Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell began a rehab assignment with the team’s Arizona Complex League affiliate tonight, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. It’s the 25-year-old’s first official game action of the 2024 season and opens a 20-day window for his return to the major league roster.
Mitchell broke his left hand late in Spring Training and has been shelved all season. It’s his second consecutive year with a notable early-season injury. The UCLA product missed the vast majority of the 2023 campaign after sustaining a left shoulder subluxation that required surgery. He was out between mid-April and the end of September, only returning for three games at the tail end of the season. Milwaukee left him off their playoff roster, presumably because of concern he’d be rusty after the extended layoff.
After a normal offseason, Mitchell entered camp as the likeliest option to take the center field job. Milwaukee moved Jackson Chourio to the corners and at least considered giving Sal Frelick run at third base. It might be tougher for Mitchell to crack the everyday lineup now.
Frelick has played all of four regular season innings at the hot corner, where Joey Ortiz has established himself as a productive player. Frelick is hitting at a league average level (.254/.333/.328) while playing all three outfield spots. Blake Perkins has earned the majority of the center field work by playing plus defense while turning in a solid .254/.327/.386 slash line over 211 plate appearances. Christian Yelich is having a fantastic season in left field.
Short of optioning Chourio, the Brewers could be hard-pressed to open everyday at-bats in the outfield. The 20-year-old has had a rocky first couple months in the big leagues, hitting .220/.263/.363 over 195 plate appearances. Owner Mark Attanasio nevertheless shot down the idea of demoting Chourio to the minors a couple weeks ago. “I don’t see where he’s going to learn anything at Triple-A,” the owner told reporters in late May (link via MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy).
Mitchell is more than five years Chourio’s senior, but he’s perhaps even less established at the MLB level. Thanks to his background as a college draftee and the recent injuries, Mitchell only has 141 big league plate appearances under his belt. His .278/.343/.452 slash line is well above-average, but that’s driven by a .441 batting average on balls in play. While Mitchell’s speed and all-fields approach should translate to a high BABIP, a .441 mark is essentially impossible for any hitter to maintain. He’ll need to cut down on his 38.3% career strikeout rate to compensate for that forthcoming batted ball regression.
In less promising injury news, manager Pat Murphy told reporters this evening that starter Joe Ross had a setback in his recovery from a lower back strain (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Journal-Sentinel). Murphy didn’t provide specifics beyond noting that the right-hander won’t be ready to return next week as initially hoped. Ross has been out since May 21. He made nine starts before hitting the IL, turning in a 4.50 ERA over 42 innings.
My guess is the outfield log jam works itself out before Mitchell has to be reinstated. It would be nice to flip one of them for a starter though. Given Mitchell’s injury history, and how unappreciated Perkins is, I’d guess Frelick is the best trade chip
The logjam in the OF gets “worse” by the day, I’m not sure 20 more days is going to sort anything out. Perkins would have to slump pretty hard to be supplanted by Mitchell since he is basically an unknown quantity due to his health issues. Chourio obviously will be given every opportunity to play. Yelich is set.
All that said, a trade will be tough to get anything of value for. The Brewers need SP and they arent going to find a trade partner that values Perkins or Frelick the way they do. A trade just to ease up a log jam will minimize returns further.
Bauers could be a dfa candidate, that’d open up alot of DH PA’S.
I agree Perkins is more valuable to the Brewers than most teams because of the pitching situation. He is on another level in center w his glove
Frelick I can see being moved though. I could see another team believing he can play CF doe them, which just isn’t feasible in Milwaukee, and Sal the CF is much more valuable than Sal the corner OF.
Yeah, I dont know how long Bauers sticks on the team, but he is needed for the 1B defense since Rhys is a butcher there. Bauers is still batting with a 94 OPS+ and I’m not confident Mitchell will hack that even if somehow he could play 1B.
Regarding Frelick, I think he will be the one moved, I just hope he can bring the return the Brewers are hoping for. He might need playing time in CF to increase his value, but he might have already shown enough there. Tough call.
I would doubt that Bauers being DFA’d would be the move to be made to create a move for Mitchell coming back. That would take away from a 1B/DH mix, and would really not be an ideal fill for Perkins or Frelick, considering their defense and speed would be wasted on the field.
Although they express their utmost confidence, I’d still bet on Chourio being sent down if they can’t get him in a solid groove, or if Mitchell has any options left, and I’d assume he likely does, he may just wind up being the one sent to triple a.
As for trading from their OF depth, my guess is if any OF gets traded, they won’t be the centerpiece of a big trade, or it won’t be a high marquee guy like Luzardo. Although by himself he wouldn’t fetch much, Wiemer could still be packaged with someone as a change of scenery candidate for someone more in the middle of the pack. He’s not to far removed from being a top 100 prospect, so I’m sure there’d still be some interest in teams, just not likely as a top piece of the trade.
Yeli would get the most time at DH in this scenario opening up LF, with the other guys cycling through there for rest as well.
Yelich has to be the 1B in 2025 after Hoskins is gone.
I think Mitchell parks in the minors for awhile… no reason to rush him
He is 26 in a few months they wouldnt be rushing him so much has seeing what they have..dont forget these guys have a shelf life of value he wont increase his value to the team sitting in the minors at his age.
Agreed mustache101, no need to rush this.
Play him or trade him for much needed pitching this team has no chance vs the heavyweights without more pitching
I just dont see any of our tradable OF bringing in a SP of particular value. It will have to be a substantial package.
That’s the thing though, is that it’d be a package. So while they alone wouldn’t bring in a notable pitcher, in the right package they would. Even though injured, I’ve seen Quero floated around the rumor mill, and a catching prospect would definitely fetch something, so if there’s a Catcher and outfield needy team out there, it could line up.
If Quero is truly on the block, I would first be working on an extension with Contreras to buy out some Arb years at the very least. Cant lose both.
Frelick has an OPS of .662 and Chourio is at .626. Pretty sure if Mitchell hits at all he’ll be in the line-up everyday.
Chourio has an OPS of .983 for the month of June with a 20% K rate and a BABIP of .286. Mitchell is absolutely not going to take ABs away from Chourio. They will stay the course that has them with a 7 game lead in the Central.
Cwizzy..you are 100 % correct about chourios june stats…but lets not forget hes had 20 at bats in june so before we put him in the roy race consider the sample size
SSS, to be sure. But reason enough to keep him in the majors and not sent back to AAA. I honestly cant imagine the slump needed from him to send him down, especially absent any team slump or any NLC team taking a bite out of the division lead.
Chourio (and Frelick) hardly have a stranglehold on the OF spots. Mitchell hits in his stint in the minors, he’s getting at bats at the expense of someone (might even be the DH spot).
What is chourio gonna learn at AAA? jeez idk, maybe how to get his obp above. 263?
Chourio has an OPS of .983 for the month of June with a 20% K rate and a BABIP of .286. Maybe he’s figured something out. Small sample size, sure. But Mark is right. Theres nothing left to learn in the minors. Plus the team has a nice lead in first. Might as well let him keep learning in the Show.
Dude. 20 at bats in june…
Or he’s been largely overmatched and if he doesn’t turn it around, a season like this could destroy his confidence. Maybe he has turned a corner in June, but its very silly to say he can’t get more polished as a 20 year old with an ops barely over .600.