These disappointing Brewers won't survive Milwaukee's deadline roster shuffle

Summer has arrived, and once again — despite offseason turmoil, trades and more than their fair share of injuries — the Milwaukee Brewers find themselves atop the NL Central after seven wins in their last 10 games. In a season in which up has been down and chaos has reigned, the Crew remain one of baseball's steadiest known quantities, a team that will find a way to win a lot of games no matter what kind of adversity you throw at them.

But at this point, success in May or June isn't the bar. Nor, for that matter, is a division title; this organization has been there and done that. The goal now is to find a way to finally get over the hump, to get back to the World Series for the first time in over 40 years. It's an awfully high bar, one that leaves very little margin for error — and very little room for weak links. As impressive as the Brewers have been so far, there are some players on this roster who will need to be improved upon as the team gets ready for a pennant push.

SS Joey Ortiz

Ortiz was a worthy gamble, considering his prospect pedigree and his excellent defense at short. But while the latter has blossomed since he came to Milwaukee as part of the return for Corbn Burnes, his bat his only regressed, from a .727 OPS in 2024 to .593 in 2025 to a dreadful .529 this year. The underlying metrics are nearly as bad; Ortiz simply does not do enough damage on contact to be a viable every-day player, no matter how good his glove.

He's still 27, and he showed promising signs at the plate as recently as 18 months or so ago. Right now, though, the Brewers can't afford this lack of production at a premium position — especially considering how things are going with the other half of their left side of the infield.

3B Luis Rengifo

As bad as Ortiz has been at the plate so far this season, Rengifo has nearly matched him — without anywhere near the on-base skills or defensive value to offset it. He's never been one to take a walk, and his contact-first approach has mostly resulted in a whole bunch of weak ground-outs. That's not good enough for a guy who no longer impacts the game in other ways the way he did with the Angels, and whose defensive versatility isn't nearly as valuable for a team already more or less set in that department. Milwaukee tried to Moneyball its way to a viable infield, but the results have been disastrous, and it's not hard to see it costing them in October unless they get aggressive this summer.

RHP Brandon Sproat

This is by no means an indictment of Sproat's future, or to imply that he's already a bust; on the contrary, I still believe long-term in the arsenal. But he's very, very far from a finished product right now, as his 13.8 percent walk rate would suggest, and his stuff simply isn't good enough to get away with that lack of refinement. It's one thing to give him a long leash right now, as Milwaukee deals with injuries to everyone from Brandon Woodruff to Quinn Priester to Logan Henderson. Soon enough, though, they'll have options again, and Sproat will likely find himself the odd man out in this rotation.

INF David Hamilton

Forgive me if this feels like beating a dead horse, but could we end anywhere else? If Milwaukee accomplishes one thing at this year's trade deadline — you know, beyond the obligatory "add as many relievers as possible" — it needs to upgrading the infield, especially if that upgrade comes with some more power at the plate. Hamilton has been as punchless at the plate with the Brewers as he was with the Red Sox previously, and for all his speed he's not a terribly impactful defender either. Heck, he doesn't even offer value as the short side of an infield platoon. He's useful enough as a pinch-runner, I guess, but surely this team of all teams can solve that need elsewhere.

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