The Brewers’ season possessed an underlying theme of incorporating younger gamers into the workforce’s on a regular basis lineup. From rookies like Joey Ortiz and several other members of the pitching corps to sophomore seasons from Sal Frelick and Brice Turang, the younger expertise helped type a promising basis round a superb group of veterans.
With loads of questions on how the workforce will create its defensive alignment, Garrett Mitchell looks as if an attention-grabbing character on this puzzle.
The Brewers haven’t any scarcity of outfielders, providing a number of choices as they pursue their offseason plan. Nevertheless, when that is all resolved, if Mitchell capitalizes on this chance, he might emerge as top-of-the-line gamers on the roster — assuming he isn’t a departing piece from that surplus.
Mitchell, lastly with a minimum of a good bit of well being and alternative on his facet, put collectively a convincing 2024 season. In 69 video games, he slashed .255/.342/.469 (126 wRC+). He hit eight residence runs and stole 11 bases.
That’s basically a hand-curated profile for every thing you need in a participant. There’s persistence, pace, and motive to consider he might push for 20 homers over a full season.
Whereas Mitchell walks quite a bit (a formidable 11.2% price), he nonetheless strikes out steadily. His 31.7% strikeout is leaning towards untenable, but it surely nonetheless appears too early to label that as one thing that may finally restrict his ceiling. It’s vital to keep in mind that, though 26 years outdated, he hadn’t handed 100 complete MLB video games till this season.
This graph reveals Mitchell’s 15-game rolling common, overlapping his swinging strike price and wOBA:
We see a spike late within the season once more, however there was a stretch simply round that recreation 50 mark the place we noticed Mitchell thrive with a sub-10% swinging strike price. If that expertise stage is in Mitchell’s recreation extra persistently, he might present a number of the additional offensive firepower the Brewers are going to want subsequent yr.
And whereas Mitchell’s offensive potential is tantalizing, his defensive profile suits the workforce’s strengths too. Gamers like Frelick and Blake Perkins deserve all of the credit score that comes their manner for his or her defensive play this yr, however Mitchell represents extra potential offensively.
Mitchell didn’t get as a lot consideration for his glove, however he’s nonetheless a good defender. Perkins and Frelick ranked twelfth and twenty second in Outs Above Common, respectively. Mitchell wasn’t far behind, rating thirty ninth out of 133 outfielders.
Well being is at all times a priority for Mitchell, who might be coming into his fourth season showing within the majors with simply 116 video games underneath his belt. However 2024 was a significant step ahead for his function and profession. The Brewers roster would possibly look barely completely different subsequent yr, however the perfect model includes Mitchell rising on his promising season.
Stats courtesy of FanGraphs except in any other case famous.
