Garrett Mitchell arrived at Dodger Stadium this October with a uniform to wear and a real hand in the Brewers’ season. That alone marks a different kind of postseason trip for the Milwaukee center fielder, who watched Games 3 and 4 of last year’s NLCS in Los Angeles after flying in from Texas, where he was recovering from another major injury. The Brewers were headed for a sweep then, and Mitchell was left trying to find value in a moment when he could not take the field.
Now he is in the middle of the action. Milwaukee opened this year’s NLCS with a 2-1 win Sunday night, and Mitchell helped manufacture the deciding run against left-hander Tarik Skubal. He drew a five-pitch walk to begin the fifth, moved up on Cooper Pratt’s sacrifice bunt and crossed the plate when Luis Lara delivered the tiebreaking single.
Mitchell said the difficult periods have taught him something, even when the lessons came from the dugout or the clubhouse rather than between the lines. Missing games is mentally demanding, he said, especially when a club is playing for a championship, but he has learned from both his postseason appearances and the time he spent watching teammates compete. “I take it as all learning lessons regardless of playing or not playing,” Mitchell said.
His career has required more patience than anybody expected when Milwaukee selected him in the first round of the 2020 Draft. Mitchell managed Type 1 diabetes on his way to the Major Leagues in 2022, then saw one untimely injury after another interrupt his climb. A left knee problem cost him nearly two months as a prospect in 2021. An oblique issue followed in 2022.
In 2023, he appeared in only 16 games for the Brewers before separating his left shoulder while diving into third base against Seattle. He returned for three games at the end of that regular season but did not make the playoff roster. A fractured left index finger in the final week of Spring Training delayed his 2024 debut until July 1. Then came another hard slide into a base in 2025, another injury to the left shoulder and surgery to repair a bony Bankart lesion — a fracture involving the shoulder socket — along with a second labrum procedure.
By late last summer, the rehabilitation work had left Mitchell drained. Brewers manager Pat Murphy said the club understood that frustration. “Nobody could have predicted this,” Murphy said of the succession of setbacks that kept a gifted player from establishing a normal major league routine.
At last, a full season in Milwaukee
The 2026 season has given Mitchell the runway that had been missing. He played 145 games, four more than he had totaled across his first four big league seasons combined, and produced when he was in the lineup. His 3.4 bWAR reflected his all-around impact, while his .354 on-base percentage ranked fourth among Brewers with at least 100 plate appearances. His 116 weighted runs created plus placed sixth on the club.
Murphy called Mitchell “phenomenal” and said the uncertainty surrounding the outfielder’s health was one reason Milwaukee may have been underestimated entering the season. Instead, Mitchell became a steady presence, played more than 140 games and gave the Brewers a significant lift. The manager believes there is still more to come from a player who is only beginning to show the extent of his ability.
Mitchell’s October has started to look the same way. He opened the National League Division Series against San Diego by going 2-for-11 with six strikeouts over the first three games. In Game 4, he answered with a 2-for-4 night, driving in the first run, scoring the go-ahead run and making the kind of defensive play that can redirect a whole series. At the center-field wall, he took away what could have been a tying home run by Manny Machado.
Matt Arnold, the Brewers’ president of baseball operations, said Mitchell’s daily availability has been as meaningful as his production. Arnold praised the outfielder’s work ethic and described the earlier injuries as plain bad fortune, adding that it has been rewarding to see him play regularly and put together this kind of season.
Mitchell is not spending much time looking back at the years that got him here. Milwaukee needs six more wins to claim the World Series, and he wants to be in uniform for every one of them. “I’m here now and competing,” he said.
