Brewers' Joey Ortiz awarded May NL Rookie Of The Month over Paul Skenes and others

For the second consecutive season the Milwaukee Brewers have relied upon their youth at the big league level. In 2023 Sal Frelick, Joey Wiemer, Brice Turang, and Abner Uribe all played key roles on a National League Central winning team, but not one managed to win a Rookie of the Month award.

Fast forward to the present and the Brewers have called upon rookies Jackson Chourio, DL Hall, Bryan Hudson, Joey Ortiz, Oliver Dunn, Tobias Myers, Robert Gasser, and Tyler Black already this season. After an outstanding month of May, Joey Ortiz was the recipient of the Rookie of the Month award.

Joey Ortiz was one of the Milwaukee Brewers stand out players during the month of May

Here at Reviewing the Brew we recognized Joey Ortiz's efforts by announcing him as one of their stand out players last month. Across 23 games and 75 plate appearances he slashed .307/.391/.587 and walked nine times compared to 11 strikeouts. His .587 slugging percentage was made possible by 12 total extra base hits that includes seven doubles and four home runs.

A few other National League Central players also had outstanding months of May but Joey Ortiz was selected as Rookie of the Month over them.

In Pittsburgh, Paul Skenes struck out 30 batters across 22.0 innings pitched while posting a 2.45 ERA (4 GS). Chicago's Shota Imanaga had a 2.67 ERA in May, but prior to his last start in May (against the Brewers) he had allowed just two earned runs across 26 innings pitched (0.69 ERA). Lastly, St. Louis shortstop Masyn Winn led all rookies in hits last month (25).

Joey Ortiz ranked first in several offensive categories when compared to other NL rookies

During the month of May, Joey Ortiz finished first (minimum 20 at-bats) among rookies in runs (16), doubles (T-7), home runs (4), on-base percentage (.391), slugging percentage (.597), and on-base plus slugging percentage (.978).

Since the year 2000, seven different Milwaukee players have won Rookie of the Month. Ben Sheets won in June of 2001, Scott Podsednik August 2003, Prince Fielder April 2006, Ryan Braun in both June and July of 2007, Casey McGehee in September 2009, and Keston Hiura in July of 2019.

The last Brewers player to win Rookie of the Year was Devin Williams in 2020. If Ortiz can keep up this level of success, it's not out of the question to think that he could be in serious contention for Rookie of the Year at season's end.