Pratt to IL……Bae selected

[markedman5]

Ouch

 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Jett Williams can't catch a break. Two times now he was likely slated to be the next guy up, only to get hurt at the exact wrong time.

[DonBarclay]

Really hope Joey O isn’t down for anything passed today. Can’t have Hamilton as the every day SS, or this cat at 3B.  

[dlk9s]

Brewers should have more injuries. It's really fun.

[DonBarclay]

I find it interesting when a guy like Shewmake elects free agency rather than staying with a club that has such little infield depth that they had to acquire him to begin with. Fastest path back to the bigs would have been waiting on an injury in Milwaukee. 

[markedman5]

5 minutes ago, DonBarclay said:

Really hope Joey O isn’t down for anything passed today. Can’t have Hamilton as the every day SS, or this cat at 3B.  

Certainly not at this part of the schedule…….

[Bulldogboy]

You're telling me the best system in baseball has no alternative other than a signed off the street guy from yesterday to call up? This keeps happening. What do they have at AAA banana ballers? Come on. Where is the infield depth?

[Steve Drumwright]

The first health obstacle has jumped into Cooper Pratt's MLB career.

The rookie shortstop was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right hamstring Sunday by the Milwaukee Brewers, who signed infielder-outfielder Ji Hwan Bae to a minor-league contract and called him up to the majors. Left-handed reliever Drew Rom was designated for assignment.

It was not immediately clear when Pratt was injured as he played all nine innings of Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins, although manager Pat Murphy said Pratt did have an MRI on the hammy. Pratt is slashing .272/.352/.368 with two homers, 17 RBIs and 10 steals in his first 44 MLB games since making his debut in June. Hamstring injuries can often be slow to heal, depending on their severity.

Bae was recently released from Triple-A by the New York Mets, having put up a .257/.360/.368 slash line with five homers, 32 RBIs and 36 steals in 91 games. He last appeared in the majors in 2025 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and has a career slash line of .223/.294/.293 in 163 games over four MLB seasons, all with the Pirates. He has split his time this year between second base and the outfield and has just three games of MLB experience at shortstop.

That means that David Hamilton, who started at shortstop Sunday, and Joey Ortiz, who was the Opening Day shortstop and the starter until Pratt was called up, will replace Pratt. However, Ortiz is battling neck tightness that forced him out of Saturday's game and kept him out of Sunday's lineup. Top infielder prospect Jett Williams, who is at Triple-A Nashville, is battling wrist soreness and was just sent to Arizona.

View full rumor

[rickh150]

31 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

You're telling me the best system in baseball has no alternative other than a signed off the street guy from yesterday to call up? This keeps happening. What do they have at AAA banana ballers? Come on. Where is the infield depth?

Someone in the Brewers media day to day ask about this, please! No Adams? No Fish? I mean, let's get Murphy or Arnold to state the state of the infield and address why current minor leaguers are not trusted to play backup here a week or two.

[rickh150]

And also the reasons why Made/Fish wil not be considered.  I'd like to hear it and not just assume.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

41 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

You're telling me the best system in baseball has no alternative other than a signed off the street guy from yesterday to call up? This keeps happening. What do they have at AAA banana ballers? Come on. Where is the infield depth?

I think the answer is 40-man roster flexibility. If they add Adams or Fischer, they cannot be removed. Bae can quite easily once the roster is back to full health.

[endaround]

21 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

I think the answer is 40-man roster flexibility. If they add Adams or Fischer, they cannot be removed. Bae can quite easily once the roster is back to full health.

I can see this changing if Ortiz also goes on the IL. The big issue is that they will also be locked out if they are on the 40 man so they don't want to harm development. So maybe Adams has a chance but even then I could see them being cautious. And no the FO is not going to say "well we are planning on a 5 month lockout so we don't want to harm development."

[Tim_Unroe_Helped]

27 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Someone in the Brewers media day to day ask about this, please! No Adams? No Fish? I mean, let's get Murphy or Arnold to state the state of the infield and address why current minor leaguers are not trusted to play backup here a week or two.

I’d venture to guess that if Luke Adams was a middle infielder or if Joey Ortiz wasn’t day to day at this point, Adams would have been called up. With Pratt on the IL and Ortiz (at best) day-to-day, our only middle infielders available were Turang and Hamilton, and that’s with using one of our two emergency 3B in the lineup (the other Frelick, is rehabbing now). For a team that depends son its defense so much, I don’t like the idea of  Vaughn, Adams, or Sanchez (ok, Sanchez should be in blue) playing shortstop or 2nd base.

[BruisedCrew]

I’ve been out of touch for much of the day until now and I’m just seeing this news.

So, suddenly the infield defense that is supposed to be a strength has become a question mark, especially if Ortiz is going to be unavailable for an extended period.

 

 

[cragi]

kind of crazy for Ortiz, Pratt and Williams to go down at the same time

[markedman5]

“ This is the business we’ve chosen “ 

 

[umphrey]

Didn't 3 guys get hurt in a time span of just a few days? They clearly just filled a spot with some random scrub off the street while they figure stuff out and make real plans. 

[torts]

1 hour ago, markedman5 said:

“ This is the business we’ve chosen “ 

 

I am rooting for this kid, what a wild ride!

[liveforoctober]

2 minutes ago, torts said:

I am rooting for this kid, what a wild ride!

It is really hard to watch that clip of him describing his last week and not hope he gets a real chance somewhere.

[Jopal78]

17 hours ago, DonBarclay said:

I find it interesting when a guy like Shewmake elects free agency rather than staying with a club that has such little infield depth that they had to acquire him to begin with. Fastest path back to the bigs would have been waiting on an injury in Milwaukee. 

They play for money, so I assume it’s about cash. An extra $1000/week or a signing bonus, etc., for a player who will be looking for work in November, it’s probably an easy decision to make. 

[DonBarclay]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

They play for money, so I assume it’s about cash. An extra $1000/week or a signing bonus, etc., for a player who will be looking for work in November, it’s probably an easy decision to make. 

I doubt that Shewmake got any extra money from Houston. They DFA’d and sold him to Milwaukee - he’s likely making there exactly what he’d have made in Nashville. Minor league contracts are rarely meaningfully negotiated, and to the extent they are, a 10 day stint in the bigs making league minimum would more than wipe out any negotiated difference. 

[owbc]

You only need about 10 days on an MLB roster to make an entire year of AAA salary, so it’s a pretty big deal. 
 

(guys on the 40 man do a little better but they still are making way more for every day in the bigs) 

[Dragonbait]

He went back to an organization that he knows. 

[Jopal78]

5 hours ago, DonBarclay said:

I doubt that Shewmake got any extra money from Houston. They DFA’d and sold him to Milwaukee - he’s likely making there exactly what he’d have made in Nashville. Minor league contracts are rarely meaningfully negotiated, and to the extent they are, a 10 day stint in the bigs making league minimum would more than wipe out any negotiated difference. 

You don’t know that, minor league players are not all paid on a flat rate. Shewmake has been with 7 different organizations in 7 years and has 162 MLB PA’s in that time frame. Those kind of professional ball players are absolutely going to chase $1000 (perhaps less) a week. The  same reason  applies to why career minor leaguers play in foreign leagues in the American off season (money!).

However, looking a bit closer, Shewmake is from Texas and played college ball at Texas A&M, the decision to go back to Houston is probably no more complicated than he wants to play minor league ball near where he lives. 

[DonBarclay]

11 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

You don’t know that, minor league players are not all paid on a flat rate. Shewmake has been with 7 different organizations in 7 years and has 162 MLB PA’s in that time frame. Those kind of professional ball players are absolutely going to chase $1000 (perhaps less) a week. The  same reason  applies to why career minor leaguers play in foreign leagues in the American off season (money!).

However, looking a bit closer, Shewmake is from Texas and played college ball at Texas A&M, the decision to go back to Houston is probably no more complicated than he wants to play minor league ball near where he lives. 

You’re right that I don’t know that, hence the phrase “I doubt”…. And you don’t know that he did get any extra money. I understand the reasons why Houston would be better than Milwaukee from that perspective, but it’s quite clearly worse from a major league opportunity in 2026 perspective. Your point of having 162 PA’s across 7 orgs in 7 years all the more reinforces that - the opportunities to make it in the big leagues are drying up by the day. A 2 week stint with a big league paycheck and an opportunity to catch some club’s eyes is extremely valuable and limited at this stage. 

To each their own - perhaps he’s got a family, etc and this was the best move for him personally. Extremely hard to say it was the best move for him professionally.