T-Rat Talk: Victor Estevez

Victor Estevez has ended two playoff droughts for two teams - the Carolina Mudcats in 2023 and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 2024 - in the last two seasons. Kyle Lobner's final T-Rat Talk of the season is with the Midwest League's top manager prospect. In the video, Estevez reveals his favorite baseball memory, local restaurant, and uniform that he wore this season. There's more - much more - in the story.

In a season where plenty of top prospects and future major leaguers have passed through the home clubhouse at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, one prospect has drawn plenty of accolades without pitching an inning or taking a single at bat.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers were extremely well represented on Baseball America’s 2024 list of the Midwest League’s best tools, with players who appeared with the team this season claiming 9 of the 21 honors as voted on by the league’s 12 managers. Timber Rattlers infielder Luke Adams (best strike zone judgment and best defensive third baseman) and outfielder Luis Lara (best defensive outfielder and best outfield arm) were each named twice among the honorees and they were joined their by their manager, as his peers selected Victor Estevez as the league’s top managerial prospect.

Estevez won’t turn 36 until later this week but he’s already built an impressive managerial resume. He’s been at the helm for 635 professional games across three affiliated levels and a season of winter ball, and his teams have posted records at or above .500 in every season since 2019. He had a 141-117 record across two seasons with Low-A Carolina, where he took the Mudcats to the postseason in 2023 for the first time in 15 years. This is his first season with Wisconsin and his team has snapped another long postseason drought, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

As he approaches the end of a long season, Estevez said his biggest point of pride from his first season with the Timber Rattlers is the way his team plays for each other.

“Just the way these guys are connected, I’ll always mention that to everyone. These guys are really taking care of each other. Whenever we’re having good times they’re having fun, and whenever we’re having bad times they pick each other up. That’s the main thing with this team,” Estevez said.

Because Estevez has rapidly climbed up the ranks in the Brewers organization, he has spent a fair amount of time managing the same core group of players at multiple levels. Four members of the 2024 Timber Rattlers also played for Estevez when he managed one of the organization’s two affiliates in the Dominican Summer League in 2021, 14 were with him in Carolina in 2022 and 25 of them were with him in Carolina a year ago.

“It makes it easier,” Estevez said. “Also, it’s a privilege for me for our organization to allow me to have most of the same guys every year because that’s when you start building that elite culture, and that’s what we’ve got right now with our guys.”

It also helps that this group has significant postseason experience. In addition to their Carolina League postseason run last season, the Timber Rattlers also have players from last season’s Arizona Complex League championship team on their roster. Estevez said that while many of his players have seen playoff baseball before, they know that the strengths and strategies that carried them to regular season success will not change with a championship on the line.

“I think we’ll be doing the same thing,” Estevez said. “We’ve been playing really good defense all year, helping our pitchers out, and then the way the team is built right now, guys with high contact offensively, I think gives us a really good chance to win a baseball game on a daily basis.”

One thing is different for Estevez’s team this season, however: They qualified for the postseason by winning the Midwest League West Division in the first half. That’s something Carolina was unable to do in 2023 and something no Timber Rattlers team had done since 2012. That Wisconsin team went on to win a Midwest League championship.

“It was big. Winning in the second half is not easy,” Estevez said. “It’s the end of the year, players get tired, a lot of people move through the organization. So clinching in the first half was pretty good for us, because it’s really hard in the second half.”

Minor league teams are always something of a modern parallel to the Ship of Theseus, a mythological ship that continued its voyage long after all the original parts had been replaced. The 2024 Timber Rattlers, however, have had to replace parts on their ship more often than usual: 24 position players and 37 pitchers have appeared in a game for Wisconsin this season. The latter is unprecedented in franchise history, as the Timber Rattlers’ previous record for pitchers used in a season was 32 in 2022. This is only the third time since the Timber Rattlers became a Brewers affiliate that they’ve even used 30 or more pitchers in a season. Despite all of that turnover, however, the Timber Rattlers are still allowing about half a run per game fewer than the average Midwest League team.

“For our pitching staff, all credit goes to (Timber Rattlers pitching coach) Josh Spence,” Estevez said. “Spence has done a tremendous job communicating with our coordinators, communicating with our pitchers. He’s been really good. He really holds pitchers accountable and then so far, I think in general we’re having a really good season from the pitching side.”

Estevez and his team have already won 74 games this season, the most by any Timber Rattlers team in more than a decade, including more than a handful of dramatic comebacks and a near no-hitter. He declined to pick a favorite, however.

“Every win is special. It’s really hard to win a baseball game,” Estevez said.

Next week Estevez will get a chance to rack up some wins that might stand out above the others, however, as he and the Timber Rattlers open the Midwest League playoffs against Quad Cities. The Timber Rattlers will be looking for their first postseason win since 2012, and Estevez will get another chance to chase the championship that eluded his grasp in 2023.

“That would be a dream come true. We all really want this. We basically talk about this every day, players, coaches, everybody. So hopefully our guys can finish the season healthy and hopefully we can win it all in the playoffs,” Estevez said.

Last year Estevez went pretty quickly from one season to another, following up his playoff run with Carolina with 50 games managing the Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League. Estevez was the second youngest manager in that league last year and posted a winning record, but said he’s “probably not” going to return to that job this offseason.

“I’m still thinking about it, but I think I’m going to spend some time with my family this year because it’s been a really long year for me,” Estevez said.

Either way, just like any other prospect in the organization Estevez will be looking to continue to grow as a manager and build on this season’s success in 2025.

“Just continue to grow in my leadership skills, continue to get better with my English: I think that’s always going to be an opportunity to grow, especially as I keep moving up I know I’m going to have to talk more with the media and with players. Just continuing to improve my English and trying to become a true bilingual guy,” Estevez said.