Slump no more! Chourio ends O-fer emphatically

Jackson Chourio snapped his 0-for-21 slump in dramatic fashion on Friday night.

The No. 2 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the 10th in prime position to flip the script and end his dry spell. The stage was set with Double-A Biloxi down by a run, with men on first and second and nobody out. One swing and Chourio could call game.

And that is precisely what he did.

The top-ranked Brewers prospect destroyed a fastball at the top of the zone for his sixth home run of the season. The three-run moonshot walked it off to defeat Montgomery, 6-4. Amid the excitement, Chourio capped off his home run trot by using his helmet as a basketball and draining what fans can only assume was a three-point shot, just like his homer.

The jack came off right-hander Enmanuel Mejia and reportedly traveled 372 feet, according to the Shuckers.

Prior to the 0-for-21 skid which dated back to May 18, Chourio slashed .270/.309/.418. His numbers have since taken a tumble, currently slashing .239/.291/.387.

That line, along with six long balls, is certainly nothing to scoff at, but the dip in production is to be expected for a prospect of Chourio’s path. The 19-year-old tore through Single- and High-A in 2022, swatting 20 homers in the process. Now in 2023, Chourio is looking to find his footing in Double-A and dominate like he has in the past. The added hitch is that the Venezuela native is younger than every pitcher he faces.

Take Mejia for example. The Dominican Republic native is 24, a whole five years older than Chourio, who is the youngest player in the Southern League.

“Just the fact he’s competing there and improving, the contact is getting better,” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said of Chourio last week. “He’s done a really good job. The reports on him are really good.”

Right behind Chourio on the Top 100 list is Jackson Holliday, who was selected by the Orioles with the first overall pick last summer. While Holliday is new to the professional scene, he too is 19, three months older than Chourio.

Elsewhere on the farm, No. 16 Brewers prospect Hedbert Perez also got in on the walk-off home run fun. Perez, a fellow Venezuelan, has scuffled at the dish for most of 2023 with Single-A Carolina, but he saved his first roundtripper of the season for an opportune time.