Once Willy Adames officially ended his Brewers tenure by signing with the Giants, the conventional wisdom was that Joey Ortiz would move from third base take over the shortstop position, as Ortiz had been a standout defensive shortstop during his time in the Orioles’ farm system. Indeed, Ortiz got the bulk of looks at shortstop for most of Spring Training, but in recent days, the Brewers have been going with a new alignment of Ortiz at second base, and Brice Turang moving from the keystone over to shortstop.
Manager Pat Murphy stressed that the situation was still very much in flux, telling MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy and other reports that “We haven’t made a final decision. I haven’t made a final decision. I really believe in looking at all of it, taking in all the information and listening to others. I was dead set on, ’Turang is going to be our second baseman, and Ortiz can handle short.’ I still believe that. But, then we toyed with this new setup and I was like, ’This might be better for everybody.’ ”
There is nothing stopping the experimentation from continuing into the regular season, though McCalvy writes that the team wants “Turang and Ortiz set at their positions as much as possible, rather than moving around.” Milwaukee used 108 different defensive lineups during the 2024 season, yet the cornerstones of that shifting lineup were Adames at shortstop, Turang at second base, William Contreras at catcher, and Ortiz with 124 of the starts at third base. Ortiz did make six appearances at second base last year, as well as one appearance as a shortstop.
Turang was a Gold Glove and Platinum Glove winner last season as a second baseman, with public defensive metrics (+22 Defensive Runs Saved, +6 Outs Above Average, +2.1 UZR/150) all wowed by his work at the position. Ortiz was also excellent at third base, posting +8 DRS, +11 OAA, and a +5.0 UZR/150 in 1098 1/3 innings at the hot corner. Against this backdrop of success, the Brewers naturally face some risk in rocking the boat too much on what is already a strong defensive alignment, even if there seems to be little doubt that Turang or Ortiz would adapt well to new positions.
In explaining why Ortiz might be an ideal fit at second base, Murphy noted that “We ask our second basemen to do a lot. What I mean by that is when you play the middle of the diamond the way we play our second basemen for most all right-handed hitters, and the ground we ask them to cover, it’s not too awfully different than short. The number of times you end up throwing a ball from the outfield to a base, the number of times you end up directing a ball in a first-and-third steal situation, the number of times you wind up touching the ball because you’re turning two.”
As for third base, Oliver Dunn has been making a strong bid for the job with a big Cactus League performance. Dunn made his MLB debut last season and hit .221/.282/.316 over 104 plate appearances, playing primarily as a third baseman before a back injury cut short his season in mid-June.
Dunn is a left-handed hitter, so Caleb Durbin (acquired from the Yankees in the Devin Williams trade) was thought to be the top candidate for at least a platoon role at the hot corner. However, Durbin hasn’t hit much this spring, while an unheralded option in Vinny Capra has been tearing the cover off the ball. Capra has a .439 OPS over all of 37 career PA at the big league level, and his .271/.366/.384 career slash line in 984 Triple-A plate appearances is uninspiring but respectable. Because Capra is out of minor league options, the Brewers would have to sneak him through waivers in order to send him down to Triple-A, which might help his chances of breaking camp with the team if the decision is made to give Durbin more seasoning in the minors.
I like it. They’re trying to build the best defense, not just fill positions.
Highly overrated team. Beating up on bad NL central teams. Not even a top 10 team last/this year
Yet they always seem to get it done.
@harrisstan
Dodgers had an 18-15 record against the Central last year. You’d think such a powerful team could have swept all the games. And given the fact that the Brewers played fewer games against the Central teams because of everyone crying about needing a balanced schedule, they were 31-15 in interleague play. I guess the AL was pretty terrible if an overrated team like the Brewers destroyed them. A better record than even the Dodgers!
They’ve finished under .500 once in the last eight seasons. They lose key players every year and yet they always win. And ‘overrated’ by whom? The Reds have a fun young team, the Cubs made moves, the Pirates pitch, all great. But the Brewers win more games. They Brewers are regularly better than Elly De La Cruz’s team, and better than Paul Skenes’ team, and better than Kyle Tucker’s team. I don’t see how you can be overrated in your division when you win the most games in that division.
Highly overrated team? Considering how they make the other teams run around in circles, especially the team I’m a fan of the Cubs, yeah they’re run exceptionally well and their success shows.
Yes, this Cardinal’s fan doesn’t like them either.
Winning teams are built up the middle on D to support their pitchers.
The Brewers have one of the best C’s in MLB; 2 of the best middle infielders that can play either SS or 2B at gold glove levels; and 3 guys that can play CF so they move those guys around to share CF and RF.
This didn’t happen by accident. The Brewers FO understands fundamental baseball. They brought the young players in and have a top-tier coaching staff that brings the best out in them.
For years the Brewers let the Cubs and Cardinals make the eye-popping moves that win the offseason in this comment section……
The Brewers win the regular season.
Much like the Guardians in the AL Central.
I don’t think they are highly overrated, but something has to be done to get them over that playoff hump. Consistently having 90 wins is nice and all and winning the division should never be considered easy but despite all that, winning just two playoff series in like 14 years isn’t really adding up. Ask the Twins.
The playoffs are mostly small sample size noise with no rhyme or reason. They had the series against the Mets won with one of the best closers in baseball the last few years on the mound, who never gives up HRs and he gave up a HR.
The regular season is the better judge of team quality over the long haul and the Brewers had a really good record against over .500 teams and the best teams in baseball. Playoffs often equal crapshoot. Get there enough and it will eventually go your way.
Just to let you know, the NLC was over .500 last year.
Who overrates the brewers ?
Right move in my opinion, Brice is a natural short stop and has better range. Defense won’t be an issue for the brew crew.
Both are actually natural shortstops. I’m curious why you think Brice has better range though. Everything I see on fangraphs suggests otherwise, but maybe there’s something I’m missing…
If Ortiz is doing such a good job at third, why upset everything? Leave him there, shift Turang to SS and put Capra, Durbin (or a mix of players) at second. Third base seems to be a tougher position to fill than second and we all know how important a good shortstop is. Just my two cents.
I agree with what you said. If I was Milwaukee I would use this as a chance to extend Turang. I do think if they didn’t move Turang he wouldn’t consider it because he may get upset about staying at second would hurt his earning power. Plus him being a shortstop increases his trade value. If Pratt and Made keep moving up at a good rate by mid-season next year Pratt at short and Made at third with Ortiz at second then Turang could be traded.
Definitely a big “if.” Expecting two middle infield minor leaguers both to be ready for the majors at the same time in 1-1/2 years is optimistic for any pairing on any team. It’s possible but unlikely.
They could play Rhys Hoskins at short and still finish ahead of the Cardinals. And for the record, Hoskins is one of the least graceful “athletes” I have ever seen wear a MLB uniform.
The torn ACL on a pop up was definitely in “least graceful” category.
Turang projected as a role player 2 years ago. Kudos to the brewers for developing another home grown talent. One of the best franchises at developing home grown talent. Wily improved under the their watch too
5 of Dunn’s 11 hits have been for extra bases. Has looked good so far. Brewers haven’t had a good young core to build around in a long time, seems that is changing