How Garrett Mitchell Can Be an X-Factor for the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers

[Jason Wang]

After missing the vast majority of the 2023 season, he’s now left to fight for his spot in an already crowded outfield picture. How can the team's 2020 first-round pick benefit the Milwaukee Brewers most in 2024?

Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports

Garrett Mitchell was poised to have a great year. He made the Opening Day roster, had his first-ever two-home run game against the Mets, then walked them off the next day. Unfortunately, he damaged the labrum in his left shoulder while sliding into third base in Seattle in mid-April, and required surgery. He returned for a total of 11 plate appearances toward the end of the season but wasn’t able to do anything particularly memorable.

Now, the Brewers' depth chart lists him as the fourth-string center fielder, behind Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, and Blake Perkins. In a best-case scenario for Mitchell, Chourio is kept in the minors to begin the season; Frelick is fully converted to a utility infielder; and Perkins struggles early and gives up his spot. More realistically, Mitchell will have to find somewhere else to stand in the outfield.

He has spent all of his relatively brief major-league career in center field, but was also able to get in some innings as a corner outfielder in the minors. The Brewers already have a left fielder by the name of Christian Yelich, and despite the hopes of many fans to move him to first base, he’s probably going to stay right where he is. But what about the other corner?

Mitchell was primarily a right fielder at UCLA and didn’t become a full-time presence in center until his first season with the Biloxi Shuckers in 2021. In 2022, he spent 17 games in right field before being called up. Furthermore, the depth chart in right field is far less crowded. Currently listed are Frelick, Perkins, and Chris Roller. Mitchell is already ahead of Roller on the organization's priority list, and Frelick moving to the infield part-time leaves a more open door for the full-time spot.

Mitchell’s skillset might also be better suited for right. In addition to having top-of-the-line sprint speed, one of the few statistics he was qualified for was arm strength. In 2023, he threw at an average velocity of 89.2 mph, placing him in the top quartile of players. In 2022, he averaged an outstanding 93.5 mph, better than 96% of his major-league peers. With right field being the furthest from third base and home, arm strength is of the utmost importance. We all remember those legendary throws from Ichiro Suzuki and Roberto Clemente, right?

Aside from his defensive flexibility, Mitchell is a very capable hitter, or at least a high-ceiling one. Again, it’s a small major-league sample size, but over his 141 career plate appearances, he’s slashed .278/.343/.452 and posted a cumulative OPS+ of 120. In his final season in Triple A, he hit for a .901 OPS over 85 plate appearances. When healthy, he has the potential to step up in big moments and could still be a plus bat in an offense that needs all the help it can get. If nothing else, slot him in at DH and give poor old William Contreras a few more much-needed days off.

At the end of the day, Mitchell is a slightly above-average player with five more years of team control left on his contract. There are a ton of questions about the Brewers roster and how they plan to set their lineup (they still have three catchers on the depth chart, and reportedly plan to keep it that way), and if Mitchell isn’t one of the names the team decides to keep, he’ll at the very least be a valuable trade piece to a team that needs a solid guy to hold things down in center field. 

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What do you hope to see from Mitchell in 2024? How would you go about getting him the playing time to prove whether or not he can rake consistently in MLB? Start the discussion below.

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[Trax]

If they were all hitting (big if) I'd like to see Mitch, Wiemer, and Chourio starting in the outfield IF Frelick was starting infield with Yelli DH.  Now wouldn't that be a big X factor.

[eddiemathews]

Fully expect Mitchell to have over 400 plate appearances.

[sveumrules]

7 minutes ago, eddiemathews said:

Fully expect Mitchell to have over 400 plate appearances.

Hope you are right.

His seasonal totals for professional PAs so far are 268 (2021), 357 (2022) and 108 (2023) so cracking 400 would represent a new career high.

[eddiemathews]

2 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Hope you are right.

His seasonal totals for professional PAs so far are 268 (2021), 357 (2022) and 108 (2023) so cracking 400 would represent a new career high.

He's due for a healthy season!

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, eddiemathews said:

He's due for a healthy season!

That, and the K rate are my biggest concerns re Mitchell. With his foot speed & baserunning ability, I feel like he's cheating himself & compromising a big part of his skillset if the swing-and-miss doesn't get reigned in.

I DO like the idea of getting him some work in RF. He certainly has the ++ arm for it.