PHOENIX -- Emptying the notebook as this truncated Spring Training camp enters its third week:

First: Andrew McCutchen can still hit righties
Two pitches, two home runs. It was a productive day for McCutchen in Saturday’s 7-7 tie against the Mariners at American Family Fields of Phoenix, and particularly satisfying considering he hit both homers off different pitches (one fastball, one curveball) from a right-hander: Seattle’s Chris Flexen.

Last season with the Phillies, McCutchen flashed plenty of power with 27 home runs, but did far more damage against left-handed pitchers (.293/.405/.622 with 15 homers in 195 plate appearances) than he did against right-handers (.186/.298/.352 with 12 homers in 379 plate appearances).

The Brewers signed McCutchen for $8.5 million to serve as the designated hitter and make some starts in the corner outfield spots. They believe he was better last year against righties than the basic stats suggest.

McCutchen cited another factor: Health. He suffered a torn left ACL in 2019 and was still feeling its effects last season.

“For me, it’s not like my numbers were so bad where it’s, ‘You can’t hit righties,’” McCutchen explained. “Anybody looking at the surface, that’s what they’re going to see. But if I’m crushing lefties, why aren’t I crushing righties? That’s the question I ask myself. …

“It was just going back to the table and figuring out what I did right and some things I needed to work on. I spun off a lot of pitches last year, and I think a lot of that had to do with my knee. I didn’t have my legs under me every single day. I had good days [and] I had bad days. I think that led to a lot of missed balls, pulling off a lot of balls, I couldn’t drive the ball with authority to the right side of the field. I addressed all of those things this offseason to get myself back strong. Today was a good sample size for me as far as executing my plan.”

Process is more important than results in Spring Training for a veteran like McCutchen, but results are great.

“Any guy out there who’s playing, they’ll be lying to you if they didn’t say that they’re out there trying to have good at-bats and trying to backspin some balls and feel good at the plate,” McCutchen said.

Second: Devin Williams’ cutter appears for real
Williams, the 2020 National League Reliever of the Year who has developed into one of baseball’s best setup relievers with a power fastball coupled with an air-bending changeup, is tinkering with a cutter/slider this spring that breaks in the opposite direction from his changeup. In Friday’s outing against the A’s, Williams broke it out, throwing that pitch about eight times against three consecutive left-handed batters: Billy McKinney, Skye Bolt and Tony Kemp.

Williams struck them all out.

“I liked the results I got,” Williams said. “I had three lefties so I had a good chance to work on it. It’s something I want to implement, especially to those guys, to kind of get them off of the other side of the plate a little bit.”

Is he convinced that pitch will be useful in 2022?

“I don’t know how much I’ll use it,” Williams said, “but it will be there somewhere, for sure."

Third: We’re not talking enough about Trevor Gott
The Brewers have a slew of bullpen arms on the roster bubble, but only one of them, Gott, is on the 40-man roster and out of options. That factor always comes into play when setting an Opening Day roster. Gott, 29, has a 5.01 ERA and a relatively modest 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings in 140 career Major League innings, but the Giants thought enough of his arm that they had Gott close some games in 2020. The Brewers signed him to a one-year deal on the very first day of free agency.

Gott has tinkered a lot with his arsenal over the years and is now working with a more expanded array of pitches, most notably a cutter that he believes will be key.

“What I’ve loved about being here is it’s not just, ‘Hey, here’s what you’re good at, go do it,’” Gott explained. “It’s more, ‘This is what you’re good at, this is why you’re good at it, and this is when and where you need to use it.' It’s been great so far.”

Home: Jace Peterson is on track to be the Opening Day third baseman
Club officials haven’t officially ruled out Luis Urías being ready for Opening Day due to his left quad injury, but manager Craig Counsell conceded this weekend that it’s “getting less likely” that he will be active April 7 against the Cubs.

So, it looks like a Peterson/Mike Brosseau/Pablo Reyes combination at third base to begin the regular season. With right-hander Kyle Hendricks presumably pitching Opening Day for Chicago, Peterson makes the most sense. He’s known more for his versatile defense, but posted an .820 OPS during the first half last season.

“I feel like right now mostly I’m getting all my work at third, but for me, still, it’s trying to stay ready to do everything again and be able to fill any spot we may need,” Peterson said.

He last played in an Opening Day game in 2017 with the Braves and last started on Opening Day in 2016. It would be pretty special to play in another.

“You don’t want to take anything for granted because it’s a short window we get to do this game,” Peterson said.