Upside Unleashed: Garrett Mitchell's Milestone Season Culminated in a Pennant-Winning Swing

[Jack Stern]

Image courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The 2026 campaign was a prove-it season for Garrett Mitchell. First, he needed to prove he could stay healthy. Four years into his big-league career, Milwaukee's former first-round pick had played in just 141 games and taken 443 plate appearances, due to myriad injuries.

He cleared the health hurdle. Mitchell modified his routine and physical preparation over the winter and carried it into the regular season. He learned when, within games, to push his body to its limits and when to ease off the gas without sacrificing competitiveness. It wasn't always smooth (early in the year, Mitchell's defense suffered as he played cautiously near the outfield wall), but he quickly found the right balance and played in a career-high 145 games.

The next step was proving he could perform. Mitchell flashed his high ceiling throughout those four years, hitting .254/.333/.433 (114 wRC+) with elite bat speed and raw power, but those results came with red flags. He struck out 33.9% of the time over that span. Due to a gaping hole in his swing path, he whiffed on 48.5% of swings against high fastballs. He benefitted from a .376 BABIP, the highest among all hitters with at least 400 plate appearances during that span. According to Statcast, his expected slash line of .220/.303/.361 didn't come close to supporting his results.

A full season was supposed to answer what kind of player Mitchell truly was and whether he would hit big-league pitching. Over a larger sample, his extreme metrics on both sides would trend toward the mean. That didn't fully happen. There's more to a player than his Statcast summary card, but in Mitchell's case, it's a good summary. In nearly every facet of the game, he's either one of the best or one of the worst.

Mitchell didn't quite prove that his extreme profile will work long-term, but he did prove that it can work. The red on that card far outnumbers the blue. He didn't cut down his swing-and-miss, but he made up for it with a disciplined approach and by crushing the ball when he made contact. Mitchell hit .262/.354/.416 (116 wRC+), and this time, his expected line of .268/.356/.447 was better than his results.

It was a milestone season for Mitchell. He punctuated it with the swing that sent the Brewers to their first World Series in over four decades.

The NLCS posed a daunting matchup for him. The Brewers were facing the Dodgers, baseball's reigning back-to-back champions and one of the few teams that knows how to exploit his weaknesses and can execute those sequences. In their regular-season matchups, LA pitchers peppered Mitchell with high fastballs and low changeups, and he managed just two singles in 11 at-bats, with six strikeouts.

They had a similar plan in the postseason. The Dodgers challenged Mitchell with high fastballs throughout the series, daring him to hit them. For the most part, he didn't, going 2-for-14 with six strikeouts. But true to form, the Orange County native made those two hits count in two dramatic homecoming moments: a solo home run to cap the Brewers' seventh-inning comeback against Blake Snell in Game 3, and the tie-breaking shot in Game 4 that ended the Dodgers' hopes of a threepeat.

Mitchell's outlier swing worked this year because of his zone awareness. The holes in his swing remain, but when a pitch is in his wheelhouse, he hits it hard. Mitchell knows this and refined his swing decisions this year around his personal scouting report. He's patient against pitches he can't hit (including high fastballs) and forces pitchers back into his hot zones over the heart of the plate.

His decisive home run on Thursday night epitomized the approach that carried Mitchell through a productive season. Facing left-hander Tanner Scott, he fell behind 0-2 on a pair of sliders, then refused to chase and worked the count full. In a tie game on the brink of elimination, Scott wasn't going to put the go-ahead run on base with a leadoff walk; he was coming back with his best strike pitch. Mitchell had forced him into his damage zone. He got a center-cut fastball and launched it to center, completing the Brewers' final comeback of an NLCS sweep.

With his elite speed and power, Mitchell always had the upside of a potential postseason game-changer—the kind of player who could decide a series with one memorable play. He waited years for that moment, dealing with physical setbacks and questions about his performance. The Brewers waited for years for that moment, floundering in early playoff exits as Mitchell struggled or sat out. The moment arrived for both of them. Mitchell had his big swing, and he and the Brewers are going to the World Series.

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[Outlander]

What a turnaround for Mitchell. He took a lot of heat in Spring Training and constant talk of DFA through the years, but he finally stayed healthy all season, and now he’s a permanent part of Brewers lore. 

[Trax]

Wow.   What a team.

[Three Run Jack]

Chief Dan George (in The Outlaw Josey Wales) said it best: "Endeavor to persevere." 

Congrats to Mitch for overcoming adversity with his discipline and talent. He's a gamer for sure.

Go Crew!