sveumrules

I’m not an Athletic subscriber, are there any direct quotes from Attanasio, Arnold or anyone else relevant? Or is it more speculation based on intel from unnamed sources?

Good call, obviously Freddy will need to stay healthy one more season, and he’ll be one year older than Cease when he hits FA, but here’s how his body of work compares… 2021-25 Freddy (738 IP | 27th) (ranks among 85 pitchers min. 500 IP) 79 ERA- (12th) | 87 FIP- (24th) | -0.34 ERA/FIP (11th) 132 K%+ (4th) | 106 BB%+ (77th) | 97 HR9+ (40th) 81 AVG+ (1st) | 109 LOB%+ (5th) 18.7 rWAR (8th) | 14.8 fWAR (19th) Cease has the advantage in durability and HR prevention, but Freddy is thee literal hardest guy to get a hit off of and he kills Cease on strand rate too which helps his ERA play well below his FIP compared to Cease whose run prevention doesn’t live up to his peripherals.

Yeah, most likely outcome right now seems like we’ll probably stand pat, make some typical small moves around the edges, and bring back a team that should win ninety some games next year. Maybe sign a lower dollar FA, or deal some of the prospect / young player depth for the ever elusive “big bat”, but that feels like more of a longshot. Contrast that with PHI like you mentioned who could lose Schwarber, Realmuto, Ranger Suarez, etc in FA but just turn around and sign Kyle Tucker & Framber Valdez instead…it’s just two different worlds. I’d love it if the players & owners could figure out a way to bring those worlds closer together (not counting on it by any means though) so until then I’ll keep enjoying the Brewers making the most of their disadvantaged situation. Watching young dudes we’ve developed or acquired come up, make an impact, and grow as players sounds way more fun to me than signing some dude(s) for hundreds of millions and hoping (t)he(y) doesn’t break down.

Here's something sort of interesting I noticed clicking around this morning that kind of speaks to the way Arnold & Associates have gone about assembling the group of players we have going into the offseason... As currently constituted the Brewers are losing five players with positive WAR from last year's team - Jose Quintana (1.8 rWAR), Rhys Hoskins (0.9 WAR), Danny Jansen (0.4 WAR), Eric Haase (0.3 WAR), and Aaron Civale (0.2 rWAR) - adding up to 3.6 WAR or something like three to four wins lost. But there are also thirteen players no longer on the roster who accrued negative WAR last year - Tyler Alexander (-1.0 rWAR), Vinny Capra (-0.8 WAR), Joel Payamps (-0.6 rWAR), Elvin Rodriguez (-0.5 rWAR), Connor Thomas (-0.5 rWAR), Nestor Cortes (-0.3 rWAR), Oliver Dunn (-0.3 WAR), Bruce Zimmermann (-0.2 rWAR), Elvis Peguero (-0.2 rWAR), Bryan Hudson (-0.1 rWAR), Shelby Miller (-0.1 rWAR), Daz Cameron (-0.1 WAR), and Drew Avans (-0.1 WAR) - adding up to negative 4.8 WAR or something like four to five wins gained. Most teams have multiple holes that need to be filled over the offseason due to underperformance during the previous season, or players who are no longer on the team. Meanwhile the Brewers come out one win ahead on the ledger when adding up all their losses.

Over the twenty one seasons that Attanasio has been principal owner the Brewers record of 1,725 W - 1,576 L (.523 W%) is 7th in MLB. For the twenty one seasons before he owned the team from 1984-2004 their 1,548 W - 1,783 L (.465 W%) was 2nd worst among the 26 non-expansion teams. Swinging an organization from one of thee very worst in MLB when he took it over to setting a franchise record in wins this year, with 15 of their top 17 pitchers and 14 of their top 17 position players currently set to return next year, plus a farm system stocked with depth throughout and star power at the top...that's a fair bit more than pretty solid in my estimation. Without Mark A (& the rest of the ownership group) there's a good chance we'd be going on forty plus years of irrelevance now.

Yeah, definitely seems like Toronto had to pay a little Canada Tax to secure Cease's services. His body of work compared to last year's free agent SP and their sticker prices... 2021-25 Cease (884 IP | 7th) (ranks among 85 pitchers min. 500 IP) 90 ERA- (32nd) | 80 FIP- (12th) | +0.35 ERA/FIP (78th) 132 K%+ (3rd) | 117 BB%+ (84th) | 82 HR9+ (16th) 90 AVG+ (9th) | 101 LOB%+ (57th) 15.6 rWAR (19th) | 20.6 fWAR (4th) [7/210 heading into age 30] 2020-24 Burnes (816 IP | 3rd) (ranks among 89 pitchers min. 450 IP) 69 ERA- (5th) | 72 FIP- (2nd) | -0.13 ERA/FIP (32nd) 127 K%+ (8th) | 80 BB%+ (39th) | 72 HR9+ (8th) 84 AVG+ (5th) | 105 LOB%+ (16th) 23.2 rWAR (2nd) | 21.7 fWAR (2nd) [6/210 heading into age 30] 2020-24 Fried (659 IP | 25th) (ranks among 89 pitchers min. 450 IP) 67 ERA- (2nd) | 76 FIP- (8th) | -0.29 ERA/FIP (14th) 103 K%+ (43rd) | 74 BB%+ (29th) | 57 HR9+ (2nd) 93 AVG+ (21st) | 107 LOB%+ (12th) 20.2 rWAR (3rd) | 15.4 fWAR (11th) [8/218 heading into age 31] 2018-24 Snell (878 IP (30th) (ranks among 96 pitchers min. 600 IP) 74 ERA- (10th) | 77 FIP- (10th) | -0.18 ERA/FIP (24th) 142 K%+ (4th) | 126 BB%+ (96th) | 73 HR9+ (10th) 81 AVG+ (2nd) | 110 LOB%+ (7th) 25.5 rWAR (7th) | 21.0 fWAR (12th) [5/182 heading into age 32]

Ethan Dorchies & Griffin Tobias too. Was messing around with the minor league leaderboards at FanGraphs the other day and noticed there were only 31 teenage pitchers to throw at least 70 IP in all of MiLB last year. Seven of them - Melvin Hernandez, Manuel Rodriguez, Dorchies, Dubanewicz, Renz, Meccage, Enderson Mercado - were Brewers.

Adames (15.8 WAR) for JPF (2.1 rWAR) and Rasmussen (12.8 rWAR) is already pretty even from a pure WAR standpoint and the Rays still have Drew under control for next year plus a team option in 2027 so they could still come out ahead yet. But that has definitely been one of the more "win-win" trades since Stearns/Arnold got here. Obviously Yelich (28.0 WAR) for Brinson (-3.5 WAR), Diaz (-2.7 WAR), Harrison (-0.1 WAR) and Yamamoto (0.0 rWAR) was the heist that transformed the MLB club. A deal from almost a decade ago, Peralta (19.3 rWAR) for Lind (-0.1 WAR), is still paying dividends. Contreras (15.0 WAR) and Payamps (2.2 rWAR) for Ruiz (1.0 WAR) is still adding to the right side of the ledger too. Further down the pitching side are guys like Hader (11.1 rWAR), Chase Anderson (10.5 rWAR), Davies (9.0 rWAR), Houser (5.6 rWAR), Knebel (4.2 rWAR), Lauer (3.9 rWAR), Priester (3.6 rWAR), Megill (3.0 rWAR), Patrick (2.6 rWAR), and Hudson (2.6 rWAR) that have all cracked two wins for the Brewers. On the position player side there's Pina (7.6 WAR), Shaw (7.4 WAR), Urias (4.9 WAR), Narvaez (4.6 WAR), Villar (4.6 WAR), Keon (4.4 WAR), Domingo (4.2 WAR), Durbin (2.6 WAR), Caratini (2.6 WAR), Renfroe (2.4 WAR), and Vaughn (1.9 WAR). Add it all up and that's 26 acquired via trade guys cited above who combined for 106 position player WAR (almost half of the 213.4 WAR the Brewers position players managed from 2016-25) and 77.6 rWAR (almost 42% of the 185.5 rWAR the Brewers pitchers managed from 2016-25). And that's without digging further into the margins for guys with less than two wins. And who did they give up for all that? Rasmussen (12.8 rWAR) mentioned above, Grisham (8.3 WAR with SDP), Mauricio Dubon (6.6 career WAR), Reese Olson (5.2 rWAR)...anybody else??

Ben Clemens had an interesting article about productive outs the other day, and I don't think it's necessarily thread-worthy on its own, but it does kind of pertain to overall team building and roster construction to some extent so figured I'd drop it here in this Arnold thread. There wasn't a team leaderboard, but I pulled the relevant Brewers from the linked players spreadsheet and probably not all that surprisingly they did pretty well by the Out Advancement Runs metric in the article…Contreras (+5.29), Turang (+5.22), Durbin (+4.32), Collins (+4.32), Chourio (+4.26), Yelich (+3.95), Frelick (+3.49), Ortiz (+3.32), Perkins (+2.37), Rhys (+1.48), Bauers (+0.08), Monasterio (-0.13), Vaughn (-1.80). That shakes out to something like 36.5 OAR or about three to four extra wins last year just from making outs. As long as we're here, figured I'd update some of the other categories mentioned in the OP to reflect where things stand after Arnold's third season at the helm... 2023-25 PITHCING 282 Wins (2nd) 87 ERA- (1st) 93 AVG+ (1st) 93 WHIP+ (2nd) 105 LOB+ (1st) 69.6 rWAR (1st) +29.90 bullpen WPA (1st) 98 FIP- (11th) 46.9 fWAR (12th) 2023-25 OFFENSE 102 wRC+ (17th) .148 ISO (24th) 2,311 Runs (7th) 9.5 BB% (3rd) 510 SB (2nd) +41.0 BsR (1st) 4,977 PA w/RISP (3rd) 116 wRC+ w/RISP (3rd) 1,663 RBI w/RISP (3rd) 2023-25 DEFENSE -0.45 ERA/FIP differential (1st) +112 FRV (1st) +145 DRS (3rd)

Going down the SS leaderboard I think the two guys that could maybe be available are CJ Abrams (would probably need to be moved to 2B with Turang sliding to SS) and Zach Neto. FanGraphs had both the Nationals and Angels with bottom three pitching staffs last year with only the Rockies saving them from the gutter, and also had their catchers tied for worst in MLB with -1.2 WAR. So let's say Chad Patrick and Craig Yoho for their pitching needs, Jeferson Quero to address the catching situation, and Joey Ortiz to backfill whichever of Abrams/Neto we acquire. Maybe you could get Abrams without including Yoho since CJ isn't really a SS and has an extra year of service time over Neto, but I'd imagine that is ballpark of what it would cost to upgrade over Joey for next year.

Still less than we got for Burnes I'd imagine. Peralta is about $8M cheaper in 2026 than Burnes was in 2024 so that helps somewhat, but Freddy is also a worse pitcher... Corbin 2021-23 (562 IP) 133 K+ | 79 BB+ | 71 HR+ 82 AVG+ | 70 ERA- | 69 FIP- 16.2 rWAR | 15.5 fWAR Freddy 2023-25 (516 IP) 130 K+ | 106 BB+ | 109 HR+ 85 AVG+ | 81 ERA- | 93 FIP- 12.4 rWAR | 8.9 rWAR Both were about the same at getting Ks and allowing hits in their three seasons before FA, but Corbin is way ahead on innings, limiting walks, avoiding home runs, and overall run prevention.

2025 Gray (180 IP) 122 K+ | 61 BB+ | 108 HR+ 104 ERA- | 84 FIP- 2025 Quintana (130 IP) 73 K+ | 108 BB+ | 106 HR+ 95 ERA- | 116 FIP- 50 extra IP and way better K/BB rates. Gray's 5.29 K/BB ratio was 7th of 95 pitchers with at least 130 IP last year, Quintana's 1.78 K/BB ratio was 91st on that same leaderboard. Kind of interesting looking at Gray's ERA/FIP relationship for his career. First ten years his ERA beat his FIP six of ten seasons for an overall line of 3.51 ERA | 3.61 FIP over 1,507 IP. Last two years though he is at a 4.07 ERA | 3.26 FIP, with that +0.81 differential the third largest wrong way gap out of 78 pitchers with at least 250 IP the last two seasons. Could be a two year blip, could be indicative of some kind of underlying issue BOS might have to correct to get Sonny's run prevention more in line with his peripherals.

Looks like Joey is one of 145 players with at least 800 PA playing primarily SS during their age 25-26 seasons since the Brewers came to be in 1970. Here is how Joey did compared to the above linked Omar and some other bad bat good glove guys from days gone by,,, 25-26 Joey Ortiz (1,017 PA) 86 wRC+ | +25.0 DEF | 4.5 WAR 27-?? Joey Ortiz (TBD) 25-26 Jack Wilson (1,308 PA) 87 wRC+ | +28.1 DEF | 5.4 WAR 27-31 Jack Wilson (2,500 PA) 80 wRC+ | +60.8 DEF | 7.7 WAR 25-26 Greg Gagne (987 PA) 88 wRC+ | +34.8 DEF | 5.3 WAR 27-34 Greg Gagne (3,793 PA) 85 wRC+ | +135.9 DEF | 17.5 WAR 25-26 Bucky Dent (955 PA) 76 wRC+ | +45.0 DEF | 5.2 WAR 27-29 Bucky Dent (1,301 PA) 81 wRC+ | +64.8 DEF | 7.7 WAR 25-26 Omar Vizquel (1,157 PA) 82 wRC+ | +44.1 DEF | 5.1 WAR 27-40 Omar Vizquel (8,427 PA) 90 wRC+ | +154.9 DEF | 35.2 WAR 25-26 Ozzie Smith (1,219 PA) 72 wRC+ | +39.7 DEF | 4.7 WAR 27-39 Ozzie Smith (7,799 PA) 98 wRC+ | +291.5 DEF | 58.6 WAR 25-26 Freddie Patek (924 PA) 92 wRC+ | +16.3 DEF | 4.6 WAR 27-32 Freddie Patek (3,386 PA) 77 wRC+ | +85.8 DEF | 13.7 WAR 25-26 Jose Valentin (1,014 PA) 88 wRC+ | +25.0 DEF | 4.6 WAR 27-37 Jose Valentin (4,722 PA) 97 wRC+ | +91.9 DEF | 23.3 WAR 25-26 Dick Schofield (935 PA) 79 wRC+ | +33.1 DEF | 4.5 WAR 27-29 Dick Schofield (1,368 PA) 76 wRC+ | +34.5 DEF | 4.1 WAR 25-26 Royce Clayton (1,088 PA) 77 wRC+ | +39.4 DEF | 4.3 WAR 27-31 Royce Clayton (2,805 PA) 81 wRC+ | +55.7 DEF | 7.9 WAR 25-26 Brandon Crawford (1,026 PA) 87 wRC+ | +23.0 DEF | 4.0 WAR 27-35 Brandon Crawford (4,672 PA) 100 wRC+ | +103.6 DEF | 25.9 WAR 25-26 Bill Russell (907 PA) 78 wRC+ | +30.1 DEF | 3.9 WAR 27-33 Bill Russell (3,972 PA) 84 wRC+ | +85.8 DEF | 15.2 WAR There were a couple bad bat good glove guys in that same range - Frank Duffy (823 PA | 87 wRC+ | +35.7 DEF | 5.2 WAR) and Dale Berra (1,197 PA | 85 wRC+ | +29.0 DEF | 4.8 WAR) - that were pretty much done by age 26, but most of the players similar to Joey went on to have a few more decent years in them at least. Even if Joey can manage something like Jack Wilson, Bucky Dent or Royce Clayton kind of production from age 27 onward that would put him up over a dozen WAR with the Brewers.

The most RBI any one player had batting 9th was Javier Baez with 38, Joey was second with 35 of his RBI coming from the nine hole. The 76 RBI the Brewers had as a team from the 9th spot in the order was 2nd in MLB and their 106 wRC+ from the last spot in the order was tops in MLB. I'm not arguing Joey was clutch by any means - though he did hit considerably better with runners on base at 283/320/361 (92 wRC+) compared to with the bases empty at 183/238/279 (45 wRC+) - but nobody has a clutch hitter in the nine spot of their lineup.

Dang, Christmas came before Thanksgiving this year. Just digging into the individual write ups, but here is the system overview... The Brewers once again have one of the best and deepest systems in baseball, and though it’s a familiar story, it’s worth highlighting how and where this organization is clicking. The obvious place to start is Latin America, where the Brewers have established a best-in-class scouting and decision-making apparatus. From a strategy perspective, they’ve internalized the importance of diversity as well as anyone: This isn’t an org that’s going to burn $5 million on Robert Puason. Instead, they spread their bonus pool around and give themselves several cracks to sign high-impact talent. In an environment where most of the big deals are agreed to with young teenagers who may or may not have finished developing physically, that approach makes a lot of sense. More importantly, they’re signing the right guys. Even though they’re staying out of the deepest end of the signing pool, they have no trouble finding good, twitchy athletes and projectable frames. Even their low-dollar signees tend to have intriguing bat-to-ball skills or a promising pitch characteristic. Every system has a couple of guys on the back of its complex rosters who are just there to fill space, but the Brewers seem to have fewer of them than just about anyone else. One of the things that sets Milwaukee apart is where and how the team spreads its resources. The details are probably worth a piece by itself, but the Brewers are well-known for their attention to detail in the region. Club officials do their homework, and document statistical and demographic information in places where such intel is tough to come by. Their scouts file thorough reports that require a level of familiarity with the talent beyond what is normal for the industry. The organization also prioritizes teaching and upskilling their coaches, which gets the developmental funnel functioning quickly. They don’t leave stones unturned outside the normal hotbeds: You may have noticed that a couple of the names above were tiny-dollar signings from Nicaragua. And of course, they’re doing quite well in Venezuela. With Jackson Chourio in tow and Quero, Lara, Antunez and others on their way, their success in that country looks particularly notable in an era where many teams were marshaling resources elsewhere. This group isn’t perfect — no one is — but they give themselves a ton of opportunities to make good decisions and they’re reaping the rewards. The domestic scouting and development system is also humming along nicely. Milwaukee’s hit rate in turning college relievers with control issues into viable starter candidates is remarkable. We don’t know yet whether Hardin, Wichrowski, DeBerry, or Kuehner can crack a big league rotation, but that there’s a chance even one of them could is a big win for a small-market team. If you’re looking for an Achilles heel, it might be in strength and conditioning. Writing this list, we came across an abnormal number of injuries, particularly upper-body tendon and soft tissue problems among the position player group. And it’s also striking how many of their players, pitchers in particular, are very lean, particularly in their lower halves. Building leg strength is a good way to coax a little extra velo out of a guy, and there are a lot of flier arms with promising control and movement traits here who haven’t taken that step. For teams that reliably develop this sort of thing, this is a good place to sniff around for talent.

Plus Thayron Liranzo and Josue Briceno who are both Top 100 catching prospects that reached double AA last year with Liranzo already on the 40 Man.

Brent Rooker was one of 1,338 players to get at least 1,000 PA in the minor leagues between 2017 and 2022. His .275 isolated slugging was the 6th highest on that lengthy leaderboard. His 136 wRC+ came in a tie for 37th to 42nd. Tyler Black is one of 1,333 players to get at least 1,000 PA in the minor leagues from 2021 to 2025. Black's best attribute is a 15.7 BB% that ties him for 53rd to 56th on that leaderboard. His .172 isolated slugging is over 100 points lower than Rooker and lands him in a tie for 435th to 444th place. His 129 wRC+ came in a tie for 95th to 109th. If Black is going to become Rooker he will need to take a massive leap in raw power. As of now he is more of a work the count, hit a single, maybe happen to run into one kind of guy.

Something kinda curious I noticed clicking on Phil Maton's player page was that he has thrown at least 60 IP in each of the last five seasons. A little extra notable because from 2021-24 his performance (94 ERA- | 97 FIP- | -1.56 WPA) wasn't all that impressive with slightly better than average peripherals and run prevention, but giving up runs at the wrong times for negative leverage results. Last year was much better...68 ERA- | 63 FIP- | +0.93 WPA. But back to the consistency angle, Maton is one of only a dozen relievers with at least 300 IP over the last five years. Here's how the others did with regards to hitting 60 IP each season... Emmanuel Clase (4 out of 5, was on pace this year but) Raisel Iglesias (4 out of 5, with a 55 IP) David Bednar (3 out of 5, with 51 / 57 IP the other two) Bryan Abreu (4 out of 5, with 51 IP combined MLB/AAA in 2021) Tanner Scott (3 out of 5, with 54 / 57 IP the other two) Scott Barlow (4 out of 5, with a 55 IP) Tyler Rogers (5 out of 5, actually has 70+ IP all five seasons, Durability King) Carlos Estevez (3 out of 5, with 55 / 57 IP the other two) Chris Stratton (3 out of 5, with 58 / 21 IP the other two) Kyle Finnegan (4 out of 5, with a 57 IP) Brent Suter (5 out of 5, of course the Raptor aces the exam too)

He can definitely go get it in the field...out of 142 OF with at least 1,000 innings since 2023 Wiemer is at +11 DRS (32nd) and +12 FRV (28th). He is also one of only 25 OF to be at least +10 by both measures. But yeah, out of 452 hitters with at least 400 PA since 2023 his 74 wRC+ puts him in a tie for 407th to 410th place. His 41 PA of 215 wRC+ at Jacksonville last year is the kind of electric Joey that keeps orgs dreaming, but on the whole since 2023 he has 711 PA of 80 wRC+ at the minors highest level which ranks 239th of 266 players with at least 700 PAs at AAA over the last three years.

If the Brewers are "dumpster divers" and other teams are intentionally acquiring players out of OUR dumpster, does that make them "double dumpster divers" ??

Over the last three years there are 103 players with at least 1,500 PA. Jarren Duran's 121 wRC+ ranks 36th on that list in the same neighborhood as guys like Josh Naylor (124 wRC+), Julio Rodriguez (124 wRC+), William Contreras (124 wRC+), Cody Bellinger (123 wRC+), Alex Bregman (122 wRC+), George Springer (120 wRC+), and Randy Arozarena (120 wRC+). That might qualify as meh offense for some, but looking through the thirty some guys who have hit better over the last three years and I don't think any of them will be available. Duran might end up being the best bat on the trade market. Jarren's +22.7 BsR is 3rd on that same leaderboard between EDLC (+23.5) and Trea Turner (+20.0) so it is elite speed. Looking at 103 outfielders with at least 1,500 innings over the last three years Duran comes in at +27 DRS (10th) and +11 FRV (27th), most of that is in LF (1,933 innings of +17 DRS | +2 FRV), but he has also graded out well in his CF time (1,561 innings of +10 DRS | +8 FRV). He's essentially something like what a healthy Mitchell would look like... Mitchell (443 career PA / 968 innings) 114 wRC+ | +4.8 BsR | +10 DRS | +8 FRV | 3.3 WAR 23-25 Duran (per 443 PA / 968 innings) 121 wRC+ | +5.6 BsR | +7.5 DRS | +3 FRV | 3.3 WAR

Corbin Burnes put up 4.5 rWAR in his lone Baltimore season, Ortiz has put up 4.6 WAR is his two years with the Brewers.

Part of that is the Brewers 1,701 PA with RISP was 2nd most in MLB so everybody on the Brewers came to bat with RISP more frequently than average. Here's a fun (?) fact, hitting primarily ninth in the Brewers order Joey Ortiz had 156 PA with RISP, hitting 2nd/3rd in the Yankees order Aaron Judge had 158 PA with RISP. Ortiz's poor performance with RISP (156 PA of 71 wRC+) was also exasperated by literally every other Brewer regular being above average with RISP...Contreras (188 PA of 125 wRC+), Yelich (178 PA of 130 wRC+), Turang (170 PA of 161 wRC+), Frelick (143 PA of 101 wRC+), Durbin (142 PA of 103 wRC+), Chourio (123 PA of 114 wRC+), Collins (114 PA of 134 wRC+), Hoskins (94 PA of 106 wRC+), and Vaughn (87 PA of 156 wRC+). If it's any consolation, Ortiz's had 237 PA last year with runners on base and hit 283/320/361 (92 wRC+), much better than his 269 PA with the bases empty where he hit 183/238/279 (45 wRC+). It was a similar story for Joey in 2024 too with 228 PA of 126 wRC+ with runners on versus 283 PA of 88 wRC+ with the bases empty. League average wRC+ for runners on versus bases empty was 104 to 96 last year, and 107 to 95 in 2024, so Joey's 109 to 67 split over the last two years is definitely wider than average.

Couple issues going on here. BRef uses DRS for their defensive input and they think Joey cost the Brewers two runs in the field last year. FanGraphs uses a regressed version of FRV which credited Joey with +7.7 runs saved in the field. I think most would agree that FG did a better job of capturing Joey's defensive performance and value than BRef did last year. The other is the size of the player pool. Only 146 players reached 500 PA last year (just under five per team) so it is kind of an accomplishment of its own. With nine teams and thirty lineup spots, being something like the 135th best player puts you right in the middle of the 270 "regular" players needed to field all 30 teams. Lowering the PA threshold to 300 and jumping back over to FanGraphs gets us to 277 players, or just over nine per team, that got the most regular playing time. On that leaderboard Joey's 1.4 WAR puts him in in an eleven way tie for 152nd to 162nd place, or something like the 6th best player on a team if performance was evenly distributed. But from going thru the list above we know that many "ninth best players" on their team don't even reach 300 PA. Many teams have multiple regular lineup holes so their "ninth best player" is a backup or small sample warrior. Widening the scope to the 537 players with at least 50 PA, Joey Ortiz and the other guys with 1.4 WAR slide down a dozen spots to between 164th and 175th on the leaderboard. The WAR range for spots #241 to #270 (the "ninth best players" if performance was evenly distributed) has three guys at 0.8 WAR, twenty one guys at 0.7 WAR, and six guys at 0.6 WAR.

Joey Ortiz was the Brewers worst regular player last year, with his 1.4 WAR ranking 9th on the team. He played enough to barely qualify for the batting title (506 PA), hit really bad (his 67 wRC+ was 266th of 277 players with at least 300 PA), and fielded really well (his +13.9 DEF was 17th of those same 277 players). Joey's +2.5 BsR (46th) was also enough to sneak him just inside the back end of the Top 50 on the bases in a run of consecutive familiar names...Brice Turang (+2.6), Tyrone Taylor (+2.5), Sal Frelick (+2.5), Caleb Durbin (+2.3). But I was curious, how good is your ninth best player supposed to be anyway? So I did some clicking around and below have transcribed all thirty of the ninth best players on every team in MLB for 2025. In parentheses after each team I have included where Oritz's 1.4 WAR would have placed him on that particular team's leaderboard. I also bolded the other playoff teams for reference. Here goes... 30. Owen Miller COL (2nd) 17 PA | 28 wRC+ | +0.9 DEF | 0.0 WAR [yes, this was the Rockies 9th best player this year] 29. Christian Moore LAA (4th) 184 PA | 82 wRC+ | -0.7 DEF | 0.2 WAR [what's that you say, an Angels prospect rushed to the show after only 410 PA in the minors?] 28. Dylan Crews WAS (3rd) 322 PA | 77 wRC+ | -1.6 DEF | 0.2 WAR [#2 overall pick and consensus Top Ten prospect Dylan Crews] 27. Tommy Pham PIT (4th) 449 PA | 94 wRC+ | -6.3 DEF | 0.2 WAR [noted fantasy football commish] 26. Austin Slater CHW (3rd) 135 PA | 100 wRC+ | -1.3 DEF | 0.3 WAR [professional backup / shortside platoon OF with between 104 PA and 325 PA each of the last nine seasons] 25. Freddy Fermin KCR (4th) 208 PA | 79 wRC+ | +3.5 DEF | 0.4 WAR [backup backstop] 24. Brayan Rocchio CLE (4th) 383 PA | 77 wRC+ | +1.6 DEF | 0.4 WAR [got nine different Top 100 rankings between #47 and #98 before graduating] 23. Christian Koss SFG (5th) 191 PA | 91 wRC+ | -0.6 DEF | 0.5 WAR [had to look this guy up, 12th round minor league grinder 27 year old rookie] 22. Johnny DeLuca TBR (6th) 59 PA | 124 wRC+ | +0.4 DEF | 0.6 WAR [part of the Glasnow to Dodgers deal] 21. Michael Helman TEX (6th) 110 PA | 106 wRC+ | +0.2 DEF | 0.6 WAR [second guy I had to look up, not an heir to the mayonnaise empire from what I can tell] 20. Max Schuemann ATH (7th) 213 PA | 62 wRC+ | +7.4 DEF | 0.6 WAR [only heard of this guy when he was named a GG finalist this year] 19. Bryce Johnson SDP (6th) 84 PA | 135 wRC+ | -0.2 DEF | 0.7 WAR [thought he smoked us this year, but only got two singles in 12 AB, memory is faulty] 18. Miguel Andujar CIN (3rd) 110 PA | 159 wRC+ | -2.7 DEF | 0.7 WAR [small sample warrior] 17. James McCann ARI (6th) 137 PA | 110 wRC+ | +1.3 DEF | 0.7 WAR [another backup backstop] 16. Eugenio Suarez SEA (8th) 220 PA | 91 wRC+ | +1.3 DEF | 0.7 WAR [trade deadline prize] 15. Javier Sanoja MIA (5th) 342 PA | 86 wRC+ | +1.7 DEF | 0.7 WAR [only heard of this guy when he won utility GG this year] 14. Hyesong Kim LAD (8th) 170 PA | 95 wRC+ | +1.6 DEF | 0.8 WAR [KBO superstar turned Dodgers backup utility guy] 13. Tyrone Taylor NYM (9th) 341 PA | 70 wRC+ | +6.0 DEF | 0.8 WAR [always good to see an old friend again] 12. Lars Nootbar STL (8th) 583 PA | 96 wRC+ | -7.0 DEF | 0.8 WAR [still trying to live up to the name] 11. Ramon Urias BAL (5th) 290 PA | 91 wRC+ | +3.2 DEF | 0.9 WAR [fun Orioles side note, Ortiz had more WAR in 2025 than his more ballyhooed former organization mates Jackson Holliday (1.2), Adley Rutschman (1.2), Colton Cowser (0.6) and Coby Mayo (0.2)] 10. Royce Lewis MIN (6th) 403 PA | 85 wRC+ | +2.0 DEF | 1.0 WAR [#1 overall pick with fifteen different Top 100 rankings including four Top Tens] 09. Cam Smith HOU (8th) 493 PA | 90 wRC+ | -2.9 DEF | 1.0 WAR [ranked between #20 and #59 before being dealt for Kyle Tucker] 08. Anthony Volpe NYY (8th) 596 PA | 83 wRC+ | +0.3 DEF | 1.0 WAR [$300M payroll and they've got a SS even worse than us, nevermind his prospect rankings] 07. Harrison Bader PHI (9th) 194 PA | 129 wRC+ | -0.1 DEF | 1.2 WAR [probably the 3rd best FA OF this offseason after Tucker and Bellinger] 06. Marcell Ozuna ATL (6th) 592 PA | 114 wRC+ | -14.8 DEF | 1.2 WAR [free agent DH likely destined for a one year deal] 05. Javier Baez DET (9th) 437 PA | 86 wRC+ | +4.7 DEF | 1.4 WAR [once tagged a guy out at home plate from center field, look it up, it's true] 04. Joey Ortiz MIL (9th) 506 PA | 67 wRC+ | +13.9 DEF | 1.4 WAR [the guy this post is about] 03. Romy Gonzalez BOS (10th) 341 PA | 123 wRC+ | -4.7 DEF | 1.5 WAR [famously attended a high school reunion with Michelle] 02. Matt Shaw CHC (10th) 437 PA | 93 wRC+ | +1.6 DEF | 1.5 WAR [kinda like if Joey hit better but couldn't play SS] 01. Nathan Lukes TOR (11th) 438 PA | 103 wRC+ | +2.3 DEF | 1.8 WAR [there you have it, Nathan Lukes (who exceeded 100 PA in a season for the first time at age 30) was thee very bestest ninth best player on his team in all of MLB for 2025] Just to do some final accounting at the end if anyone managed to make it this far... - the thirty ninth best players on their teams in 2025 totaled 23.8 WAR for an average of around 0.8 WAR each. - in 2025, Joey Ortiz's 1.4 WAR would have ranked 2nd on one team, 3rd on three teams, 4th on four teams, 5th on three teams, 6th on six teams, 7th on one team, 8th on five teams, 9th on four teams, 10th on two teams and 11th on one team. Put it all together and he would be something like the 6th or 7th best player on an average team that doesn't have the depth of the Brewers and a handful of other clubs. Ultimately, having someone like Joey Ortiz as your 9th (or even 8th) best player is a small luxury. I'd love to bring in an upgrade to the infield (whether that is at SS or at 2B/3B sliding Turang to SS) but between scant options likely to be available this winter, the cost to acquire them, and the pending arrival of guys like Pratt & Made, it wouldn't surprise me if the Brewers roll with what they've got and hope that Joey can bounce back closer to average with the bat next year.