MLB Prospect Preview: Keston Hiura
There are now 11 weeks left until the major league baseball season is back. In this series, I highlight one MLB prospect each week who I believe will make a big impact in 2019. Last week, I previewed Astros pitching prospect Forrest Whitley. This week we go up to Wisconsin to see who the Brewers’ newest weapon is.
Photo: MiLB.com
Keston Hiura
2B
Milwaukee Brewers
Photo: Matt Kartozian/USA Today Sports
Keston Hiura is rated as the #30 overall prospect by MLB.com. The most important thing to know about Hiura though, is that he is a flat-out hitter. He was drafted out of UC Irvine, where he had just finished hitting a ridiculously-good .442 average on the season, and was regarded as the best college hitter in the 2017 draft. Though hitting successfully in college doesn’t always translate to the pros, Hiura has not showed any signs of slowing down. In his shortened 2017 minor league campaign, he hit .371 between two teams. This past season, his first full season at the minor league level, Hiura hit .293 between two different teams in the Brewers farm system, jumping up to the Double-A level. His scouting grade for hitting is a 70 (out of 80) which is rare for prospects to get a grade that high. This tells you professional scouts are big believers that Hiura’s hitting ability will translate very well to the majors.
In the Arizona Fall League after the 2018 season, Keston led the league (which is always loaded with prospective talent) in hits, RBIs, and total bases to win the AFL MVP award. While his bat just seems to come natural, the rest of his skills (power, run, arm, fielding) grade out to be average. So, hitting will definitely be where Hiura makes his mark in the major leagues. With his consistent ability to barrel up balls and drive them to all parts of the field, I see him fitting in nicely at the #2 spot in the order for years to come in Milwaukee.
With only one full year of minor league experience, Hiura should undoubtedly still make his mark in the majors this up-coming season. Since he played three years at the college level, he is currently 22 years old and will be 23 late in the season. Many rookies enter the league a lot earlier than that, so if you’re the Brewers you can’t waste too much more time on him. While he doesn’t have any Triple-A experience yet, he will begin the season in the minors. Brewers fans will have to remain patient as it may even be until the summer when he gets called up, but when he does, look for him to stay. The Brewers have a lot to be excited about with their #1 prospect. One American League scout claimed after the Arizona Fall League, “We all talk about the bat of Vladdy, with obvious reason, but outside of Vladdy, I’d call Keston the purest power bat I saw out in Arizona. He’s just a special, special kid.”