Spring training rainouts are so much worse than regular season rainouts. I don’t have a lot of data to back this up, mostly because precipitation in the desert doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity to think about the day lost.
There are lineup changes to be weary of soggy field conditions, given these games truly don’t count. Sure, a few guys would like to throw some innings, players see some at-bats, but when rainouts happen in spring there’s really nothing left to do. No golf, no pool time, no sunshine, just sit inside and wait. Oh well, the sun came back out on Saturday.
Still figuring out the infield
In my first edition of the notebook this spring, we speculated about the characters in-play across the infield. The Brewers and Pat Murphy have not locked down the middle infield yet, but there is just as much intrigue with third base now as there was at the start of camp.
Even if we in the media want to anoint Joey Ortiz as the next shortstop and retain Brice Turang at second base, the Brewers have said “not so fast.”
“You guys know the options,” Pat Murphy said this week. “It’s one decision or two, [but] it’s not a whole lot,” meaning the rest of the roster is pretty set dependent on what happens on the infield. When looking at the numbers, Ortiz has spent 30 innings at short vs only 10 for Turang. Does that mean third base is really the only competition?
“It doesn’t mean results … but [Ortiz and Turang] want to be on the team and play a lot,” Murphy said with a smile. “Do whatever to help the team win,” Murph said while marveling at the rarity of two players auditioning for a premium position, but openly telling management they are okay with any decision.
When the top brass of the organization sits down to analyze the position battle, Murphy calls them the best discussions of the year. “Me and Matt [Arnold], all the data guys bringing stuff, the baseball coaches having stuff, it’s awesome.”
The follow-up to the proposed middle infield, is back to the first question of who plays third? Again, just by innings, Oliver Dunn has a large lead on innings played over Durbin this camp, 42 vs. 18.
Similar to Dunn’s arrival last year, Durbin has yet to make his MLB debut but is on the 40-man roster. Both players had more experience in the minors at second base, but the Brewers aren’t inclined to move their Platinum Glover away.
“We’ve already trusted Dunn, he made the Opening Day roster last year,” Murphy said. “We really do believe in him, he’s capable, and it would be great if he would emerge. Talent-wise, he has as much as anyone we have.”
The question with Dunn is, will he play against lefties? In his last full season of the minors in 2023, he only had 76 plate appearances against southpaws. While in the Majors, he only had seven left-on-left PAs.
The last prominent player in all of this is Vinny Capra – who is out of options. I wrote about his efforts to increase bat speed this offseason in the last edition of the notebook, but Capra’s ability to play the infield — including shortstop — could give him an edge over Durbin. It helps that Capra has performed well to this point in camp, 7-for-19 (.368) with four homers.
Rotation improvements
With Jose Quintana’s arrival official and coupled with Aaron Ashby’s two-week shutdown due to an oblique strain, the Brewers’ rotation seems to have its ideal candidates. When viewing at the rotation year-over-year, the improvement seems stark.
While Freddy Peralta remains as the Opening Day starter, compare the unofficial depth chart of starters from breaking camp last year to this year.
- 2024
- Freddy Peralta
- DL Hall (injured, lat strain)
- Colin Rea (Cubs)
- Jakob Junis (Guardians)
- Joe Ross (Phillies)
- Wade Miley (Reds)
- Bryse Wilson (White Sox)
- 2025
- Freddy Peralta
- Nestor Cortes
- Jose Quintana
- Aaron Civale
- Tobias Myers
- Tyler Alexander
- Elvin Rodriguez
Of the latter list, six of the seven players listed tossed at least 100 innings last season – Rodriguez was a reliever in Japan and is viewed as a potential swingman for the Crew.
Depth is always tested, no matter how much it seems you have at the start of the year. Just look at the 17 different starters (some openers) the Brewers used last season. “It’s not only for situations like what just happened with Ashby,” Murphy said. “It’s continuing to make sure the wheels on our bus are at least functioning.”
When you sit back and see the difference in depth and the quality of that depth you realize what a quietly great job the Brewers’ front office did to assemble this roster – especially the addition of Quintana.
Born to Run
Last spring training, the Brewers were not shy in testing their running game. They stole more bases (46) and were caught (16) more than any other team last March. The Crew developed that output into the second-most steals in the regular season but were successful at an 84% rate — five points better than league average.
Using a Bruce Springsteen classic is a low-hanging fruit for Pat Murphy’s club (he’s a big fan of the Nebraska album), but this team expects to keep running into 2025. On Thursday night in Mesa, they stole a perfect eight-for-eight on the basepaths, even in a 10-0 bludgeoning.
“Everybody’s gotta get a chance to [steal bases,]” Murphy said after that win. Once again, the Brewers lead the majors in successful steals (25) to this point in Spring Training across The Show.
The Brewers stole 256 bases in 1992, a team record. They led by Rookie of the Year Pat Listach swiping 54 bags on a club that won 92 games. However this was before the Division series era starting in 1995, so with modern playoff rules that club would have been a three seed in the American League. Instead that team did not qualify for the ALCS.
The reason I bring that team up when comparing the 2024 Brewers is last year’s club actually had the 4th-most steals by a team in the expansion era (c. 1969) to qualify for the playoffs. Only the ’85 and ’87 Cardinals and the ’76 Royals had more steals and moved on to the postseason.
And if you think the Crew is going to rest on it’s laurels and slow down, think again. Brice Turang, Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, Christian Yelich, Sal Frelick, and Caleb Durbin can all profile to some evaluators as 20+ stolen base contenders. Turang in particular only trailed Elly De La Cruz and Shohei Ohtani in the league, swiping an even 50.
As I profiled in our special Brewers Weekly shows two weeks ago, this team is going to continue to run until teams can prove they will stop it.
Dominic Cotroneo is the host of “Brewers Extra Innings” the postgame show for the Brew Crew here on 620 WTMJ. You can follow Dom on X @Dom_Cotroneo and on Instagram @DomCBaseball to bring you closer to spring training coverage from Phoenix all month long.
