Biography
Jackson Bryan Chourio (born March 11, 2004) is a Venezuelan professional baseball outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2024.
Professional career
Minor leagues
Chourio signed with the Milwaukee Brewers as an international free agent on January 15, 2021, with a $1.9 million signing bonus. He made his professional debut that season with the Dominican Summer League Brewers. During his first professional season, Chourio slashed .296/.386/.447 in 45 games, with five home runs and 25 RBIs.
Chourio began the 2022 season with the Single–A Carolina Mudcats, where he batted .324 (5th in the league)/.373/.600 (3rd) in 250 at bats, with 23 doubles (8th), 12 home runs (9th), and 10 stolen bases. He then played for the High–A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, batting .252/.317/.488 in 127 at bats with eight home runs. He was promoted to the Class AA Biloxi Shuckers prior to the conclusion of the 2022 season. After the season, he was voted the Carolina League MVP and won the league's Top MLB Prospect Award. He was also named a 2022 MiLB Gold Glove as one of the three-best defensive outfielders in the minor leagues. He was the youngest player in Double-A in 2022. Across three classifications, Chourio slashed .288/.342/.538 with 20 home runs and 75 RBIs.
The Brewers assigned Chourio to Double-A Biloxi in 2023. Entering the season as baseball's sixth best prospect, Chourio became the highest-ranked Brewers prospect since Orlando Arcia in 2016. During the season, he was named baseball's top prospect by Baseball America In June 2023, Chourio was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game. In 122 games with the Shuckers, Chourio batted a slash of .280/.336/.467 with 22 home runs and 89 runs batted in, and stole 41 bases. Chourio became the first Double-A player to hit 20 home runs and steal 40 bases since 2005. In addition, his 89 RBI were a Biloxi single–season record. On September 18, 2023, Chourio was promoted to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. In the 6 games he appeared with the Sounds, he batted a slash of .333/.375/.476 with 2 runs batted in.
Major leagues
On December 4, 2023, the Brewers signed Chourio to an eight-year contract worth $82 million with club options for the 2032 and 2033 seasons. As of that date, it was the largest contract given to a player who had not reached the major leagues, surpassing Luis Robert Jr.'s six-year, $50 million contract from 2016.
He made his MLB debut on Opening Day of the 2024 season as the youngest player on any MLB roster. On April 3, 2024, Chourio hit his first career MLB home run off of Daniel Duarte against the Minnesota Twins. However, Chourio's first few months went poorly. At the beginning of June, he had a batting average of .210 and an on-base percentage near .250. After changing his approach, he hit over .300 the following month. On September 12, 2024, against the San Francisco Giants, Chourio hit an opposite-field home run off of Spencer Bivens for his 20th home run of the season, becoming the youngest player in MLB history (20 years, 185 days) to have a 20-20 season, and joined Vada Pinson and Mike Trout as the only players to accomplish the feat in their age-20 season (both Pinson and Trout turned 21 before completing their 20-20 seasons).
In the 2024 National League Wild Card Series, Chourio hit two home runs in a single game against the New York Mets, one of which was a game-tying home run. The accomplishment made him the second-ever under-21-year-old player to accomplish that after Andruw Jones in the 1996 World Series. It was also the first time since Babe Ruth in the 1928 World Series where a player hit two game-tying home runs in a postseason series. Chourio's first home run of the game, in the first inning, also made him the youngest player to hit a leadoff home run in a postseason game.
Personal life
Chourio's younger brother, Jaison, plays for the Cleveland Guardians organization.