Joey Ortiz is struggling. Caleb Durbin is struggling. Oliver Dunn is back in the minors. Vinny Capra is off the team. Andruw Monasterio is hitless in nine at-bats (though he has walked three times). We all know: the Brewers have been getting an unacceptable amount of production from the left side of their infield.

Last week, I looked at some pie-in-the-sky trade options that the Brewers could look to if they wanted to make a splash and bring in some external help. Today, I’m going to look at the options already in the system.

First things first: the Triple-A roster is barren

The Brewers simply do not have viable major league options at Triple-A Nashville, unless you count Dunn, whom they’ve already tried and given up on. The players with the most appearances for the Sounds at third base and shortstop who haven’t already been tried in the majors this season are Raynel Delgado and Freddy Zamora: Delgado, in 41 games, is hitting .252/.358/.315, and Zamora is hitting .299/.413/.373 over 22 games. Zamora was a 2020 second-round pick, but he hit .193 with a .261 slugging percentage in 94 minor league contests in 2024, and he’s already 26. It’s unlikely that either is ever a useful major leaguer.

One potentially intriguing name is Anthony Seigler, a soon-to-be-26-year-old former first-round pick of the Yankees who signed as a minor league free agent this season. There’s not a real track record of offensive success in Seigler’s past, but in 36 games with Nashville this season he is hitting .281/.428/.518 with six homers, three doubles, and three triples while splitting time between second base and catcher (what a weird combination), and he made his first start of the season at third base on Friday, possibly as a test to see if he could do it for the Brewers. But in that game, the ambidextrous (yes, really) Seigler injured his right hand, per an update from Sounds’ manager Rick Sweet:

Manager Rick Sweet confirmed that Anthony Seigler dislocated a finger on his slide into second base. Red-hot, Seigler was making his first-ever appearance at third base as the #Brewers review all options. https://t.co/NM8Sy6llZj

— Jim Goulart (@Mass_Haas) May 19, 2025

The other wild card here is Tyler Black, who broke a bone in his hand at the end of spring training and just started a rehab assignment last week with the Rookie-level ACL Brewers. Black had a bad spring, which may have cost him an MLB roster spot (if he hadn’t been injured), but he’s still an intriguing offensive prospect — his patience almost certainly puts his offensive floor above what the Brewers have been getting. The problem here is defense. The Brewers seemingly gave up on Black as a third baseman last season, and it seems as if his future is in the outfield corners or at first base. But the situation is dire enough that the traditionally defense-oriented Brewers could get desperate and make some sacrifices, which could be easier to stomach given that Durbin is already struggling defensively at third base.

Delgado and Zamora are probably not better alternatives to what the Brewers already have. Seigler has had a great season so far and might be worth a shot, but even if he’s not out for long, he is a career .224/.365/.363 hitter in seven minor league seasons.

Has Brock Wilken flipped a switch?

At Double-A Biloxi, things are more interesting. There are three intriguing players who rank at various levels in different prospect rankings, all of whom are members of the Biloxi infield.

The first is Brock Wilken. You won’t see Wilken near the top of any prospect lists: for example, he’s the No. 17 Milwaukee prospect on MLB Pipeline and No. 31 on FanGraphs. But Wilken was a first-round pick in 2023 after hitting .345/.506/.807 with a record 31 homers in 66 games at Wake Forest in his final college season, so not long ago, he was viewed quite highly. A very patient—some would say too patient—hitter, Wilken excelled in 34 games at High-A Wisconsin after getting drafted in 2023, but he struggled badly when he was bumped up a level in 2024. He hit just .199/.312/.363 in 108 games, and his prospect status went into free fall, dropping 10 spots on the Pipeline ranking and a hard-to-believe 26 spots on FanGraphs. It should also be noted that he was hit in the face by a pitch early in the season and didn’t look the same the rest of the way.

But after a slow start, Wilken has been raking in May. Through Sunday’s action, he is batting .316/.420/.737 with three doubles, seven homers, 11 walks, and 14 RBI in 16 games this month. He isn’t going to win any Gold Gloves at third base, but he’s not terrible out there — no worse than Durbin, at minimum — and again, Wilken’s patience could help to raise his floor as a major leaguer even if he never hits for average. The power is real. Wilken will soon be 23 years old, so it’s not as if he’s still a baby. For a deeper dive on Wilken, check out Adam’s “Film Room” article on him from last week.

Would it be a mistake to rush Cooper Pratt?

Cooper Pratt is near the top of those prospect lists. After an excellent age-19 minor league season in 2024, Pratt found himself ranked between No. 50 and No. 63 in the overall rankings done by Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs. Pratt projects as a real five-tool player, a good hitter with pop and speed who won a minor league Gold Glove last season at shortstop. Scouts have compared him to Gunnar Henderson.

As a hitter, I don’t think Pratt is ready. While he did hit for solid power after his 2024 promotion to High-A Wisconsin, he hit only .221 with a .258 on-base percentage at that level in 23 games. This season, Pratt is hitting .252/.337/.388. That’s not terrible by any means and translates to a 113 wRC+, but you worry about the massive jump in quality of pitching from Double-A to the majors.

Pratt is very young. He doesn’t turn 21 until late August. And if the Brewers think they really have something here, there could be downsides to calling him up too early, both for his confidence as a player and for financial reasons — remember, the Brewers only put Jackson Chourio in the majors at age 20 because they had him locked up for 10 years.

Anyone else?

The 23-year-old Mike Boeve, a 2023 second-rounder, is also at Double-A Biloxi. He’s snuck into the top five Brewer prospects on Pipeline after an outstanding 2024 season in which he went 21-for-38 at High-A before getting promoted to Biloxi, where he hit .306/.374/.447 in 66 games. Boeve has a big-time hit tool, though he doesn’t have Wilken’s or even Pratt’s power. Like Wilken, he’s a capable but not-great fielder and not a threat on the basepaths.

Boeve had surgery on his labrum last October, which delayed his start this year — he’s played only nine games after making his season debut for the Shuckers on May 6.

Beyond him, there aren’t any obvious potential options, as the next wave of exciting Brewer infield prospects are still in their teens and down at Low-A Carolina.

Are any of these realistic options?

I guess it depends on how desperate Matt Arnold is, but the longer the Brewer offense is in a deep rut (remember, they were shut out four times last week), the louder the calls for something to happen are going to become. An external addition is certainly possible, but it would come with certain challenges. An aggressive internal promotion may not work, but it’s probably more realistic.

If the injury to Seigler turns out to be short term, then why not? Give him a shot. My expectations are very low. If Tyler Black returns and is healthy, you might as well let him play third base; it’s going to be a bloodbath, but something needs to happen.

But the exciting move here would be to promote Wilken. He’s three years older than Pratt, he’s already got big-league power, and his patience should mean that even if he’s struggling to get hits, he’ll still be getting on base. It might go badly, but why not?