Dunn starting at 3B….Are you cool with it?

[Scooterfletcher]

The more I see him performing this spring so far, the more I kinda feel we should just go with Dunn at 3B at least in a platoon if not give him first crack altogether.

My reasoning I’ve come up with in my head is multiple:

1) At this point save money and spend when a better opportunity presents itself

2) Cooper Pratt.   He looks like a guy that might start the year in AA and end up in AAA and ideally being ready to take a starting infield job a month into next season (for control purposes),   If you believe this trajectory is fairly realistic, it would be best to get Dunn and Durbin (to a lesser extent Montasario too) the at bats and PT as we climb closer to World Series candidates over the next few years.

3) Nothing great out there now or even really was out there. This off season   I was all for Moncada cheap (we can argue the merits of that idea) but short of that, there was nothing great on the market.   Short of trading Devin plus for Bohm, maybe adding Durbin to the mix to supplement Dunn makes the most sense.   I think Pratt is the key though.   If we feel he is somewhat likely to be ready early 2026, I think the Dunn/Durbin/Mona triumvirate actually makes the most sense to open the season.  
 

4) As an aside, it’s weird that Gyorko OPS’d over .800 for us the COVID year then hasn’t been heard from since.   He had a good enough glove at 3B and wasn’t super old.   Kinda weird to me.

Thoughts?

[jesusoftheapes]

YES ! I am cool with it !  While Dunn had an interruption in AA -AAA giving him less time down in AAA than some believe is enough time by being moved to the Brewers like he was and when he was moved that to me does not mean he cannot start at 3rd and excel there in 2025 .  

The injury issues he had in 2024 held him back and his cold start when he was in Milwaukee was not the vision of him as a player we all wanted right out of the gates but I think we can throw 2024 out the window and still be very excited for what Dunn can do here.   

Dunn has all the tools we need from 3rd and he is a good defensive player with a better arm than Joey O and a better bat .   

We saw Joey have a hot month last season and nothing after that since.  I fear we got a moment in time when Joey was playing way above his ability and is not carrying a .280  bat or anything close .  I think Dunn can bat near .280 + and give the Brewers 20+ home runs from his time at 3rd if starting as long as he stays healthy .  

I also think that Dunn being at 3rd is not the end of the world if he flops there.  WE have plenty of backup plans in spades here.    From Durbin, Ortiz and even Sal we have more than enough buffer to see if we can get the best out of Dunn at 3rd .    

He is much to talented not to try him there .   He could be one of the best 3rd basemen in all of the game with the tools he brings .    I say give the guy a shot there and let it play out.    

[AKCheesehead]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Gyorko pretty much decided to call it quits and go be a family man.

I agree with your points, I think what we have in house is potentially just as good or better than anything we could sign or trade for at this point in the year.  Revisit in May/June if 3B is a problem at that time

[jesusoftheapes]

1 minute ago, AKCheesehead said:

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Gyorko pretty much decided to call it quits and go be a family man.

I agree with your points, I think what we have in house is potentially just as good or better than anything we could sign or trade for at this point in the year.  Revisit in May/June if 3B is a problem at that time

Agreed. 

[Scooterfletcher]

27 minutes ago, AKCheesehead said:

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Gyorko pretty much decided to call it quits and go be a family man.

Very respectable.  But I’d have thought he’d want to play more after OPS’ing over .800 and we could have used him the past few years in some sort of a role.   Thanks for the answer to why he never surfaced though.  :)

[AKCheesehead]

22 minutes ago, Scooterfletcher said:

Very respectable.  But I’d have thought he’d want to play more after OPS’ing over .800 and we could have used him the past few years in some sort of a role.   Thanks for the answer to why he never surfaced though.  :)

I got to questioning my own memory of Jerk Store's decision, so I went and found this nice article that confirms it.  For anyone who may be interested in reading about what he's been up to.

[Jopal78]

17 hours ago, AKCheesehead said:

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Gyorko pretty much decided to call it quits and go be a family man.

I agree with your points, I think what we have in house is potentially just as good or better than anything we could sign or trade for at this point in the year.  Revisit in May/June if 3B is a problem at that time

Gyorko had a club option with Milwaukee for ‘21 which the Brewers declined. After that he moved back to West Virginia and got into coaching and is currently on staff with the University of West Virginia baseball team. 
 

As for Oliver Dunn, I’m sure the Brewers will have Durbin in the mix at 3rd. The only other real player Dunn has to compete with at 3B is Capra who is out of options. If the Brewers don’t want to risk losing Capra on waivers he will at least start the year in the rotation at 3B with either Durbin or Dunn at AAA

[wallus]

I'd still sign Iglesias and have him play all over the infield minus 1B.

[AKCheesehead]

5 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Gyorko had a club option with Milwaukee for ‘21 which the Brewers declined. After that he moved back to West Virginia and got into coaching and is currently on staff with the University of West Virginia baseball team. 
 

As for Oliver Dunn, I’m sure the Brewers will have Durbin in the mix at 3rd. The only other real player Dunn has to compete with at 3B is Capra who is out of options. If the Brewers don’t want to risk losing Capra on waivers he will at least start the year in the rotation at 3B with either Durbin or Dunn at AAA

Correct.  Now, whether the declining was due to discussions Gyorko had with the Brewers after '20, indicating his plans to go back to WV, or whether it was because Milwaukee just wanted to deploy the three headed monster of Vogelbach, Tellez and Hiura at 1B instead, we don't know.  But Gyorko did have other MLB offers on the table afterwards, but he chose to be a present husband and father instead. 

Now as for Ollie in the here and now...It's nice to see him off to a great start in ST, even if it is more or less meaningless. 

[yoshii8]

I have very little confidence in him but I mean I hope he does well. 

[jay87shot]

Dunn has looked pretty good in spring even if it is under 20 abs. I have said this before, he has the tools to be a very good player. He recorded high sprint rates, played a solid 3B in a limited sample, and showed some power, and the ability in the minors to take a walk. I wouldnt be to surprised to see a .250/.333/.425 type guy who could get close to a 20/20 season with positive defense if things go well.

[bigred]

On 2/28/2025 at 3:47 PM, Scooterfletcher said:

The more I see him performing this spring so far, the more I kinda feel we should just go with Dunn at 3B at least in a platoon if not give him first crack altogether.

My reasoning I’ve come up with in my head is multiple:

1) At this point save money and spend when a better opportunity presents itself

2) Cooper Pratt.   He looks like a guy that might start the year in AA and end up in AAA and ideally being ready to take a starting infield job a month into next season (for control purposes),   If you believe this trajectory is fairly realistic, it would be best to get Dunn and Durbin (to a lesser extent Montasario too) the at bats and PT as we climb closer to World Series candidates over the next few years.

3) Nothing great out there now or even really was out there. This off season   I was all for Moncada cheap (we can argue the merits of that idea) but short of that, there was nothing great on the market.   Short of trading Devin plus for Bohm, maybe adding Durbin to the mix to supplement Dunn makes the most sense.   I think Pratt is the key though.   If we feel he is somewhat likely to be ready early 2026, I think the Dunn/Durbin/Mona triumvirate actually makes the most sense to open the season.  
 

4) As an aside, it’s weird that Gyorko OPS’d over .800 for us the COVID year then hasn’t been heard from since.   He had a good enough glove at 3B and wasn’t super old.   Kinda weird to me.

Thoughts?

I understand your points, except for Cooper Pratt. I agree with you, that it's looking like he's gonna a be a future star, but no matter how good he plays in the minors, I think it's highly doubtful that he'll make it to the majors this year. The only possible way I could see that happening, is if several of our players have season ending injuries. Let's hope that doesn't happen. I think the best thing for him, is to spend the whole season in the minors to keep honing his skills. 

[bigred]

On 2/28/2025 at 3:47 PM, Scooterfletcher said:

The more I see him performing this spring so far, the more I kinda feel we should just go with Dunn at 3B at least in a platoon if not give him first crack altogether.

My reasoning I’ve come up with in my head is multiple:

1) At this point save money and spend when a better opportunity presents itself

2) Cooper Pratt.   He looks like a guy that might start the year in AA and end up in AAA and ideally being ready to take a starting infield job a month into next season (for control purposes),   If you believe this trajectory is fairly realistic, it would be best to get Dunn and Durbin (to a lesser extent Montasario too) the at bats and PT as we climb closer to World Series candidates over the next few years.

3) Nothing great out there now or even really was out there. This off season   I was all for Moncada cheap (we can argue the merits of that idea) but short of that, there was nothing great on the market.   Short of trading Devin plus for Bohm, maybe adding Durbin to the mix to supplement Dunn makes the most sense.   I think Pratt is the key though.   If we feel he is somewhat likely to be ready early 2026, I think the Dunn/Durbin/Mona triumvirate actually makes the most sense to open the season.  
 

4) As an aside, it’s weird that Gyorko OPS’d over .800 for us the COVID year then hasn’t been heard from since.   He had a good enough glove at 3B and wasn’t super old.   Kinda weird to me.

Thoughts?

My bad. I just saw you said next season for Pratt. Imo, before Pratt makes the big team, they'd need to help him get his swing to have a better launch angle, so he hits for more power.

[brewmann04]

Think 3rd will a weak spot 

[endaround]

19 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

Dunn has looked pretty good in spring even if it is under 20 abs. I have said this before, he has the tools to be a very good player. He recorded high sprint rates, played a solid 3B in a limited sample, and showed some power, and the ability in the minors to take a walk. I wouldnt be to surprised to see a .250/.333/.425 type guy who could get close to a 20/20 season with positive defense if things go well.

That is basically Alec Bohm.  I really don't see Dunn doing that.  Dunn is more likely to be a .220/.300/.340 type guy.

[sveumrules]

I was thinking something like 240/310/420 would be a pretty good season for Dunn.

Checked and his 80th percentile ZiPS is 235/320/392 (97 OPS+) so in the general ballpark.

If he could put up something like that along with plus base running and defense (was +0.8 BsR and +3 DRS in his tiny sample last year), you’re essentially talking Ryan McMahon territory.

[Austin Tatious]

Dunn’s K’s are frustrating but I’d much rather see him than have a progress-stopper veteran idling at the spot.  He does have extra base hit upside.  

[StearnsFTW]

On 3/1/2025 at 5:48 PM, yoshii8 said:

I have very little confidence in him but I mean I hope he does well. 

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say.  I think Durbin is more likely to succeed than Dunn.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

You have to go back a few years (ok more than a few), but Dunn compares pretty favorably Casey McGehee, who managed to put up some solid seasons at the hot corner for the Brewers after his unheralded acquisition. Dunn obviously bats lefty and is a substantially better athlete than McGehee.

Going back further, Dunn gives me some Tyler Houston vibes. Houston was a bright spot for some bad teams in the early 2000s

[StearnsFTW]

Dunn is 27 and hasn't done anything of any note in the minors.  He had one good season but was pretty old for the league.  I'm not exactly impressed.

 

Hope to be wrong, but I doubt he's a major league player.

 

Edit:  And, for the record, I would have the exact same thing about McGehee in March of 2009 (and possibly did).

 

[Frisbee Slider]

At what point does Capra earn the opening day start at 3B?

[wallus]

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

At what point does Capra earn the opening day start at 3B?

If Dunn and Durbin are hurt

[MVP2110]

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

At what point does Capra earn the opening day start at 3B?

The Perkins injury might open up a roster spot for Capra, atleast initially. From there he'd have to take advantage of any opportunities he got during the season. I find it very unlikely he is the OD 3B regardless of what happens in spring 

[Frisbee Slider]

34 minutes ago, wallus said:

If Dunn and Durbin are hurt

Capra’s 1.600 OPS somehow holds through all ST?

[wallus]

8 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Capra’s 1.600 OPS somehow holds through all ST?

ST stats don't mean much to me.