Garrett Mitchell spent last October looking on from the outside at Dodger Stadium. He was in Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS, but not in the Brewers’ lineup, still working his way back from the latest setback in a career that has been knocked off track again and again by injuries.
Now he’s back in the middle of it, and the difference is hard to miss.
Mitchell’s path has been defined as much by survival as production. He beat Type 1 diabetes to become a first-round Draft pick in 2020 and reached the majors two years later, but the injuries kept stacking up.
A left knee problem cost him nearly two months in 2021 as a Brewers prospect. An oblique issue followed in 2022.
In 2023, he appeared in 16 games before separating his left shoulder on a dive into third base against the Mariners. He returned for three more games at the end of that regular season, then was left off the postseason roster.
Last year, a fractured left index finger during the final week of Spring Training delayed his debut until July 1. This season brought another left shoulder injury on a dive into a base, and the diagnosis was surgery for a bony Bankart lesion, described as a fracture of his left shoulder socket, plus a second labrum repair.
By the time he was grinding through rehab in late summer, Mitchell was worn down mentally.
The Brewers understood why.
“Nobody could have predicted this,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
Murphy’s point was simple: nobody could have forecast what a healthy Mitchell would look like over a full season. In 2026, he gave the Brewers exactly that. He played in 145 games, four more in one year than he had in his first four seasons combined.
“He’s been phenomenal,” Murphy said. “When you’re looking at our team, maybe the reason we didn’t get predicted early on to be as successful in the regular season was because of the unknown about Mitchell. He had been injured for four years, basically, and to see him come out and perform and have his best season and play 140-plus games, and he’s just done it very consistently.
“He’s scratching the surface. The kid has done very, very well and given us a huge lift this year.”
The numbers back that up. Mitchell posted a 3.4 bWAR, ranked fourth among Brewers hitters with at least 100 plate appearances with a .354 on-base percentage and finished sixth on the club with a 116 weighted runs created plus.
And now he’s carrying that regular-season value into October.
His first three games of the NLDS against the Padres were rough - 2-for-11 with six strikeouts - but he turned it around in Game 4, going 2-for-4. He drove in the opening run, scored the go-ahead run and finished the game with a huge defensive play, reaching the center-field wall to deny Manny Machado a potential tying home run.
That momentum carried straight into the NLCS opener against the Tigers on Sunday night. In a tough left-on-left matchup with Tarik Skubal, Mitchell drew a five-pitch walk to open the fifth inning, moved up on Cooper Pratt’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Luis Lara’s tiebreaking single in the Brewers’ 2-1 win.
“He’s had some unfortunate luck with his health, but the fact that he’s been able to go out there every day has been tremendous,” said Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold. “Great kid who works his tail off and has run into some bad luck over the course of his career. And to see him finally be able to put it together the way he has this year, and play regularly, has been fantastic.”
Mitchell was part of the Brewers’ postseason last year by proximity, if not by participation. This time, he’s on the field - and he’d like to stay there for at least six more games. That’s how many wins the Brewers still need to capture the World Series.
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