Milwaukee Brewers Dream 2022 Opening Day Lineup

Batting 6th: Luis Urias, 3B

A surprising addition to the 20 home run club in 2021 was Luis Urias. Urias was up and down throughout the season, being given the starting shortstop job in the first week, then losing it a few weeks later.

Urias started the season hitting .208 with a .688 OPS through May 21st. His offensive struggles combined with his defensive lapses led the Brewers to trade for Willy Adames.

Somehow, with the pressure of being the starter taken off of him, Urias started to perform better. From May 22nd onward, Urias hit .262 with 19 homers and an .823 OPS. He lost his starting job and became a super-utility player but essentially took over the starting third base job down the stretch.

Urias proved himself worthy of being an everyday player and enters 2022 as the projected everyday third baseman for Milwaukee. His power uptick is key to the belief that his bat can keep him entrenched at third base. It’s also why he’s batting sixth in this dream Opening Day lineup.

Batting 7th: Omar Narvaez, C

2021 All-Star Omar Narvaez had a resurgent season last year after a disappointing Brewers debut in 2020. While Narvaez showed some power with 11 homers, the bigger focus was on his consistent bat, where he was lacing base hits all the time.

While his .266 batting average was third-best on the roster last year, Narvaez was hitting .286 at the end of August, but a slump in the final month tanked his season average.

Narvaez won’t strike out much, can come up with some big hits on a consistent basis, and has a little bit of pop.

Narvaez’s career-high OPS+ is 119, which he hit in both 2018 and 2019. In 2021, he had a 99 OPS+, just one point below league average. It would be nice to see him get back to that above-average production he had in year’s past, and perhaps he can get there in 2022 along with the rest of the lineup.

In 2021, Narvaez routinely was hitting higher up in the lineup. This year, the dream scenario allows Narvaez to drop down a little more as the lineup has more length to it with the additions of Renfroe and (prospectively) Cruz. If Narvaez can sit around the 7th spot in the order and provide similar or hopefully slightly better production, the Brewers are in a good spot.