Are The Brewers Preparing To Make A Change At Shortstop?

When Joey Ortiz popped out to first base in the bottom of the fifth inning on Friday night, it was his seventh popout to first this season, tying him for the second-most in baseball by a right-handed hitter.

That stat is not necessarily noteworthy on its own, but in Ortiz’s case, it speaks to what’s been a severe issue in his nightmarish sophomore season in Milwaukee: his barrel is coming through the zone late, preventing him from meeting the ball out in front of the plate to hit productive line drives and fly balls. With most of his swings that produce contact, he’s practically plucking the ball out of the catcher’s mitt.

Being late has mostly left Ortiz hitting routine flyouts or popouts to the right side. According to Statcast, his pull rate has cratered from a slightly above-average 38.2% in 2024 to 24.4% this year. His percentage of contact pulled in the air (fly balls, line drives, and popups) has fallen from 15% to 6.7%, the 10th-worst rate among qualified hitters. Most of his balls in the air have been to the opposite field.

It happened again on last night’s popout. Ortiz failed to get his barrel through the hitting zone quickly enough, and he popped the ball weakly just behind first base.

Other times, being late has produced harder-hit groundouts. Many batted balls Ortiz has hit at least 95 mph this year fall into that bucket.

On these pitches, the ball is often meeting Ortiz’s bat deep in the hitting zone before that bat can get on plane. His barrel is coming down on the ball when he makes contact, so even if it’s near the sweet spot, he pounds it into the dirt, as he did on this 109-mph groundout.

The Brewers made a quick change with Oliver Dunn at third base last month when he did not produce, but Ortiz and his 29 wRC+ have remained the starter at shortstop all year. Whereas Caleb Durbin was waiting in Triple-A as a replacement for Dunn, there was no clear substitute for Ortiz. That may be changing.

On May 9, the Brewers designated Vinny Capra for assignment. They recalled Andruw Monasterio, who has played 380 professional games at shortstop, including 21 of his 29 starts in the field at Triple-A this year. Murphy said on Friday afternoon that the club believes Monasterio can effectively replace Ortiz at the position, including if he requires a longer break on the bench or in the minor leagues.

“With Mona here now, we feel confident Mona can handle it,” Murphy said.

Monasterio’s utilization so far backs it up. Murphy pinch-hit Isaac Collins for Ortiz with runners on first and second and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning last night, and Monasterio finished the game at short. It was his third appearance there in four games, including two starts at short during a three-game series in Cleveland earlier this week. Could he receive more time there moving forward?

“Yeah,” Murphy said postgame. “I think until Joey gets more confident.”

In the same breath, though, he said he believes Ortiz is trending in the right direction.

“He’s struggling offensively, but there are signs that he’s doing really well, so I’m encouraged, believe it or not. I don’t think he’s far away.”

Still, there are signs that the Brewers are testing the waters to see if Monasterio can be a stopgap at shortstop. It would be a suboptimal patchwork solution, as the utility man’s defense has received mixed grades at the less demanding positions of second and third base. However, he’d be an improvement over Ortiz’s -1.0 bWAR if he can be a replacement-level shortstop for a few weeks.

Were the club to option Ortiz to Triple-A, it would have to promote another infielder. It could recall Dunn, but he has not made nearly enough progress to expect he’ll produce. Catcher and second baseman Anthony Seigler, who owns a 156 wRC+ at Triple-A, made his first career start at third base on Friday but left with an injury.

The lack of roster replacements means Ortiz may remain in the big leagues a bit longer. Either way, changes at shortstop could be on the horizon. Ortiz’s leash appears to be getting shorter, and he may no longer be the undisputed everyday starter at the position.