LOS ANGELES -- Brewers manager Pat Murphy leaned back in his chair Saturday to tell a story. It was the early 2000s and his oldest son, Kai, was playing on a 9U team for Murphy’s Sandlot Baseball program in Arizona, for a team so good it had trouble finding opponents. A 10U team from the west side of Phoenix called The Stealth stepped up, a club stacked with future big leaguers Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore.
But their best player was an infielder whom Murphy knew only as “Johnny Rockets.” His name was Jonathan Ornelas.
And as of Saturday, he was on Murphy’s team.
“That’s as true as I’m sitting here,” Murphy said. “My son texted me this morning. He could never get out Johnny Rockets.”
The Brewers continued to shuffle their position-player group when they acquired Ornelas from the Athletics for cash and activated him to start at second base for Saturday’s game at Dodger Stadium. Ornelas, 26, has briefly touched the Majors in four different seasons with the Rangers, Braves and A’s, but has never logged more than 37 big league at-bats in any year. He was 2-for-12 (.167) in six games with the A’s in 2026 before they designated him for assignment earlier this week.
Because he’s moved around so much, and played mostly off the bench, Ornelas’ parents had never seen him start a big league game. That changed on Saturday, when Marcial and Cruz Ornelas were on hand at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s kind of exciting," Ornelas said. “They always come when I’m in Triple-A, and they have come in the big leagues when I’ll play defense or pinch-run, but they never watched me start a big league game."
Does he remember the old days playing against Murphy’s son?
“It’s hard to forget those days,” Ornelas said. “They always had the best teams and so many good players.”
To make room, the Brewers designated utilityman Jihwan Bae for assignment. The Brewers had just signed Bae last weekend after putting shortstop Cooper Pratt on the injured list with a strained right hamstring. Since then, the Brewers have also seen second baseman Brice Turang go down with a left knee injury that was still in day-to-day status as of Saturday morning.
Bae played four games with the Brewers and went 1-for-2 in four plate appearances.
Bae and Ornelas have both helped the Brewers navigate the absence of Turang, the Platinum Glove Award winner who missed a third consecutive start on Saturday with tendinitis in his left knee. He was able to do some pregame running drills, however, and offered an optimistic report before returning to the clubhouse.
Because of that progress, both Turang and Murphy were more optimistic that he will avoid a stint on the IL. Turang has been wearing spikes in the dugout through this series against the Dodgers just in case he’s called upon.
“There was nothing I recall doing to where I was like, ‘Oh, crap, I did something to it’” Turang said. “It felt like I had a bruise and I didn’t know why I had it. It got to a point where it started affecting me. Running was the biggest piece of it.
“It really started kicking into gear in San Diego. It was gnawing at me, and it was like, if it’s going to affect the way I play, potentially affecting the team, I’ve got to get it checked out.”
Turang is looking at the episode as a learning experience.
“I do a lot. I practice really hard, I play the game really hard, which I never want to change,” he said. “But there are some things before the game that I could probably cut down on. I’ve had some conversations with the training staff, just trying to find better ways to be ready to play the game and not have to put my body through so much.”