Jackson Chourio spent the 2023 gamble season making the Brewers look smarter by the week.
In his third MLB season, the 2023 gamble keeps paying off in every direction. Chourio missed the first month with a hand fracture and still got into only 127 regular-season games, but he piled up career highs in home runs (25), stolen bases (23), hits (152), runs scored (96), walks (47), batting average (.291), on-base percentage (.351), and slugging percentage (.487).
Then came the postseason, where he took the whole thing up another level. During this year’s World Series run, Chourio became Milwaukee’s “Mr.
October” by setting franchise records for postseason home runs and RBI. His October line included a walk-off game-winner against Mason Miller in the NLDS, plus a hit in all five World Series games.
Four of those five games featured multi-hit efforts, and he also had a four-hit game.
He wasn’t just carrying the bat, either. Chourio made his mark in left field with a string of standout plays, including the catch of Ty France’s fly ball off the roof at American Family Field in Game 1 of the NLDS, the final out of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and an outfield assist when he threw out Liam Hicks at home plate during the World Series.
The season ended with another piece of hardware for Chourio: his first Gold Glove award. Long viewed as a strong defender in the minors, he backed up the “five-tool” label by taking his left-field defense to another level this year.
On Thursday, he added another honor to the mix when he was named a Silver Slugger finalist. The winners of this year’s Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards will be revealed on November 17 exclusively on FanSided’s “The Baseball Insiders podcast and YouTube show.
That awards haul only sharpens the focus on Milwaukee’s decision to lock him up early. The Brewers signed Chourio to an eight-year, $82 million extension before he had even played a major league game, a record amount at the time for a player who had not yet debuted.
The financial picture is starting to tilt in Milwaukee’s favor. Over Chourio’s first three MLB seasons, the contract has carried a total payroll hit of $13.75 million.
Those seasons usually fall in a player’s pre-arbitration window, when salaries generally stay below $1 million a year. In 2027, Chourio is set to make $8.25 million, which would have been his first season of arbitration eligibility.
The comparisons help show where that number sits. Gunnar Henderson, a Rookie of the Year winner for the Baltimore Orioles and a Silver Slugger, made $8.5 million this year in his first year of arbitration. Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds, who has no awards to his name, is projected by MLB Trade Rumors to earn $7.9 million this offseason in his first year of arbitration.
Given Chourio’s Gold Glove, the chance at a Silver Slugger, and his postseason impact in a World Series championship run, he likely would have landed near the top of that range in arbitration, perhaps close to Henderson’s $8.5 million figure. Instead, Milwaukee has him at $8.25 million for 2027.
And the savings figure to grow from there. Without the extension, Chourio would have reached free agency before the 2030 season.
If he keeps producing at this level, his first free-agent deal could have carried an average annual salary above $30 million. The Brewers, though, will pay him $16.25 million in 2030.
He has cost a little more than he otherwise would have in his first three seasons, but Milwaukee is now positioned to collect the real payoff from the deal.
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