Milwaukee Brewers Prospect Cooper Pratt On Three Playoff Teams In 2024

Cooper Pratt played for three teams that made it to the minor-league playoffs in 2024. That’s historically impressive, especially for a shortstop in his second professional season.

Just how did the sixth-round choice out of Magnolia (MS) High School in the 2023 MLB Draft accomplish this feat?

He began the season with the Carolina Mudcats of the Class A Carolina League and helped them win the first-half championship, securing a playoff berth with a 41-24 record. He played with them until June 28 before being promoted.

The Mudcats’ record was 57-37 with Pratt. He hit .295 with 25 stolen bases and 3 homers over 73 games for Carolina. The Mudcats went on to win the league championship without him.

Pratt joined the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the High A Midwest League. In 23 games, he hit 5 homers as the club finished with a 77-54 record. Wisconsin then ousted the Quad City River Bandits in two games in the first round of the playoffs. Pratt went 0-for-4 in the opener but was the hero of a comeback win in Game 2.

Trailing, 6-4, in the bottom of the ninth, the Rattlers rattled off three runs to win it. Pratt’s third hit of the night drove in the tying run, though another runner was thrown out trying to score the game-winner. Pratt did that when the next batter, Luke Adams singled him home from second base.

In the championship series against the Lake County Captains, Pratt doubled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth for a 5-4 victory in Game 1. Earlier, he walked and scored.

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Pratt went 1-for-8 the next two games in Lake County as the Captains won the title. But Pratt’s season was not over. The Brewers promoted him to Double-A Biloxi, where the Shuckers were in the Southern League playoffs.

In two games, he went 2-for-8 with a homer and three RBI. The Shuckers lost the series to the Montgomery Biscuits, two games to 1.

Highly Regarded

Pratt’s verbal commitment to play college ball at Ole Miss scared some teams away in the draft. The Brewers changed his mind by giving him a $1.35 million signing bonus as the 182nd player picked in 2023. That was more than the previous 61 selections were offered.

The Brewers loved his defense and figured his 6-foot-4, 195-pound frame would only get stronger as he matured. The family tree likely played a role in their decision, too.

“He’s got great instincts,” Brewers VP of scouting Tod Johnson told MLB.com. “He's just a really, really good baseball player. His power started to develop a lot this year, as well, as he kind of filled in a pretty lean, lanky frame. He's got really good pitch recognition — for a high school kid, especially — and just really good actions.”

At age 18, he hit .356 in 12 games in the 2023 Arizona Complex League.

At age 20, Pratt now is listed as Milwaukee’s No. 2 prospect overall by MLB Pipeline, which draws a comparison to Baltimore Orioles star Gunnar Henderson.

All In The Family

The family that plays together … sends family members all over the place to play. Cooper is one of 11 members of the Pratt family, including five uncles, to gain notice playing sports.

Younger brothers Quincy and Jet have big footsteps to follow. Quincy has committed to play college ball at Ole Miss. The youngest, Jet, is in eighth grade and draws comparisons to his brothers. That includes infielder Ozzie, 22, who has hit .306 with 9 homers and 87 RBI in 157 college games for Brigham Young (2022-23) and Southern Mississippi.

Dad Russell played college ball at Utah. Mom Heidi was a college softball shortstop at two schools. As for his uncles:

· Trent was a catcher at Auburn drafted by the Texas Rangers (38th round, 1998), Arizona Diamondbacks (34th round, 2001) and Philadelphia Phillies (12th round, 2002). He played four years in the Phillies’ system.

· Scott was an infielder/outfielder at Auburn picked in the 41st round by the San Diego Padres in 1995 and third round by the Cleveland Indians in 1998. He played eight seasons in the minors, batting .260 with 56 homers, 314 RBI and 149 steals. He played829 games overall, 223 of them in Triple A.

· Paul pitched in 58 games over four college seasons for Air Force.

· Kyle played baseball at Dixie State in Utah.

· Mark played football at Youngstown State as a 6-foot-3, 295-pound offensive lineman and signed with the Arizona Cardinals, but never got into an NFL game.

Family Matters

Scouts often study a family’s lifestyle to get a closer look at how a prospect may develop. Not to say that Pratt will follow the same meteoric career trajectory, but when Cleveland scouts met Hall of Fame slugger Jim Thome’s parents, they figured the skinny shortstop was due to develop.

His father, mother, aunt and grandmother were softball legends in Illinois, where Aunt Caroline is in the women’s softball hall of fame. Older brothers Chuck and Randy played high school baseball. All of them were bigger than Jim, who was a 6-foot-1, 170 pound teen. Cleveland took a chance on the skinny kid, making him a 13th-round pick in 1989 out of Illinois Central.

He had no homers and 14 errors in 55 games at age 18 in the Gulf Coast League. So much for shortstop. Moved to third base, he played OK defense and his batting prowess took off. He hit .340 in 1990, .319 in 1991 and .329 in 1992 in the minors – but with very little power.

In 1993, he was sent to Triple-A Charlotte, as a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder. Manager Charlie Manuel had played at approximately the same size. He taught Thome how to pull a ball. The result: 25 homers, 102 RBI and a .332 average.

Thome kept growing to 250 pounds. His MLB totals grew to 612 homers, 1,699 RBI. He had 17 more homers in 71 post-season games, too.