Brewers' camp opens with 3rd base job wide open

PHOENIX -- The Brewers’ quest for a third straight National League Central title got underway on Wednesday when pitchers and catchers reported to American Family Fields for Spring Training.

The first official workout for position players isn’t till Tuesday, but the vast majority of the camp roster is on hand already.

Many of the faces were quite familiar. William Contreras was holding court by his locker with a swath of veteran holdovers. Garrett Mitchell rolled in with his bag of gloves and didn’t even take his backpack off before he dapped up and hugged every teammate in the room, greeting old friends and introducing himself to a not-insignificant number of players who are starting their first camp with the Brewers.

Outfielder Akil Baddoo was the lone free-agent addition on hand but a pair of offseason trades landed quite a few new faces in Maryvale this spring and opened the door for camp’s biggest question.

Who is going to play third base?

This is far and away at the top of the mind of Brewers Nation right now. After all, president of baseball operations Matt Arnold finalized a deal with the Red Sox on Monday that sent away Milwaukee’s entire depth chart at third base in exchange for left-handers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton, who has one career start at the hot corner and hit a modest .198 in Boston last year.

The sense is that Hamilton would be able to make the move to third base rather smoothly, as he’s a rangey defender with the tools to do so. But is his bat good enough to man a corner for a club coming off its highest win total in franchise history?

That doesn’t seem likely, but his edge in big league experience over his competition was enough for Brewers beat reporter Adam McCalvy to give him the edge in his first pass at projecting the Opening Day roster.

Here are a couple of alternative possibilities.

Move Ortiz back to third

Before taking over at shortstop last season, Joey Ortiz played 134 games at third base in 2024. Moving him back would open the door for one of the number of highly touted middle-infield prospects to slide in at shortstop, but manager Pat Murphy seemed to shut down that idea.

“I don’t think so. I think he’s our shortstop,” Murphy said. “He played good last year and I expect him to play better this year. … I just feel when a guy is your shortstop an entire year, when he comes back into camp, he’s probably your shortstop.”

Murphy did concede that you never know how things are going to play out, and he’s fully confident that Ortiz could handle third, but for now Ortiz is his guy at short.

A prospect wins the third-base job
The Brewers are absolutely loaded with infield prospects and boast some of the highest ranked by MLB Pipeline in the game. But they’re all still green, either in overall Minor League experience, experience at third base, or both.

The options:
SS Jesús Made, 18 (Brewers’ No. 1 prospect/No. 3 in MLB)
SS Jett Williams, 22 (MIL No. 3/MLB No. 51)
1B/3B Luke Adams, 21 (MIL No. 10)
3B Brock Wilken, 23 (MIL No. 19)

Williams, acquired in the Freddy Peralta trade, might have the inside track at a roster spot due to his ability to play shortstop, second base and center field. With Ortiz as the only player with any experience at short on the roster, Williams would be an ideal fit for the utility role. His athleticism and defensive profile suggests he could handle third base, but he hasn’t played there since high school.

Made, the gem of the 2024 international class, is one of the most exciting prospects in club history, but he’s 18 years old and has a total of five games above High-A under his belt. He may be the Brewers’ shortstop of the future, but it’s unreasonable to think he’ll make that leap this season.

Adams, a 12th-round Draft pick in 2022, had an .859 OPS with 11 homers in 64 games for Double-A Biloxi while splitting time between first and third base last season. He has 179 career games at the hot corner, but has not yet tasted Triple-A.

Wilken, the Brewers’ first-round pick in 2023, is a primary third baseman who posted an .876 OPS alongside Adams in the Shuckers’ lineup last season. Though he’s also never played above Double-A, he may have the inside track of this group.