Urías in 'bit of a mental slump' on defense

Four more errors in his last two games earned struggling Brewers shortstop Luis Urías a spot on the bench on Wednesday, but for how long?

“He’s got today off and we’ll go from there,” manager Craig Counsell said before his club capped a two-game series against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. “This is not a ‘work-on-stuff’ type of issue, in my eyes. I think he’s in a little bit of a mental slump; not a physical slump, necessarily. Those are a little bit trickier to fix or understand how to help him, but we’re doing our best. We’ll give him today and then see what happens.”

What will be the deciding factor on whether Urías returns to action, following the Brewers' off-day, on Friday?

“I have no idea what’s going to happen today,” Counsell said.

Could that hint at a longer break for Urías? His second error in Tuesday’s series opener allowed a run to score in a 2-0 loss, and that was two days after his pair of errors helped the Braves score seven runs in one inning of a comeback bid at American Family Field, in a game the Brewers led, 8-0, but had to hang on to win, 10-9.

Those were two of Urías’ three multi-error games this season. On April 17 against the Pirates, he committed three throwing errors in a Brewers win.

“You wrap your arm around him and tell him it’s going to be all right,” Gold Glove Award-winning center fielder Lorenzo Cain said on Tuesday night. “I know he’s struggling a little bit out there, but he’s our shortstop so he’s got to go out there and get it done.”

The Brewers committed to Urías as their shortstop before the season began when they implemented a plan to use their Opening Day starter at the position the past four years, Orlando Arcia, at third base. And club officials doubled down on that decision less than a week into the regular season on April 6, trading Arcia to the Braves for a pair of relief pitchers, Patrick Weigel and Chad Sobotka.

The early returns of that decision are not good. Weigel has been up with Milwaukee twice and made three low-leverage relief appearances, while Sobotka has not pitched at all because of a sinus infection. Arcia, meanwhile, has been on fire for the Braves’ Triple-A team. Including two hits against the Brewers’ top affiliate on Tuesday night, he entered Wednesday with a .393/.462/.839 slash line and seven home runs in his first 65 plate appearances in the Minors.

Urías has been reasonably productive at the plate following a slow start -- he slashed .244/.340/.433 in 30 games from April 12 through Tuesday. He also is 23 years old (he turns 24 on June 3) and entered the season with less than two years of Major League service time, so he’s under long-term control if the Brewers can make this work.

And if one wants to go all the way in giving him the benefit of the doubt, there’s this: Even at his alarming current pace -- nine errors in six-plus weeks -- Urías is way off Robin Yount’s record pace in 1975, when Yount started 143 games at shortstop and committed a franchise-record 44 errors. Yount, of course was 19 years old.

As for Urías, Counsell has defended the bulk of his work at shortstop, saying the problems have been mostly limited to three very ugly games.

“It’s a position that requires consistency. The ball’s going to be in your hands a lot. Consistency is an important part of the position,” Counsell said. “I think there's always going to be growing pains for younger players, but when you're trying to be a playoff team and a championship team, there has to be a little bit of a limit to what you can withstand and still win baseball games.

“Every player is going to have mistakes. That's going to be part of it. But you know if you want to win a lot of baseball games, you've got to limit those mistakes.”

Robertson update

Should the Brewers opt to make a change, or to give Urías an extended mental break, they have multiple options at Nashville. One player on the 40-man roster is Daniel Robertson, who was with the Major League club until he was hit in the helmet by a pitch on April 29 at Wrigley Field, suffered a concussion and went on the injured list. He is on rehab assignment with Nashville and was scheduled to play Wednesday and Thursday before the Brewers evaluate his readiness to come off the IL, Counsell said.

“We’re trying to get him out there a bunch because he needs it,” Counsell said. “So, everything’s kind of going to schedule with that. He’s healthy and playing every day.”

Outside the 40-man roster, there is veteran speedster Dee Strange-Gordon, who signed a Minor League deal with the Brewers last month and played his first six games for Nashville at shortstop. Or there’s familiar utility man Hernán Pérez, who also signed with Milwaukee on a Minor League deal.

Last call

• Cain was touched by the ovation he received before his first plate appearance of the series on Tuesday, saying, “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it. They did that in 2018. Once again, the fans showing some love, showing they appreciate what we all did while I was there. It puts a big smile on my face. I really appreciate it. Another special day for me.”

• At Class A Wisconsin, top prospect Garrett Mitchell tested a left leg injury during a full pregame workout on Tuesday and was scheduled to do the same on Wednesday with aggressive baserunning mixed in. Mitchell injured a muscle behind his knee legging out a ground ball in his second professional game earlier this month.

"We should know more after the second day of pushing him and see how he reacts on Thursday,” Wisconsin manager Matt Erickson said. “Hopefully, it's good news."