There are few better feelings for a rising baseball star than that official call-up to the majors, which shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt recently experienced when the Milwaukee Brewers made a mid-game decision to bring one of their top prospects, fresh off a new contract extension, to the big leagues this week.
Video surfaced from the AAA-affiliate Nashville Sounds ballpark, showing manager Rick Sweet calling Pratt off the field and into the dugout for a life-changing phone call. He shook the 21-year-old's hand, and the whole dugout gave him a big round of applause as Pratt individually shook hands and hugged all his teammates to celebrate. MLB.com's Adam McCalvy later confirmed what the eye-test already told us — Pratt was called up by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Pratt recently inked an 8-year deal worth about $50 million. He was ranked as the Brewers' fourth-best prospect and No. 62 in all of baseball, posting 53 hits, 32 runs batted in, and six home runs through 58 games with Nashville this season. If those numbers weren't enough of an indicator, his .735 OPS should be an indicator of the type of offensive player we're talking about.
Although the attention has turned to Pratt, and rightfully so, the decision to call him up now speaks to a larger thought-process between both the coaching staff and front office regarding that position.
Cooper Pratt's call-up to the Brewers puts Joey Ortiz on thin ice.
For one of the deepest teams in baseball, the Brewers still haven't fully figured it out at the shortstop position. While starter Joey Ortiz has grown into a highly impactful defensive player, he's not taking the strides that Brewers fans would hope as a batter.
Despite ranking 10th in at-bats for the team this year, he ranks outside the Top 10 in runs, hits, homers, and RBI on the season. If you needed one stat to sum it up, he's posting the worst batting average of his career (.207) so far this season, which is the second-worst among Brewers with 100+ plate appearances this year. To his credit, Ortiz is playing better since the start of June, but it doesn't appear to be enough for the Brewers to feel satisfied.
Bringing Pratt up to the majors shows that the Brewers aren't fully satisfied with the offensive production they've gotten from Ortiz this season. There are some physical intangibles that Ortiz cannot beat with Pratt, who is listed at 6-foot-4, 210 lbs, with noteworthy agility for a player of that size.
Maybe the Brewers just want the flexibility to choose which of these two promising young players to slot in the lineup on a matchup-by-matchup basis. Or they could be looking to make a more drastic change at the position.
With more than 90 games left to go in the regular season, they have more than enough time to decide what's best for them heading into the postseason, so it's wise to give themselves a shot to evaluate their talent now. One way or another, this is great news for the Brewers.
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