MVBrewers #10: Luis Urias

We’re kicking off our ranking of the Brewers’ 10 most valuable players in 2022 with infielder Luis Urias, who finished with a 3.1 WAR, good enough for fourth-best among Brewers.

Urias injured his quad in spring training and started the season on the IL, not making his first appearance until early May. Despite the late start, Urias still finished with 16 home runs which was sixth most on the team. He also totaled 47 RBIs and 97 hits, slashing .239/.335/.404 for a 110 OPS+, his second-best OPS+ after finishing at 112 in 2021.

While his offensive numbers declined slightly, he offset that with improved defense, committing 14 errors across 985 innings after committing 24 errors across 1,180 ¹⁄₃ innings in 2021.

Urias, who was acquired along with Eric Lauer in a trade with the Padres for Trent Grisham and Zach Davies, has proven himself to be a strong infield utility man for Milwaukee.

He’s also provided energy alongside Willy Adames that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but has been crucial to the team’s annual success over the last few years.

While Urias didn’t have any multi-homer games this season, he did have several strong individual games. He went 3-for-4 with a walk and a home run in a 7-6 win over the Twins on July 26, 3-for-4 with a home run and a double in a 3-0 win over the Diamondbacks on Oct. 4, and 2-for-4 with a home run, double, and three RBIs in a 5-3 win over the Rays on June 28.

We’ll continue the rankings of the 10 most valuable Brewers each Monday into January. Come back next week to see who we have at No. 9.

10. Luis Urias