The perils facing young baseball stars in the Dominican Republic with Gus Garcia-Roberts, plus the 2026 minor leagues in review with Spencer Michaelis

The Milwaukee Brewers are among the teams that have had a lot of success building talent through its international pipeline, including players like Jackson Chourio and Jesús Made. But the process has its flaws, including predatory lenders who look to take advantage of families promised bonuses years before they're able to officially sign. Gus Garcia-Roberts (9:10), an investigative reporter from ProPublica, traveled to the Dominican Republic to get a sense of what young star ballplayers and their families face in that fraught period between being identified as a talent and signing day. He joined host JR Radcliffe to discuss what he saw, the forces at work and what Major League Baseball could do about it. 

Then, JR chats with Brewers minor-league guru Spencer Michaelis of Backfield Brew and Brewer Fanatic (30:45) to review the 2026 Brewers minor-league season, which just wrapped with Biloxi's loss in the Southern League Championship Series. They discuss the top players in the system, including those with massive upside even if the numbers don't suggest it, the remarkable offensive season of Andrew Fischer, Made's immediate future and more.