{"id":727961,"date":"2026-06-17T03:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/727961\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T03:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:12:21","slug":"brewers-call-up-cooper-pratt-ahead-of-series-with-guardians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/727961\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewers call up Cooper Pratt ahead of series with Guardians"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Cooper Pratt has reached the major leagues 2 \u00bd months after the Milwaukee Brewers signed the shortstop prospect to an eight-year, $50.75 million contract.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pratt made his major league debut and went 0 for 3 in a 2-1 victory<\/a> over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night after getting called up from Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers made room for Pratt by designating third baseman Luis Rengifo for assignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a kid we\u2019ve signed for the long term,\u201d Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cWe feel confident he will be our shortstop of the future. He\u2019s going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pratt, 21, found out he was going to the big leagues when Nashville manager Rick Sweet notified him during the Sounds\u2019 game on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was magical, man,\u201d Pratt said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t quite feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news came at an ideal time for Pratt because the Brewers were off Monday, enabling his family to make it to Milwaukee for his first MLB game. Pratt\u2019s father, Russell Pratt, doesn\u2019t travel by airplane.<\/p>\n

That meant a 700-mile drive from the Pratt\u2019s family home in Oxford, Mississippi. Those long-distance drives were common during Pratt\u2019s road to the big leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe drove in travel ball for like 20 hours sometimes, from like Mississippi to Arizona,\u201d Pratt said. \u201cArizona to Texas. We drove all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pratt signed an eight-year deal<\/a> on April 3 that includes club options for 2034 and 2035. The $50.75 million contract includes escalators<\/a> that could raise the value by $10 million if he repeatedly finishes high in MVP voting and the team exercises those two options.<\/p>\n

In the weeks after agreeing to that deal, Pratt felt pressure to live up to that contract. His batting average in Nashville didn\u2019t climb above .200 for good until April 26.<\/p>\n

He has performed better lately. He was hitting .241 with a .349 on-base percentage, six homers, 32 RBIs and 17 steals in 58 games with Nashville at the time of his promotion.<\/p>\n

Pratt\u2019s defense is ahead of his offense at this point in his development. He won a Gold Glove as the top shortstop in the minor leagues in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re well aware of a guy making his first trip to the big leagues, it could go many different ways,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cWhen are they ready? When is it a perfect time? Right now, in my opinion, it doesn\u2019t really matter. It matters he gets comfortable in the big leagues, understands it, starts to make his adjustments he needs to make, and then we roll from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy has a connection to Pratt\u2019s family. Pratt is the nephew of BYU coach Trent Pratt, who played for Murphy at Arizona State from 1999-2000.<\/p>\n

The Brewers can afford to be patient with Pratt\u2019s bat as long as he fields the way he did in the minor leagues.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee has received little offensive production from the left side of its infield all season, yet the Brewers still entered Tuesday leading the NL Central by 4 \u00bd games over St. Louis as they chase their fourth straight division title. The versatile David Hamilton had been splitting time with Joey Ortiz at shortstop and with Rengifo at third base.<\/p>\n

Hamilton entered Tuesday battting .231 with a .316 on-base percentage, .320 slugging percentage, three homers, 11 RBIs and 14 steals in 58 games. Ortiz was hitting .207 with a .299 on-base percentage, .262 slugging percentage, one homer, 14 RBIs and five steals in 60 games.<\/p>\n

Rengifo was hitting .205 with a .280 on-base percentage, .254 slugging percentage, no homers, 19 RBIs and three steals in 57 games.<\/p>\n

Murphy mentioned that he now might have Hamilton and Ortiz splitting time at third base, with Hamilton primarily starting against right-handers and Ortiz getting the call against lefties. Ortiz was Milwaukee\u2019s starting third baseman in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had many meetings with Joey, and he totally understands what\u2019s happening,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cSix weeks ago, I sat with Joey and said, \u2018Joey, this has happened. They signed this guy. Do you understand that? … But it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t have an incredible career in the big leagues, including playing shortstop for us at times.\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n

Pratt was one of two Brewers prospects to sign a lucrative long-term deal this year while still in the minors. Luis Lara,<\/a> a 21-year-old outfielder playing for Nashville, signed a seven-year deal<\/a> worth $31 million last week.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Cooper Pratt has reached the major leagues 2 \u00bd months after the Milwaukee Brewers signed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,17761,538,1513,57928,2180,59,4,256,3791,862,1944,6077,41831,90820,185,90819,9015,1519],"class_list":["post-727961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-david-hamilton","tag-guardians","tag-joey-ortiz","tag-luis-lara","tag-luis-rengifo","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-nashville","tag-oh-state-wire","tag-ohio","tag-pat-murphy","tag-rick-sweet","tag-russell-pratt","tag-sports","tag-trent-pratt","tag-wi-state-wire","tag-wisconsin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116763265839868262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}