Crew middle infield one for the thesaurus: 'Reconnoitering it'

PHOENIX -- As Brewers manager Pat Murphy is so fond of saying: The plot thickens.

As recently as last week, it looked as if the Brewers were solving their hole at shortstop by leaving decorated second baseman Brice Turang where he was, and shifting Joey Ortiz from third base to short. Now there’s a new plan gaining traction, one in which Turang and Ortiz are on the move.

Continuing a recent lineup trend, it was Turang manning shortstop on Friday afternoon against the Giants and Ortiz at second base, with Oliver Dunn at third. Nothing is finalized for the regular season, which the Brewers begin March 27 at Yankee Stadium. But you can see where the club is headed.

“We’ve been looking at this lately, and it kind of woke me up,” Murphy said. “Nobody really suggested it, we just tried it, like, ‘Whoa.’ I think it even surprised the players. It feels right. And I wouldn’t have said that 10 days ago.”

There are many layers to the decision. Who fits best for shortstop? If that’s Turang, then who is best at second base? It’s a crucial position for the NL’s 2024 team Gold Glove Award winner. If that’s Ortiz, then what would that mean for third? Dunn is a premium defender, but his potential platoon mate, Brewers No. 22 prospect Caleb Durbin, has failed to impress the scouts trying to keep track of Milwaukee’s various infield permutations. And where will utility player Vinny Capra fit? He’s out of Minor League options and has shown surprising power this spring (five home runs in 26 at-bats).

Whatever the Brewers decide, the idea is to have Turang and Ortiz set at their positions as much as possible, rather than moving around.

“We haven’t made a final decision. I haven’t made a final decision,” Murphy said. “I really believe in looking at all of it, taking in all the information and listening to others. I was dead set on, ‘Turang is going to be our second baseman, and Ortiz can handle short.’ I still believe that. But, then we toyed with this new setup and I was like, ‘This might be better for everybody.’”

As recently as last Saturday, it looked like the Brewers were closing in on different answers. Turang started at second base that day against the Angels and Ortiz was at short. It was by far the most common alignment to that point of camp -- and Murphy’s preferred one.

Then this new possibility emerged.

“I don’t think I had my mind totally set,” Murphy said. “I was leaning that way, and I had all of my reasons that I still have written there [on an office whiteboard]. But then I saw this, which I didn’t consider at the beginning. I was [thinking], ‘Leave Joey at third because Joey is a really good third baseman, and put Brice over there [at shortstop] because that’s supposed to be the most important position.’ But I don’t know that short is the most important. It can be, if you’ve got a second baseman who can really do it.”

If Ortiz is on the move to second base, it would mark the second straight season he’s on the move. A lifelong shortstop, he adapted to third last spring after the Brewers acquired him from the Orioles in the Corbin Burnes trade.

“We ask our second basemen to do a lot,” Murphy said. “What I mean by that is when you play the middle of the diamond the way we play our second basemen for most all right-handed hitters, and the ground we ask them to cover, it’s not too awfully different than short. The number of times you end up throwing a ball from the outfield to a base, the number of times you end up directing a ball in a first-and-third steal situation, the number of times you wind up touching the ball because you’re turning two.

“We want to make sure [Ortiz] is as comfortable there as he is at third. Third was new for him, too, and he did a remarkable job. He does some things at third that no other infielder on our team could do. But second base handles the ball a lot more, and he’s one of our best ball handlers.”

There’s no rush to set anything in stone. The Brewers don’t depart the desert for another 10 days. And both Turang and Ortiz have said they will do whatever the team asks.

That sentiment hasn’t changed.

“It doesn’t matter to me one bit,” Ortiz said on Friday, after he homered in an 11-5 Brewers win over the Giants. “I think we both just want to do what the team needs to win.”

The team will continue to weigh the options.

“We’re going to keep ‘connoitering’ it -- or reconnoitering it,” Murphy said. “There’s a lot of Spring Training left.”