Brewers shortstop Joey Ortiz is headed for an MRI on his left hamstring after leaving this afternoon’s game, manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy). The second-year infielder pulled up after running out a ground-ball and immediately favored the back of his left leg. It certainly had the look of a hamstring strain that’d require an injured list stint, though that won’t be official until tomorrow.
Andruw Monasterio finished the game at shortstop. Aside from one early-season appearance from Vinny Capra (who is no longer in the organization), Monasterio is the only player other than Ortiz to start a game at shortstop. He’s the likeliest option to step into an everyday role if Ortiz heads to the IL. A career .243/.318/.336 hitter, Monasterio has only tallied 72 plate appearances in 43 games this season.
The Brewers don’t have any other natural shortstops on the 40-man roster. Calling up Triple-A shortstop Freddy Zamora would require a 40-man move. Oliver Dunn, who is on the 40-man, has gotten some shortstop work in the minors and could be recalled as an emergency option off the bench. It’s unlikely Milwaukee would disrupt the routines of Brice Turang or Caleb Durbin by moving them to shortstop on an everyday basis, but either player could move there as a late-game substitute if the Brewers remove Monasterio for pinch-hitting or injury purposes.
Milwaukee’s win over the Cubs today pushed their lead in the NL Central back to seven games. They’re five and a half games clear of the Phillies for the top seed in the National League. That gives them the cushion to weather an Ortiz absence unless he suffered a significant enough strain to threaten his readiness for the postseason.
On the other side of the equation, Milwaukee has a few players nearing returns. Rhys Hoskins began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday. Hoskins has been sidelined since July 6 with a left thumb sprain. That injury forced the Brewers to call up Andrew Vaughn from Triple-A. They certainly wouldn’t have foreseen Vaughn going on a .320/.386/.578 tear with dramatically improved plate discipline metrics relative to his early-season stint with the White Sox.
Vaughn has mashed his way to an everyday role. Christian Yelich continues to get a lot of designated hitter work. Even if the Brewers felt Yelich could shoulder a bigger workload in left field, Isaac Collins has played far too well to leave the lineup. It leaves Hoskins without a clear path to playing time once he’s ready to return, which could be within the next week or two.
Hoskins may be relegated to part-time first base and DH work. The veteran got out to a great start to the season, hitting .276/.374/.475 through the end of May. He’d slumped to a .170/.269/.330 line in the next five weeks leading up to the injury. The Brewers wouldn’t have considered replacing him with Vaughn despite the slump, but the injury and the latter’s performance changed the calculus.
Robert Gasser has been rehabbing in Triple-A for the past few weeks. The lefty is working back from last June’s elbow surgery. Gasser is closing in on reinstatement after throwing four scoreless innings and building to 52 pitches on Tuesday. He may only need one or two more minor league starts. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, the Brewers are weighing whether to keep him built up as a starter or kick him to the bullpen in anticipation of his likelier postseason role.
Gasser impressed with a 2.57 ERA over his first five big league starts last summer. The Brewers no doubt view him as a long-term starter but have sufficient rotation depth that he’s unlikely to get a starting job this season. Gasser still has a full slate of minor league options, so the Brewers could keep him in Nashville even after he returns from the injured list (though they’ll need to clear a spot for him on the 40-man roster).
Monasterio may not hit much but he is a Brewer through and through. He gloves it, he runs like a gazelle, and he knows what he’s trying to do at the plate. Ortiz didn’t hit much until recently. The Brewers will be fine. Ortiz will be back by the time it matters.
I like your optimism. Let’s hope he doesn’t have to play every day. According to Baseball Savant his sprint speed is 27.7 which places him 216th overall in Major League Baseball. “Gazelle “ is an interesting term to use to describe his running.
I didn’t say cheetah. He is a good athlete. That’s what the Brewers have. He can play Brewer ball. Plus, it’s the BREWERS. They probably have some never before heard of AA, UDFA who is ready to step in and play like prime Omar Vizquel for three months.
Prime Omar visquel was a hall of fame talent, if he was league average with the bat (and didn’t get into off the field issues) he would be hall of fame
You can make an argument his defense was better than Ozzie smith
Well they always could switch Turang to short, Durbin to second, Collins to third,Yellich to left, Hoskins can DH then keep Vaughn at first.
Collins has a total of 119 innings at third base, 118.2 of which was in the minors. I don’t know how you see that as a viable option.
Well they can start the games like that to get the bats in the lineup then do defensive replacement plus not going to do it everyday.
You’d need to flip Collins to 2B, which he played a lot more of in the minors.
More likely that they call up Ray Delgado who is 25 years old and playing well in AAA.
Not super relevant here but I’m shocked DL Hall doesn’t generate whiffs in Milwaukee. I thought he’d be a sure fire bullpen K machine. Getting solid results when he can play despite that. (No surprise on the injury front)
With 14 games in 14 days coming up (just had 5 in 4), I would think Gasser will be called up to supplement the bullpen soon after he makes another rehab start (assuming he continues to look good). Rodriguez is up at the moment, but as soon as they use him for a 2-3 inning stint, Gasser may be the next man up. Tobias Myers is in the mix but can’t be recalled yet (unless there is an injury). The September rosters will have 2 of Myers, Gasser or possibly Yoho on it.
11 games in 11 days.
Given the Brewers lack of depth at SS, it was borderline malpractice to let Ortiz play after bruising his knee in game 3. Murphy even said he wouldnt be playing the day before game 4, then supposedly Ortiz demanded to be in the lineup. In the midst of an 18 game stretch, he clearly could have used a day off.
Given how important defense is to the Brewers run prevention philosophy, Ortiz going down could have large knock on effects to the pitching staff as a whole, especially guys like Priester and Quintana
Being a Phillies fan. That was one thing I saw with Hoskins. A very streaky hitter. He was great when in the hitting streak. But that normally lasted a week and then the other 3 weeks a month were slumps. He’s a great personable guy, but a full time hitter, not.
I was wondering if that was the case. “Brutal” slumps after hot streak as a brewer. And maybe 1 hot streak a season. I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut him.
Hoskins was also a poor first baseman and as he gets older will probably need to be a full time DH.
And he is very streaky.
But he can still hit the ball harder than almost anyone else in the ML’s.
Chourio is finishing up his rehab too. His presence was missed in the series against the cubs.
Just bring up Made and be done with it.
Made is doing well in his first taste of High-A. The bigs would be quite a jump in the middle of a pennant race.
Well if it’s significant time that Ortiz is out i say bring up Cooper Pratt he is killing it in AA .
Ray Delgado is the likely call up.
You spelled Cooper Pratt wrong.
Feels like this writer doesn’t watch the Brewers closely enough to make the determination that they’ll just plug in Monasterio at SS instead of Turang. In the past week alone, Turang has started a game at short and took over as a defensive replacement for Ortiz there the next day. Milwaukee can and should move him over—his defense is more than sufficient. Isaac Collins has lots and lots of 2B experience and his hitting well—he can go there as Chourio comes back in left.
They would probably also call up Ray Delgado who is 25 years old and playing well in AAA. They have big time prospects at SS but those guys are 1-3 years away.
He’s not on the 40-man and .718 OPS in AAA isn’t very good.
Beg to differ. He’s an acceptable stopgap while we are waiting for Cooper Pratt. He’s probably something like the 12th best defensive shortstop in baseball and the 28th best offensive SS in baseball.
Don’t know that Pratt would be a ton different. Unless he unlocks his power potential, he’s probably more of a middle of the pack starter. The way things are going one of Made/Pena may pass him up in development before he makes it to the majors anyhow, as they could be ready at the onset of the 2027 season.
Honestly, the likely 2025 call up is Ray Delgado who is 25 years old and playing well in AAA.
dude has a 72 OPS+. Lets not pretend he’s a hitter.
Doug, guessing you have a lot of bad ideas. In baseball what you can do on the field today matters more than what you have done. Statistics are utilized to attempt to ascertain trends for this purpose. So a .343/.387/.443 August with extremely good ss defense is far more important than the overall season. This is how you win ball games.
Miz, Woody, Priester all showing some signs of wearing out and losing command. Gasser would make a good sixth starter, or tag team with Ashby to cover innings.