Wednesday Was a Tough Night for Brewers, But Another Great Night for the Corbin Burnes Trade

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of Michael McLoone-Imagn Images

It was a bad night for the Brewers' latest two-player trade package. Dustin May's third start with the team went dreadfully, as the Mariners took out their frustrations over Tuesday's 22-0 whupping by chasing May after seven early runs. JoJo Romero is still on the injured list. The clock is ticking on getting value from that deal, since both May and Romero are impending free agents. Besides, it would have been nice to win that game, securing a series victory and widening the team's advantage over the Cubs after they lost Wednesday afternoon.

For those willing to look beyond the final score, though, there was some real consolation to be found as the game unfolded. Joey Ortiz had three hits, including a home run, and his hot streak continues. In fact, it's only picking up steam. Since the promotion of Cooper Pratt that pushed Ortiz back to third base, the former Orioles farmhand is batting .302/.340/.519 in 142 plate appearances. He's not walking nearly as often as he did before that (6.3%, versus 11.8% prior to Pratt's call-up), but for Ortiz, walks aren't always a good sign. They often signal passivity, rather than real selectivity and a balanced approach at the plate.

When Ortiz is focused on drawing walks, it's because he's not confident in his swing and because he's not able to get the bat head out and do damage. Over this recent stretch, he has 14 extra-base hits, more than doubling his season total in less playing time than he had before the transition. An aggressive Ortiz who's getting to the ball even a little bit farther out in front is the best version of the player, at least at this juncture of his career.

It's helped that, of late, Ortiz's bat speed has trended up. Early this season, he struggled to generate the same lethal swings that made him enticing as a prospect, but that element is back in his game this summer.

In a perfect world, a batter would create that extra whip without making a significant tradeoff in the shape of their swing. Ortiz isn't a perfect-world kind of hitter, though. He has an unusual profile, letting the ball get much deeper than most hitters with similarly flat swings. In some ways, it makes him dangerous and difficult to defend, but it's also the source of his inconsistency and occasional slumps. He's not a guy who comfortably generates bat speed the same way other hitters do; he's always making tradeoffs. Unsurprisingly, therefore, his boost in swing speed has come with a flattening of his bat path.

What Ortiz has also done, though, is get rid of some of the bat wrap in his load. Early this year, you could see Ortiz counterrotate with his hands and shoulders even as his front foot came down, turning such that the end of his bat momentarily faced out toward the pitcher. That move creates considerable torque, but it also risks making you late. It makes your swing longer early, and it ever-so-slightly delays beginning your actual progress toward the ball. 

Nowadays, Ortiz isn't doing that as much. His move keeps the bat more neutral in its position before he starts to move his hands toward the hitting zone. When that does happen, there's a bit more snap to the hands. He can't create as steep a swing that way, but by generating the same bat speed and starting a hair earlier, he's getting to the ball with his bat working uphill more often than earlier this year—making the force he delivers to the ball pay off more handsomely. 

For a few weeks this spring, it looked like Ortiz might not have any place in the Brewers' future. He was displaced positionally by Pratt, but if David Hamilton had been playing just a little better or Ortiz had responded just a little worse to that change, he might not even be in the majors right now. Because of Milwaukee's glut of infield options, he might still have to find his forever home somewhere else, but the last two months have made it clear that Ortiz can be a productive big-leaguer. Wednesday night offered the latest proof of his upside. One way or another, he's got a lot of value left to offer the team.

Ditto, it seems, for DL Hall, who worked three shutout innings as the bullpen kept Seattle quiet. Over his last five appearances, Hall has fired eight frames of one-run ball, allowing two hits and two walks against eight strikeouts. Like Ortiz, Hall finds his success unconventionally. He's not a huge strikeout guy, and he walks more batters than is ideal, but he consistently limits damage by opposing batters. Earlier this summer, I wrote about the broad skill of swing disruption, using Statcast's swing timing and miss distance data. The piece focused on Aaron Ashby, but only because Hall was on the injured list at the time. It's Hall who best dominates batters in this specific sense. He's great at forcing them to slightly (only slightly, but that's often enough) mistime their swing, and at getting them to hit the ball off the end of the bat, and at getting them to hit the bottom third of the ball, which often results in lazy fly balls.

Unconventional though he might be, Hall is now fully back in the groove, and he's more important to the team's bullpen than initially planned or hoped. His showing Wednesday night was the latest evidence that he's up to the task. The Brewers lost an ugly game, but it was just one. They're still in good shape as they try to sew up their fourth straight division title and secure a bye to the Division Series. The game also yielded reasons to hope that Ortiz and Hall can sustain their positive contributions, which is great news. Both players, acquired as a package like May and Romero but at the much higher cost of Corbin Burnes before the 2024 campaign, have multiple avenues by which they can help the team remain successful for several more seasons. 

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[keephopealive]

Joey O has been our best hitter in the second half, leading the team with a wRC+ of 184 since the All-Star break. 

[Team Canada]

If Joey's going to continue hitting like this, we don't have a 3B problem.

[Outlander]

Failed to mention the fine outing for Bryse Wilson who knew all along that Joey was a generational player.

[Rebel6]

Also waiting on Blake Burke who was part of the Burnes trade.