First-round pick Keston Hiura among six minor-leaguers invited to spring camp by Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers invited six of their non-roster minor-league players to their spring camp Friday, including second baseman Keston Hiura, their 2017 first-round draft pick.

Others invited were infielder Nate Orf and outfielder Kyle Wren, a pair of veteran minor-leaguers who have performed well at the Class AAA level, pitching prospects Corbin Burnes and Luis Ortiz, and right-hander Jon Perrin, a control pitcher who has consistently performed well in the system.

With the ninth pick in the first round last June, the Brewers took Hiura out of UC-Irvine. He was considered perhaps the best college hitter in the draft but was limited to DH duties by an ailing elbow, so he was brought along slowly in the Arizona Rookie League, where he batted .436 with a 1.339 OPS in 15 games.

Hiura later was promoted to Class A Wisconsin, hitting .333 in 27 games with an .850 OPS.

Orf and Wren spent so much time playing in exhibition games last spring for the Brewers, it made sense to include them in big-league camp. Orf, 27, played in 125 games last season for Colorado Springs, batting .320 with 32 doubles, 11 triples, nine homers, 65 RBI and .397 OBP. Wren, 26, hit .286 in 128 games for the Sky Sox, with 20 doubles, 10 triples, five homers, 62 RBI and 26 stolen bases.

Burnes, 23, a fourth-round pick out of St. Mary's (Calif.) in 2016, is a rising star in the system. Splitting the '17 season between Class A Carolina and Class AA Biloxi, he went 8-3 with a 1.67 ERA in 26 starts, with 140 strikeouts in 145 2/3 innings and only 36 walks.

Ortiz, acquired from Texas in 2016 in the Jonathan Lucroy trade, pitched last year at 21 (he has since turned 22) at Biloxi and took some lumps but still made progress. He went 4-7 with a 4.01 ERA in 22 games (20 starts), holding hitters to a .227 batting average.

Perrin, 24, a 27th round draft pick in 2015 out of Oklahoma State, is known as one of the best command pitchers in the system (51 walks in 305 career innings). He went 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA in 23 games (12 starts) at Biloxi last season, with 21 walks and 91 strikeouts in 105 innings.

Frieri signing official: The Brewers made official the signing of veteran reliever Ernesto Frieri, a move that had been reported Thursday. Frieri, 32, has appeared in only six games in the majors over the previous two seasons, all coming in 2017 with Texas. 

Frieri spent most of last year pitching at the Class AAA level for three organizations – the Yankees, Rangers and Mariners – posting a 3.43 ERA in 31 games with seven saves. In eight seasons in the majors, he has posted an 11-14 record with a 3.59 ERA and 73 saves.