2 Brewers players who deserve more playing time, 1 who deserves less

Brewer who deserves less playing time: 3B Oliver Dunn

The battle for playing time at third base has been a story going back to the offseason. The Brewers didn't have a locked in answer there, but a collection of question marks. Could it be incumbent options Andruw Monasterio and Owen Miller, or top hitting prospect Tyler Black? But then the Brewers brought in Oliver Dunn from the Phillies and got Ortiz from the Orioles. Then Sal Frelick started learning third base and played there a ton throughout spring training.

How would third base play out with so many possibilities? That was the mystery. It's largely been the new guys, Ortiz and Dunn, as the season has gone along. Injuries to Garrett Mitchell and Christian Yelich forced Frelick to stay in the outfield. Dunn and Ortiz rose to the top of the depth chart.

Dunn started strong, hitting .322 in his first seven games, but he's struggled mightily since. In his last 25 games, Dunn is hitting just .189 (11 for 58). He has a 37.6% strikeout rate on the season. The strikeout numbers are particularly concerning. If he was making a lot of contact and just had nothing going his way, that happens sometimes, but the strikeouts are a problem.

Yet still, Dunn has started six of the 10 games to this point in the month of May, and he's played in nine of the 10. Ortiz has started four games and has played in only five games this month. Those numbers should get flipped.

Murphy has acknowledged he wants to see what he has in Dunn, which is why he's getting an extended stretch of playing time right now. Dunn hasn't been taking full advantage of his opportunity here and should see his playing time drop as a result.

Brewer who deserves more playing time: OF Jackson Chourio

While Jackson Chourio's placement on this list may seem peculiar, his playing time has diminished of late. He started off strong, but has come back down to earth. On the year, Chourio's hitting .221/.264/.345 with four homers, a .609 OPS, and a 28.7% strikeout rate.

On the surface, those numbers don't exactly scream "more playing time" but that doesn't mean Chourio shouldn't be out there every single day. Chourio hasn't been in the starting lineup since Tuesday in Kansas City and he was actually hitting the ball well of late. In his seven games and four starts in May, Chourio is hitting .313 (5-for-16) with just one strikeout.

Recently, The Athletic wrote a deep dive on top hitting prospects struggling to make the jump from Triple-A to the Majors this year and how the gap is bigger than normal. Chourio is a consensus top two prospect in baseball and made that jump on Opening Day. All of these prospects have struggled across the board and Chourio, with his .609 OPS is one of the best performing hitters of the group actually.

While that may not say a lot about the group, the point is for his age and experience, Chourio is actually doing pretty well all things considered. But still we've seen Chourio sitting on the bench since Tuesday. He's working with some of the veterans in BP, there's no reports of an injury nagging him, and he's simply been on the bench.

For being the $82MM future face of the franchise, he should be in the lineup a little more often. Chourio's going to struggle this year, it's not unexpected, but getting at-bats and experience is how he's going to get out of it and learn from it.

If Chourio isn't going to be getting ABs just about everyday in the majors right now, a demotion to Triple-A where he can play everyday would make some sense. The Brewers likely don't want to do that, which makes putting Chourio out there to get his ABs all the more crucial.