The Milwaukee Brewers have gotten exactly what they hoped for - and maybe a little more - from two of their biggest in-season bets.
Cooper Pratt, who debuted on June 17, and Luis Lara, who arrived in the majors a few weeks later on July 7, are still only months into their big-league careers. Even so, the early returns on the long-term extensions both signed before reaching the majors are looking strong. Pratt locked in an eight-year, $50.75 million deal, while Lara agreed to a seven-year, $31 million contract.
For a team that took a leap of faith on two players whose games still carried questions, the production has been hard to ignore. Pratt’s bat was considered unfinished.
Lara had to prove the offensive burst that helped earn his payday could hold up. Instead, both rookies have delivered.
Pratt has posted 1.3 bWAR and Lara sits at 1.2, giving them a combined 2.5 Wins Above Replacement in short order. On that pace, each is tracking toward a 3.0-plus bWAR season.
The numbers are one thing. The way they’ve looked on the field is another.
Both have shown real comfort at the plate while holding their own defensively, too. Pratt strung together six straight games with an RBI in August, falling just one game short of Ryan Braun’s Brewers rookie record of seven.
Lara has already had his own spotlight moments against the Chicago Cubs, turning in a ninth-inning catch that changed one game before following it up with a walk-off hit in the next victory.
That kind of immediate impact is part of a pattern in Milwaukee. The Brewers have been getting quick production from rookies lately, with Sal Frelick in 2023, Jackson Chourio in 2024, Caleb Durbin and Isaac Collins in 2025, and now Pratt and Lara this season. But as easy as that can look from the outside, it is hardly automatic.
Seattle Mariners shortstop Colt Emerson signed an eight-year, $95 million extension in March, but his first season was derailed by a wrist injury that left him at -0.1 fWAR, with a 67 wRC+ and a 34% strikeout rate. The Baltimore Orioles saw a similar story last year with catcher Samuel Basallo, who signed an eight-year, $67 million deal and then produced -0.2 fWAR and a 56 wRC+ in his first campaign. Basallo has rebounded this year, but his debut season stands in sharp contrast to what Pratt and Lara have already done.
There are plenty of young players around the game who have made instant noise, including Kevin McGonigle, Konnor Griffin and J.J. Wetherholt this season.
McGonigle is currently the front-runner for American League Rookie of the Year. Still, few clubs have matched Milwaukee’s ability to get immediate value from young talent as consistently as the Brewers have in recent years.
That points straight back to the organization’s player-development work, and to President of Baseball Operations Matt Arnold, who has gone big over the last three years by extending players before they even debut and then watching them produce almost right away. It is a risk to hand out that kind of money before a player has taken a major league at-bat, but Chourio, Pratt and Lara have all shown why the Brewers were willing to make those calls - and why their upside still looks higher than what they’ve already put on the board.
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