Will experience help this rising Crew outfielder?
This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
Garrett Mitchell was 12 or 13 years outdated when he obtained his first good have a look at Max Scherzer. Last 12 months, Mitchell obtained one other, and it was simply one of many some ways by which his season-ending stint with the Brewers might assist propel the outfield prospect into 2023.
Mitchell, who gave the Brewers a jolt of power and manufacturing down the stretch final 12 months, struck out in each of his at-bats towards Scherzer within the Brewers’ 7-2 loss to the Mets on Sept. 19, however he was hardly alone. Scherzer returned from the injured listing that day with six good innings in a victory that clinched New York’s first postseason berth since 2016, and the expertise had Mitchell considering again to a childhood highway journey together with his mom, Shannon Van Dyke, that included a tour of Wrigley Field and a sport at Detroit’s Comerica Park when Scherzer was pitching for the Tigers.
“I saw Max throw from the second or third row behind home plate,” Mitchell mentioned. “It’s bizarre to see somebody who you watched rising up for such a very long time, after which to have the ability to face him. It’s such a cool expertise. I really feel like particularly now in baseball, you could have so many guys breaking into the league so younger, even manner youthful than me, that they’re capable of face guys like that.
“It’s definitely cool. Definitely a humbling experience, too.”
Being often humbled was a part of Mitchell’s expertise final season, when he held his personal to the tune of an .832 OPS in 68 plate appearances in August and September. As the primary of the Brewers’ present wave of prime prospects to get prolonged time within the Major Leagues – a listing that ought to develop this season as Sal Frelick, Brice Turang and others method their very own debuts – Mitchell is hoping to construct a basis for future success.
Besides Scherzer, Mitchell logged at-bats towards NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins (accumulating two hits together with a double), D-backs ace Zac Gallen (a homer) and different good arms he’ll see once more like Miles Mikolas of the Cardinals and Jameson Taillon, who has since signed with the Cubs.
Asked alongside the best way the place his headspace was at, Mitchell mentioned, “I wouldn’t say full, but it’s definitely different being in the box versus watching it from a television or watching through a report.”
He had his moments. When Mitchell delivered his first profession walk-off hit towards the Yankees on Sept. 16, he was the primary Brewers rookie with a walk-off RBI since Keston Hiura in 2019. That was only a few days after Mitchell made a game-saving catch towards the Reds.
All the whereas, the Brewers had been chasing a postseason berth. Ultimately, they fell brief.
“We put him in the middle of really big games, and you have to just keep learning and you have to keep using every experience to make you a little bit better, to take something from it,” Brewers supervisor Craig Counsell mentioned of Mitchell. “Then you just have to stay in the fight.”
When he was in Milwaukee earlier this month for the Brewers’ “Hot Stove & Cold Brews” occasion, Mitchell mentioned he would like to be in heart discipline on Opening Day at Wrigley Field.
“Obviously, that’s the goal,” he mentioned. “I’m going to go out there, work my butt off and see what happens. I still have something to prove. I had a good last month of the year. But it’s a new year. You have to flip the page and move forward.”
