Milwaukee Brewers reportedly reach landmark $82M deal with 19-year-old OF Jackson Chourio, who has played zero MLB games
The Milwaukee Brewers have reportedly agreed to a landmark deal with their No. 1 prospect, 19-year-old outfielder Jackson Chourio. According to multiple reports, the deal is worth $82 million over eight years, with two additional club options that could bring the full deal to 10 years.
This is a landmark deal because Chourio, one of the top prospects in all of baseball, has yet to make his MLB debut. In fact, he has played just six games with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds (and he was the youngest player across all teams at that level), having spent the first five-and-a-half months of the 2023 season with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. Although he isn't the first player to sign a contract extension before reaching the majors, this will be the richest contract ever given to a player who has yet to play an MLB game.
Chourio has been in professional baseball for nearly three years. The Brewers signed the Venezuelan native as an international free agent in January 2021 and gave him a signing bonus of nearly $2 million. Since then, he has shown exactly why the organization valued him so highly. He hit nearly .300 in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and in 2022 rose through three minor-league levels, finishing with a .288/.342/.538 batting line. He hit .283/.338/.467 in 2023 and added both power and speed to his game, hitting 22 home runs and stealing 44 bases, both career highs by far.
The Brewers do not lack for outfield depth. There currently carry eight outfielders on their 40-man roster. Garrett Mitchell, Joey Wiemer and Sal Frelick are all 25 or younger, and Christian Yelich is entering year five of his nine-year, $215 million contract. Still, giving Chourio this contract now is a good indicator that the Brewers want him on their 2024 Opening Day roster and might be open to trading some of their players to make room for him.
There have been five other players who have signed contracts before they played a single game in the majors. Houston Astros first baseman Jon Singleton, Philadelphia Phillies infielder Scott Kingery, Chicago White Sox outfielder Eloy Jiménez, Seattle Mariners first baseman Evan White and White Sox outfielder Luis Robert, whose six-year, $50 million deal signed in January 2020 is the current record for the largest contract extension given to a player with zero days of MLB service time.
When Chourio's deal goes through, he'll become the sixth player on that exclusive list, and his extension will easily pass Robert's as the richest.
According to Brewers beat reporter Curt Hogg, Chourio is already in the United States, having flown in last week to finalize the deal. If everything goes according to plan, he'll be doing a news conference with the Brewers before he flies back home.
