Forgotten man Garrett Mitchell could make-or-break Brewers' season

The Milwaukee Brewers have already proven how good a baseball team they can be, putting up the best record during the regular season a year ago.

Now, they've got to prove that can get them further into the playoffs and somehow unseat the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Maybe, just maybe, Garrett Mitchell could be one key component to making that happen.

Mitchell is a bit of a forgotten man. He has all the tools, except for staying on the field.

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Injuries tend to bite some players more than others, and maybe that'll just be Mitchell's story.

But what if it's not? If Mitchell can keep himself healthy, he could be a huge piece to the Brewers taking yet another step forward in 2026.

"Mitchell is an above-average hitter (career 112 OPS+) and a plus defender in center field," MLB.com's Jared Greenspan wrote in a new article on Saturday. "But he only took 68 at-bats last season, and we haven’t seen him in a game setting since July, when he re-injured his shoulder while on a rehab assignment for an oblique strain. In fact, Mitchell has spent time on the 60-day IL in each of the last three seasons. This feels like a make-or-break year for the 27-year-old former first-round Draft pick, who is expected to have a normal ramp-up into Spring Training."

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The Brewers aren't a team with all the home run hitters in the world. They don't have the most inherently dominant rotation, even trading away Freddy Peralta to the Mets in the offseason.

For Milwaukee to continue to reach its ceiling, it needs guys like Mitchell to step up. Other players have already proven they're long-term pieces for the Brewers.

Mitchell hasn't proven much of anything yet. But there's plenty there to believe in. It's up to Mitchell to warrant that belief going forward.

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