Brewers’ Vinny Rottino Frames Wisconsin’s D3 Baseball Future

The D3 Student-Athlete Model

Among many benefits, UW-La Crosse gave Rottino something he desperately needed: time.

The 6-foot-1 shortstop batted .240 as a sophomore, joking that he was the lone future big-leaguer to post such a number. Over the next two years, Rottino’s body caught up with his D3 baseball IQ.

During his senior campaign in 2002, he hit .410 with 15 home runs, a UW-La Crosse single-season record that stood for nearly two decades. He further etched his name into Eagles lore by becoming the first player in program history to earn American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-America accolades, garnering first-team recognition.

Rottino approached academics with the same discipline he showed on the diamond, and his passion for math and science gradually drew him toward a rigorous chemistry curriculum.

To cap his collegiate journey, Rottino was named the 2002 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Scholar-Athlete, capping a rise to excellence on the field and in the classroom.

Right out of high school, [if you’d have told me I’d reach] the talent level I ended up with by my senior year in college, things might have worked out much differently. Maybe you put off those things that you need to do to get things done in the classroom. I think what that does is teach you how to be responsible and how to be an adult, quite frankly.

Rottino studied, lifted, fielded and learned to organize his life around responsibilities that extended beyond the game. By his own description, he was a grinder.

Rottino’s Road to the Milwaukee Brewers

Despite his standout senior season, MLB draft scouts passed on Rottino. After graduating from UW-La Crosse, Rottino enrolled in pharmacy school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a conventional science-based career.

While continuing to suit up in the Land O’ Lakes League, he caught the attention of his head coach, Jack Schiestle, a former MLB scout who arranged a tryout with the Milwaukee Brewers. Asked to catch with no prior experience, he impressed enough to earn a spring-training invitation in February 2003 and, ultimately, a contract with his hometown club.

“I saw an opening and was determined to take it,” he said.

After starting with the rookie-level affiliate in Helena, Mont., Rottino advanced to Class-A Beloit a year later, where the 24-year-old hit .304 with 17 home runs and a Midwest League-best 124 RBIs, claiming Brewers Minor League Player of the Year honors.

Rottino reached the majors in 2006, debuting with Milwaukee before spending parts of five seasons with Florida, New York, and Cleveland. But his baseball travels didn’t stop there: he later played professionally in Japan and Korea and represented Italy in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

The 2008 Brewers were most meaningful. Rottino rarely saw the field amid Milwaukee’s run to the postseason, recording one September at-bat, yet his experience transcended the stats. That lesson stemmed from his days at UW-La Crosse: care more about the team than oneself.

To watch what [Hall of Famer] CC Sabathia did — talk about the most unselfish thing I’ve ever seen in a sporting venue … This guy was set to make hundreds of millions of dollars in free agency. He threw caution to the wind, risking it all by pitching on short rest. It was so courageous.

A D3 Baseball Career Reimagined

After 14 professional seasons, Rottino transitioned into a pro scouting role with the Texas Rangers before rejoining the Brewers in 2021 — this time on their broadcast team.

That’s led to an unexpected D3 connection: Jeff Levering (‘05), the Brewers’ lead radio play-by-play voice who also calls select TV assignments with Rottino, came through Chapman University’s baseball pipeline.

Levering served as the Panthers’ designated hitter on their 2003 national championship team before a new coaching staff scaled back his role. He responded by leaning further into broadcasting, balancing his senior season with an internship at FOX Sports West/Prime Ticket.

“[At Chapman,] I learned so many life lessons in what that process was like for the future and overcoming adversity,” Levering said.

He’s since built a broadcasting career spanning the Milwaukee Brewers’ TV and radio booth, college football and college basketball across FOX Sports and the Big Ten Network. When their assignments overlap in Milwaukee, the two demonstrate their D3 chemistry, including an ongoing cribbage rivalry on road trips.

“I get to bounce questions off Jeff all the time,” Rottino said. “He’s one of the best in the game.”

As Prep Baseball Wisconsin’s scouting director, he also answers the bell, helping prospects and their families find the right college fit to fulfill their dreams.

I just encourage players: if you love the game that much, find that right fit. Maybe that right fit is a D3 school that’s gonna give you an opportunity to play, develop, and get a great education.

In fact, Prep Baseball Wisconsin noted that 96 members of its 2026 class committed to D3 baseball programs.

However, the conversation gets more complex when velocity comes into play.

Rottino has a front-row seat to Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski, whose extraordinary fastball has helped him become the National League Cy Young favorite as Milwaukee sits one win away from its first World Series berth since 1982. He’s heard from young pitchers and their parents who wonder whether the route to the next level begins with a radar gun.

“Learn how to have that great touch and feel,” he said. “Learn how to pitch, learn how to mix speeds. There’s an art to it.”

After all, Rottino has spent enough innings on both sides of an evaluation to know how little a player’s present can reveal about what comes next.