Cubs fans shouldn't fear this top prospect making Opening Day roster for rival

Jackson Chourio is a name that prospect fans around baseball have been aware of for a couple of years now. His meteoric rise has been nothing short of astounding and it is now going to culminate in his making the Opening Day roster for the Milwaukee Brewers and potentially making history in the process.

Simply by making the team Chourio will become the youngest player to make his Brewers debut on opening day since Robin Yount. If he were to start the game in center field he would “be the third-youngest player to start there on opening day since 1900.”

Great baseball players are great for baseball, but fans of the Chicago Cubs should not start to run for the hills in fear of this highly talented prospect.

Don’t fear Chourio (or the Brewers)

Even if we were to say that Chourio was going to put up the same numbers in the majors that he did in 122 games of AA last season (he only played 6 games in AAA), then he’d be a super solid player who put up a .280/.336/.467 slash line with 22 homers and over 100 strikeouts. 

That’s a good player. You could make the argument that when you add in his speed it makes him a great player. 

However, this is a player who turned 20 years old last week and has only taken 21 at-bats above AA on a team that has lost its manager, traded its Cy Young caliber ace, and lost its closer going into the 2024 season. 

Use your brain when comparing Chourio to Pete Crow-Armstrong

When you look at the fact that Pete Crow-Armstrong was sent to AAA in the first round of cuts and Jackson Chourio made the opening day roster for a division rival, don’t despair.

The difference in those situations is more about where those two teams are in terms of competing than it is between who those two players are.

If you wanted to compare the two players, you’d see that Crow-Armstrong had a higher batting average, higher on-base percentage, higher slugging percentage, and fewer strikeouts than Chourio at the same level. 

The difference here is that the Cubs have a Gold-Glove-winning former MVP on a brand new contract manning center field and the Brewers did not.

In a perfect world, I’m sure they’d love to get the future of their franchise a few more at-bats in AAA, but as new Cubs’ manager Craig Counsell knows, Milwaukee doesn’t get to live in a perfect world that’s a right reserved for fans in the north side of Chicago.

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