In Search of a Third Sacker: The Brewers' Never-Ending Story

Just three short months ago, the Milwaukee Brewers' brain trust was gnashing their collective teeth, tossing and turning in their beds, awake in the early morning hours, trying to find an answer to a ‘simple’ question.

Who is going to play third base for us this year?

After shortstop Willy Adames found 182 million reasons to flee Brew City and head west to the City by the Bay, Matt Arnold and company worked endlessly to staff the left side of the Milwaukee infield. Shortstop (more or less) was settled early, as former third baseman Joey Ortiz was moved 40 feet away from the position he played well in 2024. That left third base to be filled.

Even though there was tons of hope that the situation would resolve itself, that has not been the case. Ortiz has struggled at the ‘6’, posting -4 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) through his first 46 games. He’s not doing much better at the dish, batting .170/.233/.218 with just one homer and four doubles this year.

It’s even worse at third base, though. So far, six players have scuffed the dirt at the position: Caleb Durbin, Vinny Capra, Oliver Dunn, Andruw Monasterio, Sal Frelick, and Isaac Collins. After failures by Dunn and Capra, Durbin has stepped up and done okay in the field, posting a +1 DRS. It is a different story at the plate, as the rookie is slashing .174/.273/.244 across 100 plate appearances.

Fear not, Brewer fans. We’ve seen this problem in the past. In fact, since Jeff Cirillo was traded to the Colorado Rockies just before Christmas 1999, there have been more than a few auditions for the third base part.

Eighty-eight players have played at least one game at third since the final season at County Stadium. Players like Chris Barnwell (2006), César Izturis (2012), Edwin Maysonet (2012), Irving Falu (2014), Colin Walsh (2016), and Nate Orf (2018) were all trotted out to see if any of them wanted to take a regular role, but unfortunately, none of them did. (By the way, 50 points if you've ever heard of any of these guys.)

Bill Hall played six positions in his tenure (2002-09) with the Brewers, but the 263 games at the hot corner were more than he played elsewhere. Craig Counsell also spent time at third, playing over 150 games in his six seasons in Milwaukee.

The Brewers signed Aramis Ramírez as a free agent before the 2012 season, and he played well in his three and a half seasons with Milwaukee, playing in 455 games despite missing half of 2013 with a knee injury. Ramírez led the NL with 50 doubles in 2012 and was an All-Star in 2014. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in July 2015.

Next up was Travis Shaw. He hit 63 homers in 2017 and 2018, before struggling badly in 2019—spending half the season in the minors—and being non-tendered after the season.

Mike Moustakas split time with Shaw in 2019 and earned an All-Star nod, slashing .254/.329/.516 with 35 longballs. He left after the season as a free agent. Between 2021-2023, no player started more than 58 games in a single season. Ortiz started 124 games in 2024, giving some semblance of stability at a position that had anything but for most of the previous 25 years.

Think of how good Brewers fans had it ‘back in the day.’ From the late 1970s until the early '90s, players like Don Money, Sal Bando, and Paul Molitor manned the position on an almost daily basis. However, fans also had to tolerate the temper tantrums of Gary Sheffield for two seasons, pouting his way through the years because he was moved from his shortstop spot in favor of Billy Spiers. Jim Gantner, Kevin Seitzer, and B.J. Surhoff all played huge chunks of time at the spot before Cirillo made it his for four solid years in the late 1990s.

But that was a long time ago. Now we are waiting patiently for someone (like Mike Boeve, or Brock Wilken?) to come up and make a splash—to take over the third base spot for the next 10 years.

We can only hope.