Brewers avoid potential disaster after top free agent shortstop's unfortunate injury

After a tough 2025 season at the plate for Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Joey Ortiz, the calls for the front office to upgrade the position were loud at the beginning of the offseason. As the most obvious position where the Brewers could use an offensive upgrade prior to the 2026 season, fans were calling for Matt Arnold and company to sign a shortstop in free agency or acquire one via trade.

The issue, however, was twofold. Not only was it a thin shortstop market this offseason, making it even more unlikely that the cash-strapped Brewers would break the bank to win the sweepstakes for one of the few names available, but Milwaukee also has a swath of middle infield talent rising quickly through their minor league system. Cooper Pratt, Jesús Made, and Luis Peña, Milwaukee's top three prospects according to MLB Pipeline, are expected to make their MLB debuts by the 2028 season at the absolute latest; with the trajectory that each of them is currently on, it wouldn't be a surprise to see at least two of them in the big leagues by the end of the 2027 campaign.

Therefore, the options were even more limited for Arnold and company when it came to finding an upgrade at shortstop this offseason. The only type of player who would have made any sense was someone who was clearly better than Ortiz and was willing to accept a short-term deal -- two years at the most. On the free agent market, there was really only one name who fit the bill, and his recent injury news reinforces the overused idiom "hindsight is 20/20."

Top free agent shortstop Ha-Seong Kim expected to miss at least 4-5 months after undergoing surgery on his right middle finger

The likelihood of the Brewers signing Ha-Seong Kim this offseason decreased significantly when Brandon Woodruff accepted the $22.025 million qualifying offer back in November. However, if Milwaukee was looking to make a splurge following their 2025 NLCS appearance, Kim was a perfect candidate. In his two most recent fully healthy seasons -- 2022 and 2023 -- Kim was a 5.0 bWAR player or better, and after an injury caused him to miss much of the 2025 campaign, he was looking for a short-term "prove-it" deal, which are the type of low-commitment deals Milwaukee seeks out in the free agent market.

Had the Brewers not given $22.025 million to Woody, it's certainly possible that they instead handed that money to Kim to upgrade at shortstop for the 2026 season. However, it's a good thing they didn't. Over the weekend, the Braves announced that Kim recently underwent surgery on his right middle finger to repair a tendon that he tore after falling on ice. MLB.com's Mark Bowman was the first to report how the injury occurred with the following succinct report on the social media platform X.

Now, Kim is expected to miss at least 4-5 months, meaning he won't join the Braves' roster until at least the month of May. That, however, feels like the best case scenario, as he might need more time to ramp up and get back into form after missing out on Spring Training.

Had the Brewers acted aggressively and handed $20 million to Kim for the 2026 campaign, which represents about one-sixth of their total payroll, the news of his injury would be difficult to endure. Instead, all signs point to Ortiz being the Brewers' Opening Day starter in 2026. MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported as such with an article back in late December that detailed the Brewers' belief in the third-year shortstop, writing, in regard to the shortstop position, "there are no indications [the Brewers] are considering making a change."

Not only is Ortiz a much cheaper option at this stage in his and Kim's careers, but he also might simply be the better player in 2026. Jack Stern of Brewer Fanatic keenly pointed out in an article over the weekend that Ortiz is actually projected for more WAR than Kim in 2026, with the former earning a projection of 2.5 WAR from FanGraph's projection model and the latter checking in at 2.4 WAR.

The comparison, and Stern's excellent analysis of the situation, which is free to read over at brewerfanatic.com, points out just how difficult it would have been to replace Ortiz this offseason with a player who was a clear upgrade. Even Kim, who is set to earn far more money than all but two players on the Brewers' 2026 roster, wasn't a clear needle-mover, and now that he's set to miss at least two months of the upcoming season, banking on a bounce-back campaign from Ortiz was clearly the better option.