Top prospect Mitchell hyped to play again

PHOENIX -- Finally, Garrett Mitchell gets to play ball.

Mitchell, the Brewers’ first-round pick in last year’s Draft, has played all of four games in the fall instructional league games since his junior season at UCLA was wiped out in early March by the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, he’s signed with the Brewers in Milwaukee, passed time while home in California by lifting weights and gaining 15 pounds of bulk, reported to Arizona to lose the bulk and get back into baseball shape for instructs, then spent five days a week at American Family Fields of Phoenix awaiting the start of Spring Training.

Now, it’s game on. The Brewers open Cactus League play on Sunday at the White Sox.

“For me, it’s just about soaking up the moment, enjoying my time here, and when I get the time to play on the field, work my butt off,” Mitchell said.

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He met with Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns and manager Craig Counsell on Friday to discuss what will be a limited role in games. It’s more about the experience for first-timers like Mitchell, 22, who is rated the Brewers’ No. 1 prospect and baseball’s No. 65 overall prospect by MLB Pipeline.

Mitchell fell to the Brewers at the 20th overall pick in part over concerns about his Type 1 Diabetes.

“For me, it doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t control me on the field,” Mitchell said. “I take care of myself really, really well. I ended up in the right place with an organization that wanted me.”

Mitchell might have gained more game experience in the instructional league, but he and the Brewers opted to play it safe when he developed a right quad issue. Mitchell picked up some extra at-bats in intrasquad games at the end of the fall program and has stayed active in camp ever since.

Whenever he visited home, Mitchell and his family took care to follow health recommendations during the pandemic, wearing masks when they gathered for the holidays, for example. Statistically, Mitchell may be at higher risk for complications of COVID-19 due to his diabetes.

“When it comes to staying healthy and safe, I just try to be very vigilant with that,” Mitchell said. “For me, wear a mask, I don’t think it’s that hard or that challenging. When it comes down to it, I decided to really focus on trying to stay safe versus acting like nothing would happen.”

Pitching plan set for opener
Eric Lauer, Angel Perdomo, Justin Topa and Miguel Sanchez are scheduled to be on the mound for the Brewers on Sunday against the White Sox, each expected to pitch an inning or so in a game that could be as short as five innings.

Teams must inform MLB how many innings they intend to play by 4 p.m. CT the day before a game. Games through March 13 will be scheduled as seven-inning games, though they can be as short as five innings or as long as nine innings upon mutual agreement of both managers. From March 14 until the end of camp, games will be scheduled for nine innings, though managers can mutually decide to shorten to seven innings.

In addition, managers may “roll” innings if their pitcher exceeds 20 pitches in a frame, and they can also remove a pitcher and then re-insert him to further manage pitch counts.

“It’s interesting,” Counsell said. “What we’re finding is it’s going to provide some flexibility. I think teams are viewing this differently. My early read on it is we’ll have some different game lengths daily, based on teams’ available pitching. You’ll have some days when you have pitching backed up and you’ll want to get them out there and play. That’s also helpful to give the extra guys a couple more at-bats.

“I think you’ll see some varying game lengths, which will be helpful. That’s the main thing.”

Nottingham update
The only player expected to be sidelined as games begin is catcher Jacob Nottingham, who had surgery for an injured left thumb at the end of December. He struggled with pain in the thumb of his catching hand late last season and had to exit the Brewers’ loss in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series against the Dodgers. When discomfort persisted into the offseason, the parties opted for surgery.

“We’re going to be behind with Jacob. He’s not going to be on the field early in the Cactus League season,” Counsell said. “I don’t really have an exact timetable. We’re kind of day by day in terms of getting him into baseball activities.

“There are things that he can do. He can throw, things like that. It’s just the catching thing we’re going to be slow with because that’s where the problem occurred and that’s the chance where he could reaggravate it, frankly. So, we’ve got to be slow with the catching. Even the hitting we’ll go a little faster with, but we have to be slow with the catching part of it.”