The Brewers are calling up top prospect Luis Lara, reports Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base. Milwaukee recently extended Lara on a seven-year, $31MM deal before he even made his big league debut. The 21-year-old outfielder was formally selected to the 40-man roster and optioned upon signing that deal. He’ll now be recalled for his big league debut. The Brewers will need to open an active roster spot to accommodate him. Manager Pat Murphy suggested last night that infielder David Hamilton could be IL-bound.
Despite his youth, Lara has laid waste to Triple-A pitching this season. The Venezuelan-born speedster is hitting .321/.432/.470 with nine home runs, 10 doubles, three triples, 24 stolen bases (in 31 tries), and more walks (15.6%) than strikeouts (13.9%).
Baseball America currently ranks Lara as the game’s No. 47 overall prospect. He’s 67th at MLB.com. Scouting reports will often list concerns surrounding Lara’s 5’7″ frame, but he’s touted as a plus-plus runner and center field defender with above-average bat-to-ball skills and good strike zone knowledge. Lara hasn’t hit for much power in the past, but he’s cut back his ground-ball rate by a few percentage points this season (48.1%) and has already connected on a career-high nine home runs. For a player who entered the season with only 10 professional homers, dating back to his 2022 debut in pro ball, that’s a significant development.
Lara’s speed, defense, contact skills and plate discipline already gave him a high floor. If he can sustain his more recent power gains, there’s star potential for the young switch-hitter.
The exact role for Lara remains to be seen. He’s played exclusively in the outfield in his professional career, and the Brewers’ big league trio of Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick have all provided value to the club.
It’s possible there’s a yet-unknown injury within that group and that the Brewers will need to replace both an outfielder and Hamilton. Milwaukee has also tinkered with the possibility of getting Frelick some looks at third base in the past. He’s an elite right field defender, but Brewers brass may feel that replacing him with another elite glove, Lara, makes the Frelick-to-third-base experiment easier to try out on the fly. Frelick has played five major league innings at the position and has worked out as an infielder during spring training in the past.
The 28-year-old Hamilton was unavailable last night due to a hamstring issue. He’s appeared in 74 games this year and posted a .240/.317/.333 batting line in 238 trips to the plate. Hamilton has three homers and has swiped 18 bases in 23 attempts. The Brewers have shuffled him around the infield this season, but he’s been splitting time at third base with Joey Ortiz since Milwaukee called up shortstop Cooper Pratt — another top prospect they extended before a single game in the majors — to take over as the regular shortstop.
Hamilton has graded out particularly well at the hot corner, as has Ortiz. Neither one brings much of anything to the table offensively, however, and Pratt has struggled quite a bit at the plate himself. Even if the plan is actually to try Frelick at the hot corner with Lara taking an outfield spot, Frelick is having a down season (.242/.311/.332) on the heels of last year’s breakout performance (.288/.351/.405). Regardless of how long Hamilton is shelved, one would imagine the Milwaukee front office will be exploring the market for some upgrades on the left side of the infield.
