Brewers Officially Call Up Cooper Pratt, Designate Luis Rengifo for Assignment

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

The Cooper Pratt Era (such as it may be) will begin in earnest Tuesday night. The Brewers plan to start Pratt at shortstop for his major-league debut, and in making room for him on the active roster, they designated infielder Luis Rengifo for assignment. That it's Rengifo's place on the team Pratt is taking is no surprise, but it's of some interest that the veteran has been told to pack his bags, rather than being stashed away on the injured list.

It looked as though Rengifo might have an injury worthy of a stint on the shelf, necessitating and facilitating Pratt's promotion. That would have kept the team's powder dry, holding onto Rengifo and keeping him in the mix with incumbent infield options Joey Ortiz, David Hamilton and Pratt, depending on how things develop from here. Instead, Rengifo is now effectively gone. That makes this move a bit more commital than it looked at first glance.

Pratt is, effectively, taking over at shortstop, making (semi-)permanent the platoon of Ortiz and Hamilton at third base. This locks everything into place a little more than we might have anticipated. A roaring surge or a calamitous slump by either Ortiz or Hamilton could still change the equation. So could Jett Williams turning it on at Triple-A Nashville. Tentatively, though, it sure looks like the team plans to proceed from here with their freshly extended rookie at short and two players working in a complementary role next to him.

There's a little risk here that wasn't there if and when one envisioned Rengifo landing on the injured list. It's not as easy, now, to foresee the team optioning either Ortiz or Hamilton if their performance demands it. The front office is gambling a bit, because this can no longer be an audition of a few weeks or a month. The Brewers need some mileage from Pratt, and their hopes for stabilizing the bottom end of the batting order now rest on the trio of Pratt, Ortiz and Hamilton. 

Rengifo could pass through waivers, given the money still owed to him, but it's unlikely that he'll have interest in going to Nashville. At this point, it seems like the Brewers can hope only to save a morsel of the money they still owe to Rengifo after signing him for $4 million over the winter. They're jettisoning him in the name of making the runway from which Pratt's career will take off as clear as possible. It was already exciting to see Pratt called up. Now, it's also intriguing, and a little bit risky. The upside for his team just rose considerably. Its floor might have dropped a bit, though. The club will hope the latter never comes into play.

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[gregmag]

Rengifo was rocking a .534 OPS.  Jett's at .693 in Nashville.  He hasn't been anywhere near great, and he isn't ready, but if you had to call him up tomorrow, he very likely would outhit and outfield (on the infield) Rengifo.  Maybe the team wouldn't like having its hand forced to call Jett up before the optimal moment, but he'd get decent playing time replacing Hamilton or Ortiz, and he seems like a guy who could take initial struggles in stride.  In the end, then, I don't think DFAing Rengifo rather than stashing him makes any difference.

[Trax]

Eddys Leonard has hit better at AAA than Jett or Cooper.   Maybe he gets a call up at 3rd at some point if needed?    Lara if he continues to rake should be the next guy called up if needed for any reason outfield wise...

[wallus]

13 minutes ago, Trax said:

Eddys Leonard has hit better at AAA than Jett or Cooper.   Maybe he gets a call up at 3rd at some point if needed?    Lara if he continues to rake should be the next guy called up if needed for any reason outfield wise...

Leonard doesn't play the kind of defense we expect at 3rd

[ChapelHeel66]

Had to be done. Bad hitter, bad fielder, bad baserunner. Not a good “floor”.  He’s below replacement so almost anyone could fill the role if the two one trick ponies, Ortiz (fielding) and Hamilton (running) go down.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

6 hours ago, wallus said:

Leonard doesn't play the kind of defense we expect at 3rd

Neither did Rengifo

[Branyanisthegoat]

Thought they could use a AAAA Util type at Nashville before this, so think they really need that now.

Happy they made the move regardless, think the world of Pratt.

[wallus]

7 hours ago, ClosetBrewerFan said:

Neither did Rengifo

Rengifo had positive defensive bwar. Leonard isn't even playing 3B at AAA. 

[Michael Trzinski]

15 hours ago, gregmag said:

Rengifo was rocking a .534 OPS.  Jett's at .693 in Nashville.  He hasn't been anywhere near great, and he isn't ready, but if you had to call him up tomorrow, he very likely would outhit and outfield (on the infield) Rengifo.  Maybe the team wouldn't like having its hand forced to call Jett up before the optimal moment, but he'd get decent playing time replacing Hamilton or Ortiz, and he seems like a guy who could take initial struggles in stride.  In the end, then, I don't think DFAing Rengifo rather than stashing him makes any difference.

Rengifo didn't do much in Milwaukee and I was never a big fan of his. Will/can he take a demotion?

[adambr2]

Rengifo since going to the Padres: .353/.468/.510/.978

Whatever was wrong with his swing, our 3 hitting coaches were unable to diagnose and fix it, and it was quickly fixed upon arrival at San Diego.

This is problematic.

[wiguy94]

47 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Rengifo since going to the Padres: .353/.468/.510/.978

Whatever was wrong with his swing, our 3 hitting coaches were unable to diagnose and fix it, and it was quickly fixed upon arrival at San Diego.

This is problematic.

Nothing has changed with his swing. Still basically identical swint tilt, attack angle, and attack direction. 

[Brewcrew82]

54 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Rengifo since going to the Padres: .353/.468/.510/.978

Whatever was wrong with his swing, our 3 hitting coaches were unable to diagnose and fix it, and it was quickly fixed upon arrival at San Diego.

This is problematic.

You mean to tell me a guy is currently in a hot streak and experiencing the positive regression he was clearly due for at some point? He was never as bad as his surface numbers were for the Brewers, but he's nowhere near as good as his line is for the Padres right now. 

I don't think it's particularly problematic, especially when his swing hasn't changed at all as Wiguy indicates.

[adambr2]

34 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

You mean to tell me a guy is currently in a hot streak and experiencing the positive regression he was clearly due for at some point? He was never as bad as his surface numbers were for the Brewers, but he's nowhere near as good as his line is for the Padres right now. 

I don't think it's particularly problematic, especially when his swing hasn't changed at all as Wiguy indicates.

None of the three of us are qualified to notice if any adjustments were made by their hitting coaches. 

It’s absolutely plausible and not just necessarily a “hot streak” when he had over 200 PAs here of not getting hot. He didn’t hit a single HR as a Brewer, he has 2 in a third as many PAs. 

We can’t have it both ways and say “our pitching coaches will fix him right up” when we acquire a pitcher and completely dismiss the possibility that our coaches miss things that other guys pick up. 

Pretty sure if we thought he was just a hot streak away from being a plug and play #2 hitter we wouldn’t have DFAed him. 

[Brewcrew82]

10 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

None of the three of us are qualified to notice if any adjustments were made by their hitting coaches. 

It’s absolutely plausible and not just necessarily a “hot streak” when he had over 200 PAs here of not getting hot. He didn’t hit a single HR as a Brewer, he has 2 in a third as many PAs. 

We can’t have it both ways and say “our pitching coaches will fix him right up” when we acquire a pitcher and completely dismiss the possibility that our coaches miss things that other guys pick up. 

Pretty sure if we thought he was just a hot streak away from being a plug and play #2 hitter we wouldn’t have DFAed him. 

I mean by that very same logic none of us are qualified to say that any adjustments were made by their hitting coaches...The tracking stats do indicate otherwise. 

Right now it's a hot streak. Nothing more nothing less. He was never as bad of a hitter as he was with the Brewers. Brewers knew this, and opted to go with the young prospect with better defense rather than continue to wait. 

Is it "problematic" that the Brewers' hitting coaches turned around Jake Bauers' and Andrew Vaughn's careers over a much larger sample size? 

[wiguy94]

6 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

None of the three of us are qualified to notice if any adjustments were made by their hitting coaches. 

It’s absolutely plausible and not just necessarily a “hot streak” when he had over 200 PAs here of not getting hot. He didn’t hit a single HR as a Brewer, he has 2 in a third as many PAs. 

We can’t have it both ways and say “our pitching coaches will fix him right up” when we acquire a pitcher and completely dismiss the possibility that our coaches miss things that other guys pick up. 

Pretty sure if we thought he was just a hot streak away from being a plug and play #2 hitter we wouldn’t have DFAed him. 

I wasn't sharing an opinion. I was sharing literal bat tracking stats that show nothing has physically changed with his swing.