The Milwaukee Brewers are starting the 2025 MLB season with more questions than answers. This is not to create the narrative that they will be a bad team this year, but rather a reality. As it stands, Milwaukee does not have a healthy starting rotation of pitchers. Divisions cannot be won in March or April, but they sure can be lost. How the Brewers end the season will be determined by how they respond to their sudden lack of starting pitching depth.
That is not say that Milwaukee has nothing going for them, though. Jackson Chourio had a monstrous spring after becoming the youngest player in Major League history to have a 20-20 season. Christian Yelich, also, had an incredible Spring Training, slashing .359/.389/.735 with three home runs and 11 RBI. Sal Frelick, with over 20 pounds of added muscle this offseason, hit .390/.457/.561 with two home runs and 10 RBI this spring.
He had two home runs all of last season.
But one other young Brewers position player is slowly gaining traction among MLB analysts as a sleeper pick to have a historical season for the franchise.
Milwaukee Brewers Shortstop Joey Ortiz Predicted to Match Robin Yount Levels of Production
Earlier this offseason, Brewers shortstop Willy Adames signed a seven-year $182 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. Without him on their roster, Milwaukee found itself without an everyday shortstop.
This spring, Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang competed for the position, with Ortiz emerging as the winner due to Turang’s shoulder fatigue.
Last season, Ortiz played 142 games, mostly at third base, and hit .239/.329/.398 with 11 home runs, 60 RBI, and 11 stolen bases.
This spring, though, the new shortstop hit an impressive .341/.463/.682 with two home runs and nine RBI.
Eno Sarris of The Athletic believes that, without a neck injury that impaired his swing in 2024, and being at a position at which he is more comfortable, Ortiz could do something the Brewers have not seen at shortstop since the days of Robin Yount.
In his latest article listing 10 bold predictions for the MLB season, Sarris predicted Ortiz will hit at least .260 and have 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases.
“For the first two, almost three months as a Brewer, Joey Ortiz was cooking. He was hitting .274 with six homers and a .448 slugging percentage in late June when something grabbed in his neck.
“’Couldn’t move my neck, that’s all,” the infielder said dryly at spring training last week. “That’s why I had to take some time off. Just happens, it happens.’
“He hit four more homers all year with a .345 slugging percentage afterward and admitted it was really hard to move the way he wanted to. His exit velocity average was down almost two ticks after the injury. So after he suffered through 11 hitless postseason at-bats, he went to work on the neck.
“Rest, rehab, strengthening the muscles around it, the whole deal. He feels good this spring and is slugging .698, and though those are just spring results, new research suggests that spring results are about 75 percent as valuable as regular-season results when it comes to predicting the future.
“If the projection here doesn’t seem bold, there’s only one other Brewers shortstop who’s ever hit those benchmarks: Robin Yount.”
Yount accomplished the feat in 1980, his first All-Star season, when he hit .293/.321/.519 with 23 home runs, 87 RBI, and 20 stolen bases. It was the only 20-20 season of his career.
Obviously, Ortiz would need a massive jump in offensive production to match Yount’s legendary mark. However, based on his spring training, he seems poised to do so.
More Milwaukee Brewers News from Wisconsin Sports Heroics
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- Brewers Star Jackson Chourio Reveals His Confidence Level on Scale of 1-10
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