This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- As we know, Brewers manager Pat Murphy is a list-maker. When he was looking for ways to motivate Christian Yelich to persevere through a slump that largely still persists, Murphy made a list of other highly-paid stars enduring down years. And when Joey Ortiz was bumped off shortstop by the arrival of 21-year-old Cooper Pratt, Murphy sought to provide similar context.
One name stood out to motivate Ortiz.
“We gave him some examples of players,” Murphy said. “The kid from the Dodgers who is such a terrific player, [Miguel] Rojas. You know, this is a similar path to Rojas. Cup of coffee, couldn't break through. …
“Then towards the end of his career he’s a relied-upon guy both offensively and defensively because he learned what he needs to do to be successful.”
Similarities abound. Rojas had a brief Major League debut with the Dodgers before being traded to the Marlins. Ortiz had a brief Major League debut with the Orioles before getting traded to the Brewers in the Corbin Burnes deal.
Rojas fared rather well the following year, delivering 1.2 bWAR in only 60 games. Ortiz fared rather well the following year, delivering 2.8 bWAR as the Brewers’ regular third baseman despite a second-half decline.
Then the next year was a huge struggle for both. Rojas played a career-high 123 games in his second year with his new team and was underwater at -0.4 bWAR. Ortiz played a career-high 149 games in his second year with his new team, moving to shortstop to replace the beloved Willy Adames, but fell to 0.2 bWAR. He was one of only three batting title qualifiers in all of the Majors with a weighted runs created plus below 70, which translates to being more than 30 percent below league average offensively.
The next year, both the Marlins and Brewers moved on. Rojas’ playing time dropped but his production improved, and for years now he’s been a versatile, valuable player for the Marlins and back to the Dodgers. Ortiz’s playing time dropped but his production likewise has improved, especially since the Brewers promoted Pratt last month and installed him as the shortstop of the present and future. Ortiz could have folded. Instead he has done the opposite with days like Wednesday, when he reached safely all four times up and finished a home run shy of the cycle in the Brewers’ 4-3 win over the Mets.
“My view,” Ortiz said, “is that I’m on the team for a reason. Wherever they need to put me, I’m gladly ready to play. The focus isn’t on numbers or anything like that, it’s about winning ballgames and helping the team. As long as we’re doing that, I’m happy.”
So, he’s been happy. Since Pratt’s debut on June 16, Ortiz is hitting .294/.330/.506 -- nearly double his .262 slugging percentage before Pratt took over shortstop. And the Brewers are 21-12, the second-best record in the Majors over that span behind only a Red Sox team that went on a 15-game winning streak.
Here’s how Murphy sees Ortiz’s mentality after Pratt took over at shortstop:
“The young kid is going to come up and play shortstop, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Now all I’ve got to do is relax and play,” Murphy said. “I understand, like, this is the way it’s going to be. I’m not going to try to maintain or to prove it, I’m going to just play. I’m going to enjoy who I am, enjoy that I’m in the big leagues, and let all that go and realize he’s still a valuable member of our team."
A month later, the story of “third-base Joey,” as closer Trevor Megill has dubbed the resurgent Ortiz, shows what good can come from a player continuing to plug away when bad things happen.
“I just throw the ball and I turn around and Joey’s tackling it. I was pretty fired up,” Megill said. “I love third-base Joey. I’ve been calling him that for a while now. There’s just good juju over at third. He looks great.”
Megill benefitted from Ortiz’s other strength at the end of Wednesday’s win. After the Mets scored a run to make it a one-run game, A.J. Ewing hit a grounder to Ortiz’s lefty which he dove to smother. When Ortiz threw Ewing out, the Brewers won for the fifth time in six games since the All-Star break.
“I think that says a lot about his mentality and who he is as a player and a person,” Megill said. “He struggled for quite a while in the first half of the season, but he put together some at-bats and now we’ve put together almost a month here of playing good baseball on both offense and defense. That’s him. We’ve seen him for a couple of years. I’m just very happy to see him continue to have some success.”