Oliver Dunn, the Milwaukee Brewers No. 22 prospect, has made the Opening Day roster. The 26-year-old infielder will be playing third base and batting left-handed off the bench. He was in Nashville getting ready to play with the Class AAA Sounds when Brewers’ manager Pat Murphy called him.
Dunn is one of three players making their MLB debut with the Brewers. While undeniable skill got the infielder this far in his career, it was another player’s injury that gave him the chance to enter the big leagues.
Milwaukee Brewers: Garrett Mitchell’s Injury Paved the Way for Dunn
Garrett Mitchell has struggled with injuries throughout his career. The most recent being a fracture to his left index finger. This forced a shift in the Brewers lineup. Dunn was the obvious choice to fill in for the injured Mitchell. He put up some solid numbers in Spring Training, can play second and third base, and bats leftie. Dunn will be a utility infielder for the Brewers, rotating at third base with Joey Ortiz and Andruw Monasterio.
He’s already showing himself to be a team player. As he said in an interview, “I just want to do anything I can to help us win games.”
There’s nothing better than a guy coming into the clubhouse with zero attitude and 100% desire to help out his team.
Murphy didn’t drop the news right away. He heckled the rookie a bit before the big revelation. Dunn and his wife had just driven to Nashville when he got the call. One minute he was prepping to play with the Sounds, the next he was packing his bags en route to New York. Murphy joked with him by saying Dunn needed to be in New York that very day. Dunn said he’d start driving right away.
In a show of excitement, the rookie added, “Hell, I’d walk if I needed to.”
“I’d have walked if I’d needed to,” Oliver Dunn on getting the news he needed to go from Nashville to NYC for opening day with the Brewers: pic.twitter.com/ZzHfEF5C1S
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) March 28, 2024
Now that’s the kind of dedication Brewers fans want to see.
Dunn comes loaded with a solid set of stats from his time in Double-A, Arizona Fall League, and Spring Training. Now, it’s time for him to perform in the big leagues.
He’d been expecting to be called up, just not this soon.
“At some point, I was expecting for it to happen; I was hoping for it to happen. But not on Opening Day,” Dunn said. “Being told I was going somewhere else, and then all of a sudden last minute flipping to Opening Day in New York, it’s awesome. Big stage, big moment.”
The season kicks off with a doubleheader against the Mets on March 29th. If past performance is an indicator of current form, then there’s no doubt that Oliver Dunn will make the Brew Crew proud by hitting dinger after dinger.