The Milwaukee Brewers needed to fill a hole at shortstop following the departure of Willy Adames in free agency. Obviously, his 32 home runs and 112 RBI are big offensive numbers that will need to be replicated by one or more players, particularly players that Milwaukee already has as they did not add a big bat in free agency.
Additionally, the Brewers needed to identify a player already on their roster who would play shortstop defensively going forward. Last season, Adames played 161 games, all of them a shortstop.
Going into the offseason, and following Adames’ signing with the San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee had two internal candidates to replace him defensively, and now one of them has officially been named the team’s starting shortstop going forward.
Joey Ortiz Will Play Shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers Going Forward
Those two players were last year’s third baseman Joey Ortiz and Gold Glove winning second baseman Brice Turang, who also won the National League’s Platinum Glove as the best defender in the league.
Going into Spring Training, Pat Murphy made it pretty clear that his preference was to keep Turang at second base because, after all, he is a Gold Glover. However, over the course of the spring, it became apparent that he was the favorite to take over shortstop as he received the most playing time there.
However, Turang was scratched from a game over the weekend with shoulder soreness. And when he tried throwing from shortstop on Monday, it did not go well. An MRI, thankfully, did not reveal any damage and he will be ready for Opening Day.
But he will not be playing shortstop.
Joey Ortiz will:
In Joey O we trust 🫡 pic.twitter.com/1zVD2yPI6S
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 18, 2025
Turang’s shoulder soreness was the result of the longer throws he had to make from shortstop as opposed to second base. Ortiz, who came up through the Baltimore Orioles organization as a shortstop, played third base last year and was also one of the best defensive infielders in the league.
With Ortiz moving, Oliver Dunn and other young players are going to platoon at third base.
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