Brewers 2022 Season Report Card Grades For The Infield

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The Brewers 2022 infield did not change drastically from the players they ended the 2021 season with.

During the last offseason, the Crew's biggest losses in the infield were Daniel Vogelbach and Eduardo Escobar. Vogelbach was non-tendered and eventually signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Escobar, a trade deadline pickup in 2021, signed with the New York Mets in free agency.

Returning were Rowdy Tellez, Kolten Wong, Willy Adames, Luis Urias, Jace Peterson, and Keston Hiura. The biggest question mark entering the season was if Urias would meet expectations as the everyday starting third basemen.

In terms of new faces, the only new infielder was Mike Brosseau. Brosseau was acquired via trade with the Tampa Bay Rays prior to the lockout beginning. The timing of this trade coincided with the Brewers bringing in his former coach, Ozzie Timmons, as a co-hitting coach.

In this article, we will give a report card grade on each of these Brewers infielders' seasons.

1B Rowdy Tellez 2022 Season Grade: A-

2022 was a career year for the 27 year old slugging first baseman. This year, the Brewers granted him nearly every day playing time as he appeared in 153 games. The results were career highs in nearly every standard offensive statistic including 35 home runs and 89 RBI. He led the Brewers in home runs and finished second in RBI.

If you dive further into his metrics, Tellez had an impressive 10.4% walk rate to 20.2% K rate. Due to a career low .219 batting average his on-base percentage was just .306, but the truth is he was pretty good at drawing a free pass. In fact, he finished second on the team in walks with 62, trailing only Christian Yelich.

With his intermittent platoon partner Keston Hiura struggling against left-handed pitchers, Tellez did get quite a few opportunities against south paws. The most glaring difference in his splits was his ability to slug the baseball in these matchups. Against left-handed pitchers his slugging percentage was just .330 as opposed to .498 against righties.

Overall, there is a lot to like about the way Tellez performed in 2022. First base has been a revolving door for the Brewers over the past several years, but it looks like Tellez may have locked it up as he is under club control until 2025.

Next up is two players who managed the left side of the infield. That is Willy Adames and Luis Urias.

SS Willy Adames 2022 Season Grade: A

2022 was Adames' first full season with the Brewers. After joining the team via trade in 2021, he provided a much needed spark to the team that helped propel them to a division title. Unfortunately in 2022 the team fell short of repeating that goal, but he put together an incredible season.

Adames ended up setting a Brewers home run record as a shortstop in 2022. His 31 long balls were the most by a shortstop in franchise history. In addition he contributed 98 RBI. Had he not missed a few weeks with an ankle injury, he would have surpassed the century mark in regards to RBI.

One knock on Adames' game last season was his dip in batting average. He finished the year at just .238. He also saw drops in on base percentage (.298), slugging (.458), and on base plus slugging (.756) when compared to his first season.

It is hard to know exactly why Adames saw noticeable decreases in his slash line despite being the team's best run producer. His advanced stats do not show a substantial decrease in exit velocity (-0.6% difference), his strikeout rate improved in 2022 when compared to 2021, and his fly ball percentage actually decreased. This helps debunk that maybe he wasn't hitting the ball as hard, was striking out more, or just hitting pop outs/swinging for the fences.

One statistic that significantly decreased was BABIP (batting average on balls in play). Adames' career average is .325 and in 2022 his BABIP was the lowest of his career at .278. Teams also shifted on him at the highest percentage of his career in 2022 in which he struggled mightily in such situations to the tune of a wOBA of .248. With no shift his wOBA was .350.

In 2023, teams will not be able to perform extreme defense shifts. It will be interesting to see how this impacts Adames' performance.

3B Luis Urias 2022 Season Grade: D

Urias was a pleasant surprise in 2021 as he was a key contributor on the Brewers offense. His 23 home runs and 75 RBI were career highs. As a result, he was set to become the Brewers starting everyday third basemen.

Unfortunately, Urias started the 2022 season on the injured list with a quad strain. He did not make his season debut until May 3 and struggled to get going as he had just a .223 first half batting average. His second half batting average was .260 and he played quite well offensively in September, but overall he failed to produce like the Brewers expected.

A big contributing factor to why Urias did not produce as expected is because he struggled mightily with runners in scoring position. On the year he hit just .168 in such situations and six times he hit into a double play. In 2021, Urias hit .272 with runners in scoring position.

Urias will need to play much better in 2023. Right now he is the starting third baseman, but that doesn't' mean the Brewers aren't looking to add a more impact-full bat by upgrading at the position.

The last remaining players are Kolten Wong, Jace Peterson, Mike Brosseau, and Keston Hiura.

2B Kolten Wong 2022 Season Grade: B+

It was a strange year for Kolten Wong. The typically sure-handed handed defender had perhaps his worst defensive season of his career by committing 17 errors but was solid offensively despite being removed from the leadoff spot.

Wong's performance put the Brewers in a tricky spot for he had a $10MM club option looming for the 2023 season. In somewhat surprising fashion, the Brewers picked up his option. Unless he is traded, Wong will return as the Crew's starting second basemen in 2023.

UTIL Jace Peterson 2022 Season Grade: B-

2022 was a tale of two halves for Jace Peterson. During the first half, while initially filling in for the injured Luis Urias, he may have been the team's MVP as he hit eight home runs, drove in 30 runs, and had a 118 OPS+. Unfortunately an elbow injury sidelined him for much of the second half and his performance suffered as a result.

When healthy, Peterson played quite well both offensively and defensively. However, the 32 year old has no minor league options remaining and is a free agent. This may be the end of the road for the "on bace jace" era in Milwaukee as prospect Brice Turang will likely replace Peterson in 2023.

UTIL Mike Brosseau Season Grade: B+

Brosseau was limited to just 69 games with the Brewers in his first year with the team. He initially split time in between the major and minor leagues, but also had two different spells on the injured list that limited him. Overall, his stat line was pretty decent at .255/.344/.418/.762.

There were a few instances where Brosseau came up clutch for the Crew, especially as a pinch hitter. For example, his first hit with the team was a pinch hit go ahead home run in the seventh inning against the Cubs in April. He also had a pinch hit grand slam against the Met's in September.

1B/DH Keston Hiura 2022 Season Grade: C

After an awful 2021 season, Hiura bounced back in 2022 and put up a some decent numbers. In 80 games he slashed .226/.316/.449.765 with 14 home runs and 32 RBI. He also had two walk off home runs on the season. The first came against the Braves in May and the second against the Pirates in August.

The biggest knock with Hiura continues to be his high strikeout rate. In 2022 he struck out 41.7% of the time. It will be interesting to see if the Brewers tender him a contract this off-season for the former first round pick is out of minor league options.

Odds are the Brewers will return all of their normal 2022 infield starters in Rowdy Tellez, Kolten Wong, Willy Adames, and Luis Urias for the 2023 season. This is a solid core of infield players and Brice Turang will likely also be added to the mix. When all are performing at their best, this is a very good infield.

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