Joey

Ortiz

Ortiz had a 395-foot homer and a 381-foot sac fly. Incredibly, the homer was his first since last July 19. He’d gone 85 straight games without one, even though he had seven in his first 95 games last year and 11 in 142 games in 2024. Ortiz is batting just .198/.260/.244 this season, and he really needs to pick it up if he expects to stick around much longer. The Brewers are having him split time with David Hamilton right now, and they’ll probably want to give Cooper Pratt a look at shortstop at some point.

David Hamilton will start at third base, with Joey Ortiz back in the lineup at shortstop. Despite playing regularly, Rengifo has struggled this season with the Brewers, and both he and Ortiz remain off fantasy radars.

He’s started just three of Milwaukee’s last six games while David Hamilton has appeared to take a step over him on the depth chart. Luis Rengifo is starting at third today while Hamilton slides over to short. Ortiz is hitting .197/.284/.197 on the season with four stolen bases. He is 4-for-29 over his last 15 games.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine day of rest for the 28-year-old backstop. Sal Frelick and Joey Ortiz also find themselves on the Brewers’ bench for this one against Marlins’ right-hander Eury Perez. Contreras is off to a nice start at the plate this season, slashing a healthy .306/.398/.472 with a pair of homers and 11 RBI in his first 83 plate appearances.

It appears to be just a routine night off for the 27-year-old infielder. David Hamilton will start in his place and will bat ninth for the Brewers against Marlins’ right-hander Janson Junk.

With the deal, he was added to the 40-man roster and immediately optioned to Triple-A Nashville. Pratt’s contract is worth a reported $51 million. He might get a chance to take over at shortstop this summer if Joey Ortiz struggles offensively. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how this works out in the long run with two superior shortstop prospects behind him in 18-year-old Jesús Made and 19-year-old Luis Peña. It would seem to ensure that is current Triple-A teammate, Jett Williams, is going to wind up at third or in center field.

Hamilton collected three stolen bases in a pair of games during Milwaukee’s season-opening series against the White Sox. He gets the nod at shortstop with Joey Ortiz getting the night off in this one. The 28-year-old utility infielder stole 55 bases in 189 games for the Red Sox over the past two seasons and could be a sneaky steals source in deeper mixed leagues, especially if the Brewers are going to hand him a semi-regular role.

Ortiz singled in the fifth inning and raced around to score on an RBI double off the bat of Brice Turang. He also singled in the seventh and was driven in by William Contreras. The 27-year-old is off to a hot start this spring, hitting .429 (6-for-14) with a pair of RBI and two stolen bases. He’ll need to keep it up to maintain the starting gig at shortstop with top prospect Jett Williams on his heels.

Williams was just acquired from the Mets as part of the Freddy Peralta trade last week. The 22-year-old also has experience at second base and center field and is “pretty comfortable at all three positions now,” but he’ll begin his Brewers career playing shortstop. That means that current starting shortstop Joey Ortiz, who was also acquired for a pending free agent starting pitcher, is on notice. Williams hit .262/.363/.465 with 17 homers and 34 steals between Double- and Triple-A last year and could push for MLB at-bats if he gets off to a strong start in Triple-A.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy is going to shake things up when they face Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto after his club was limited to just one run on two hits by Dodgers starter Blake Snell in Monday’s series opener. Bauers came off the bench to deliver a ground-rule double in the ninth inning against high-leverage reliever Roki Sasaki and will draw his second start of the postseason in this one. Here’s the full lineup: Jackson Chourio (RF), Brice Turang (2B), William Contreras (C), Christian Yelich (DH), Andrew Vaughn (1B), Sal Frelick (CF), Caleb Durbin (3B), Bauers (LF) and Joey Ortiz (SS).