Brewers Acquire Minor League Infielder Patrick Dorrian from the Orioles

Trade season in baseball is rapidly approaching. On Thursday, the Milwaukee Brewers announced a trade that brought in a minor league infielder.

The player acquired from Baltimore is Patrick Dorrian. Milwaukee will be Dorrian’s fourth organization. The 25-year-old is yet to make his major league debut, but that’s not to say he couldn’t this season.

Dorrian was initially drafted by the Braves in the 12th round in 2014 but ended up deciding to play college ball. In 2018, he signed with the Pirates but was then traded to the Orioles for Yefry Ramirez. Now, he moves to the Brewers organization.

How has new Brewers minor leaguer Patrick Dorrian performed throughout his minor league career?

Prior to 2020, when there was no minor league season, Dorrian had made it to the High-A level in the minor leagues. At that time, he was hitting for average, making good contact, and drawing a fair number of walks.

During 2020, Dorrian trained with Zack Short, a shortstop in the Detroit Tigers organization.  His main focus was to hit for more power in order to better fit the profile for third basemen that major league clubs tend to look for. He ended up seeing instant results as he hit five home runs in his first eight games during the 2021 minor league season and 22 overall.

Unfortunately, it has been tough going this season. In 153 at bats, he has a .157 batting average, .511 OPS, three home runs, and a strike out rate at 34.5%. It has been a very tough start to the season for a player who enjoyed a decent amount of success in 2021.

What Will Patrick Dorrian’s role be this season?

Depth wise for the Brewers, Jace Peterson has been playing a lot as a result of Wong’s injury and Mark Mathias, Keston Hiura, and Pablo Reyes are all depth infielders on the 40-man roster. At this time, all signs point towards Dorrian’s signing being for minor league depth.

In Nashville, where Dorrian will report, Brice Turang is the prized infield prospect and isn’t quite ready to make an impact at the major league level, the caveat to that being if he is traded at this year’s trade deadline. If that occurs that could open the door for Dorrian to see more playing time.

Aside from Turang, Weston Wilson, Pablo Reyes, and Andruw Monasterio can all play third base while Tyler White and Jon Singleton generally occupy first base. Those two positions are where Dorrian has most of his experience defensively.

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This minor trade may end up not amounting to anything, but for now all we can do is trust that the Brewers scouting department saw something they liked in young Patrick Dorrian.