and we want to make sure we’re making bets on the right players and the right people first and foremost,” says Arnold of the Chourio-type extension. “… With Jackson, we felt like we had all those ingredients in place and obviously, there’s some real risk when you make those kinds of bets. But when you’re talking about the right kind of person, we’re always open to those kinds of agreements with our younger players.”
To that point, there are a few Latin players new to Milwaukee’s system who could see a similar trajectory.
A year ago, the Brewers landed a tremendous international haul, signing infielder Jesús Made (ranked No. 1 among Brewers prospects by MLB Pipeline) and shortstop Luis Peña (No. 5) before putting them into the Dominican facility. Both of them are now in Low A with the Carolina Mudcats and producing.
Made, who just turned 18 last month, is slashing .280/.389/.423 with 16 extra-base hits, including four home runs, and 23 stolen bases in 47 games. Peña, also 18, has been even better with a .319/.378/.522 line and 15 extra-base hits alongside 24 swiped bags in just 35 games (a concussion briefly sidelined him in May). Perhaps most encouraging is that in 156 plate appearances, Peña has struck out just 18 times, a remarkably low rate for a player who would’ve just graduated high school if he grew up in the U.S.
“The similarities are that [Made, Peña and Chourio] stand out immediately,” says Carolina manager Nick Stanley. “All three of those guys, as soon as you see them do anything, take a swing, run down the first base line, you say, I think all three of them are really focused on their careers and want to be great. I saw Jackson as a 19-year-old all year in Double A in 2023, and it was clear he wanted to be a great Major League player. I’m seeing some of those same things out of Made and Peña right now.”
At spring training, Milwaukee made sure to get the pair stateside to spend some time around the parent club. While neither came close to taking an at bat or anything of that nature, the visit was fruitful as some of the top-line prospects got to spend time with some of the Brewers’ big-league stars.
Speaking with Peralta, the 29-year-old talked about that moment as a time to impart wisdom on how to create and refine their routines while learning what makes their respective games work well and using preparation to their advantage.
“One of the big things that we made sure to try to do as much as possible was bring those young Latin players over to Major League camp and get that experience,” Arnold says. “Even if they weren’t in big-league camp, they would come over for the day or they’d stretch in the morning with us and make sure they were around for batting practice. Maybe they weren’t in the game but they’d spend the day in the dugout. Having that experience in major league camp, not signed that long ago … we think that’s extremely valuable, especially in that environment.”
For the Brewers, finding and developing Latin talent isn’t just about baseball. It’s about succeeding in the margins, something the organization knows all about in a variety of areas.