PHOENIX -- Garrett Mitchell still has not played a Minor League game, but he keeps hitting and hitting and hitting in the Cactus League.
The Brewers’ first-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft added two more hits and a walk to his spring ledger in Saturday’s 4-4 tie with the Rangers, including his (unofficial) first home run, a solo shot in the second inning. Mitchell, the club's top prospect, is off to a 7-for-13 start in Cactus League play with a double, a homer, two walks and a slew of loud outs.
“Right now, he’s earning at-bats,” manager Craig Counsell said.
Notably, five of the left-handed-hitting Mitchell’s seven hits -- and one of the walks -- have come against left-handed pitchers. The homer was off a righty, Texas starter Kyle Cody.
“I thought the home run was kind of the highlight of the day for him -- a two-strike home run,” Counsell said. “He has just had good at-bats, no matter who’s out there. That’s what has been impressive. It’s been one at-bat a day mostly, and that’s hard to do. One or two at-bats a day. He’s doing it consistently with one or two at-bats.”
Suter OK after liner
You don’t have to tell Brent Suter about the way Mitchell has driven the ball this spring. Suter witnessed it up close.
Suter was breathing a sigh of relief Saturday after a battery of tests showed no broken bones in his left hand, which was struck by a Mitchell line drive during an intrasquad game at American Family Fields of Phoenix on Friday morning. When Suter's hand immediately began to swell, his outing was cut short.
“Right when I got hit, I thought my hand was cracked,” Suter said. “After moving around, a couple minutes later, I felt like it should be all right. It feels pretty sore, but I don’t think I broke anything, and sure enough, the tests came back well. It was just the shock initially of not knowing what was going on.”
Suter planned to play catch Saturday, and said he expects to stay on schedule as he prepares to once again serve as a multi-inning reliever and occasional spot-starter for the Brewers.
Arms like Suter’s will be particularly valuable to Milwaukee this season as Major League Baseball reverts to a 162-game schedule. Suter, Freddy Peralta, Drew Rasmussen and Eric Lauer are all being “stretched out” this spring in anticipation of making starts or pitching multiple innings in relief.
“We have a lot of guys like that,” Suter said. “It’s going to be really important this year. You look at Freddy Peralta, Drew Rasmussen -- [they] are both good enough to be in that type of role. Eric Lauer may be in that type of role, too. All the guys we have in our rotation right now, we’re counting on, but we’ll be counting on a lot of other guys as the workload goes up compared to last year.
“It’s time for us hybrids to show our value. We feel like we’re well-equipped for what we’ve got to do. We’ve got a lot of good pitchers and a lot of guys who are really versatile.”
Williams throws live BP
National League Rookie of the Year Award winner Devin Williams, coming along slow this spring after his 2020 season abruptly ended with a right rotator cuff injury, took a big step toward a Cactus League outing on Saturday when he faced hitters for the first time in batting practice.
Brewers sideline reporter Sophia Minnaert had access to the session and reported that Williams threw 25 pitches to a group of hitters that included rehabbing catcher Jacob Nottingham. Williams told Minnaert that everything went as planned.
Pitchers typically throw two live BPs before getting into a game. That would put Williams on schedule for game action following the team’s off-day on Wednesday
Last call
• Infielder Luis Urías ran the bases on Saturday morning to test his strained left hamstring and passed the test. Barring an overnight setback, he will play against the Mariners on Sunday for the first time since sustaining the injury running to first base against the Rockies on March 5.
• Saturday’s game against the Rangers ended with a walk-off injury. With the teams in the last of seven scheduled innings, and the Brewers having already scored the tying run, Texas pitcher Brett de Geus was pitching to Payton Henry with the potential winning run at first base. Midway through the at-bat, de Geus drew a visit from the athletic trainer, and with nobody warming in the bullpen, Rangers manager Chris Woodward elected to “roll” the inning. Saturday marked the final day that option is available to managers.
“Because they didn’t have anybody throwing, maybe they didn’t want to get somebody up,” Counsell said. “Everybody is playing it differently, but that’s certainly within the rules to do that. No big deal.”