According to Daniel Álvarez-Montes, who works for El ExtraBase, a Spanish-language baseball website, Luis Lara is being promoted to the big leagues.
The move comes in the wake of David Hamilton’s hamstring injury during Monday night’s game. Lara is not, obviously, a one-for-one swap for Hamilton. For now, it looks like Joey Ortiz will operate as the primary third baseman,
while Lara will join an outfield rotation that also includes Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, Blake Perkins, and Jake Bauers.
Lara, 21, signed a seven-year, $31 million contract in early June that includes club options for an additional three years. A speedy outfielder who has always had a good glove, Lara turned heads this season when he tore up Triple-A through the season’s first two months. Even after a bit of a cooldown, Lara is batting .321/.432/.470 in 78 games with the Sounds, good for a 143 wRC+, and he’s got nine homers this season—almost as many as he’d hit in his three previous minor-league seasons combined (10). After a bit of a lull after he signed his contract in June, Lara has ticked up again lately: in 11 games going back to June 23, Lara is hitting .366/.469/.610 with two homers, two doubles, and a triple. Lara is currently ranked as the 47th overall prospect by Baseball America and number 67 by MLB Pipeline.
This move creates a bit of a roster crunch. You would expect that the Brewers would want Lara to play, but there’s no real way for him to do that without taking playing time away from Frelick—Mitchell is one of the hottest players in the league, and Chourio is a star. It also means that the Brewers will have no choice but to start both Joey Ortiz and Cooper Pratt against right-handed pitching, and if no further move is made, the Brewers will be operating without a backup infielder who has any experience playing anywhere other than first base.
Andrew Vaughn notably appeared at one game as a third baseman earlier this year, but that was for one inning and not something I’d expect to see with any regularity whatsoever. It’s hard for me to believe that the Brewers would return to the “Frelick-at-third-base” experiment that was rumored during spring training in 2024, but if there were ever a time to try it, this would be it.
The Brewers didn’t have any great options with which to replace Hamilton on the big-league roster. Triple-A Nashville didn’t have a single left-handed infielder, so there was no internal platoon option for Ortiz at the highest level of the minors. Skipping Triple-A and going to Double-A Biloxi for a Hamilton replacement would’ve been a bold move, which the Brewers are not particularly known for; there are no shortage of exciting players at Double-A who bat left-handed (Josh Adamczewski, Mike Boeve, Andrew Fischer, Jesús Made, and Dylan O’Rae are all either left-handed or switch-hit and could hall conceivably play third base) but none has ever appeared above Double-A.
We’ll see if the Brewers are comfortable operating with nothing beyond an emergency backup in the infield. If Hamilton’s injury is minor and they expect him back right after the All-Star Break, the Brewers will likely just ride out the week. But if Hamilton is out for an extended period, they’ll likely start canvassing the league.
