Milwaukee Brewers: First Half Grades for the Infielders and Catchers

As the All-Star break continues, so does our series where we give out grades to the Milwaukee Brewers players for their first half performances in 2023. Here, we move on to the infielders and catchers.

With a mixture of key offensive holdovers from 2022, some new acquisitions and bounce back candidates, and young players with promise, there was some optimism surrounding the infield and catching groups heading into this season. As we reached the All-Star break, though, there was much to be desired from a majority of these players' performances in the first half of 2023.

Here are our 2023 first half grades for the Milwaukee Brewers infielders and catchers.

1B Rowdy Tellez

Brewers fans have seen two sides of Rowdy Tellez so far in the 2023 season. There was the first version, which was possibly the hottest offensive player on the team, and then there was the second version which was almost as cold as could be.

As of May 4th, Tellez was killing it. Through 28 games, he was batting .258 with a .911 OPS, four doubles, nine homers, and 22 RBI. In 51 games since then, he's batting just .186 with a .528 OPS, three doubles, three homers, and 14 RBI.

That puts Tellez at a combined .213 average and .672 OPS, both of which would be career lows for a season, with just seven doubles, 12 homers, and a -0.4 bWAR. Rowdy hit the injured list right before the All-Star break with forearm inflammation, which hopefully ends up explaining some of his struggles. Injury or not, though, the Brewers need way better production in the second half from what was supposed to be one of their top run-producing options.

Grade: D+

2B Brice Turang

Similarly to Rowdy, rookie Brice Turang had a pretty decent start to the season before going through an even worse cold streak. The difference is that Turang started showing some signs of life again, if only slight ones, heading into the All-Star break.

Turang was sitting at a .256/.316/.356 slash line through the first 31 games of his career. He wasn't expected to be a heavy hitter anyway (though he had his first career grand slam already under his belt), and a better OBP would be nice, but at least the average was in a decent spot. Then came the slump, punctuated by a 1-for-40 stretch and a demotion to Triple-A Nashville to work things out.

Turang came back up for 11 games before the All-Star break and had some timely hits but was only slightly improved offensively. Luckily, he has provided some Gold Glove caliber defense, which has saved the team at times. Still, if he doesn't improve upon a .207/.265/.315 slash line, good defense might not be enough to keep others from cutting into his playing time.

Grade: C-

IF Owen Miller

When the Brewers traded for Owen Miller last offseason, it mostly seemed like a low-impact, good story about a Wisconsin native playing for his childhood team. Little did anyone know that he would actually end up being one of the team's more consistent offensive performers for much of 2023.

Miller has slashed .285/.331/.398 through 74 games, forcing manager Craig Counsell to put him in the lineup more often and winning playing time from some of his fellow utility infielders. He has also provided above average defense at multiple positions with a combined six outs above average and two defensive runs saved on the season.

Grade: A-

3B Mike Brosseau

After a strong 2022 season that saw him contribute as a solid backup infielder and pinch hitter extraordinaire, Mike Brosseau had every opportunity to become a more consistent contributor in 2023. Instead, he struggled just as badly, if not moreso, as the rest of the players on the team.

Brosseau slashed just .205/.256/.397 through 29 games. That saw him ultimately get demoted down to Triple-A Nashville and then designated for assignment altogether once the roster math started working against him. He ended up clearing waivers and is still a part of the Brewers organization.

Grade: D-

C Victor Caratini

The aforementioned William Contreras hasn't missed too many games behind this season. But when he has, Victor Caratini has been a more than capable backup, providing his own strong defense and improving quite a bit on his offensive numbers from last season.

On the year, Caratini is slashing .255/.346/.391 over 34 games, adding five homers and 17 RBI. That is a major improvement over 2022 where he slumped hard in the second half of the season and finished by slashing .199/.300/.342.

Grade: B+

Infielders with Incomplete Grades

Tyrone Taylor started the season on the injured list and has since returned there, having compiled only 29 games played in between. It wasn't a very good showing in that limited time as he slashed just .160/.179/.240 with three doubles and a homer.

On the other hand, a pleasant surprise this season has been rookie Andruw Monasterio, who was added to the 40-man roster midseason. He is slashing .278/.381/.389 in 26 games with 10 runs scored, though he slowed down a bit down the stretch.

Luis Urias struggled in his return from the injured list, slashing .149/.299/.236 in 26 games with just three extra base hits. He has since been optioned to Triple-A to try and get things going against some lesser competition.

Jon Singleton was a nice story, battling his way back to play in the majors for the first time since 2015, but he didn't hit well enough in his 11 games and is no longer with the team. Darin Ruf was brought in to DH when Luke Voit was released and was doing well in 11 games of his own before a knee injury knocked him out and will keep him out for a while. And at four games, Jahmai Jones is the newest member of the Brewers and is already famous for his first pitch, game-tying three-run double against the Cubs last week.

For a team that is seven games above .500 and a game back in the division, the infield and catching group (mostly the former) have provided less offensive production than one would expect. Hopefully that can change in the second half of the season.