PHOENIX – Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell wasn’t the only one hurting last year after he reinjured his surgically repaired left shoulder. Another season was lost. His shoulder ached. His Type 1 diabetes went haywire. His love for the game wavered.
His wife, Haley, felt the pain. As an elite athlete herself, she could relate to some of what Garrett was experiencing.
“I was lucky enough to get through my career without any career-altering injuries, but I know that it can be easy to lose empathy when you’ve seen an athlete that’s had multiple,” said Haley, the former softball star who played in two Women's College World Series at Oregon and then played professionally before retiring in 2023.
Haley never lost empathy because she witnessed the difficulty of this latest comeback.
“It’s been devastating to witness firsthand the way he spent months in pain, getting knocked back down to square one and starting all over again,” she said. “But the silver lining is that he’s been able to sit with himself and learn who he is outside of baseball. Most athletes have to learn that the hard way after they retire. I can certainly empathize with that, because that’s what I’ve been going through the last couple of years. I’m finding myself outside of sport.
“But I’ve said that even though he hasn’t been on the field as much as he hoped this far into his career, he still has become a better baseball player in my eyes. … He gets to be free now that he knows the world doesn’t stop spinning without baseball.”
Make no mistake: The Mitchells are confident that Garrett has a lot of baseball to play. That effort began Wednesday when Garrett, the frontrunner for everyday duty in center field this season, made his spring debut in the Brewers’ game against the Giants at American Family Fields of Phoenix.
It was a modest first step. Mitchell played three innings of defense and came back from an 0-2 count to work a walk in his lone plate appearance. Given his shoulder history, the biggest test might have been his dive back to first base on a pickoff attempt. Mitchell made it safely without incident.
He’s a full participant in camp after getting clearance from the doctors in early February. That came later than he’d hoped, but it was fitting for a comeback – and a career – that has been anything but easy.
“The game doesn’t stop for you. Everything keeps going,” Mitchell said. “If anything, it gives you perspective on life. Make the most of the opportunities you have now, because whether it’s injuries, retirement, the game keeps going.”
Mitchell, 27, was Milwaukee’s first-round Draft pick in 2020 and flashed his five-tool potential in Cactus League play the following spring. When he made it to the Majors at the end of '22, Mitchell hit .311 with an .832 OPS in a 28-game sample. He looked like a star in the making.
By that time, however, the injuries were already an unfortunate amendment to his resume. A knee injury cost him about two months of '21, and an oblique issue shortened his '22. In '23, Mitchell played 16 games for the Brewers before shredding his left shoulder on a headfirst slide, and surgery sidelined him until late September. In '24, he fractured his left index finger during the final week of Spring Training and didn’t debut until July 1.
Mitchell was Milwaukee’s Opening Day center fielder in 2025, but he suffered a left oblique strain on April 25 in St. Louis and landed back on the IL. He was on rehab assignment, playing his third Triple-A game, when he reinjured his shoulder on another headfirst slide.
There was another surgery, and another long, lonely rehab.
“It felt like a whole grieving process,” Haley Mitchell said.
“It’s like in the summertime when we were kids, and you’re home sick while all of your friends are outside playing,” said fellow outfielder Blake Perkins, who spent much of the first half of last season rehabbing a shin fracture. “You just feel a little left out.”
“All we want to do is play,” said Sal Frelick, Milwaukee’s first-round Draft pick the year after Mitchell. “I would rather be playing and know I’m going 0-for-40 than have you tell me I have to go sit on the bench.”
Mitchell got to play again on Wednesday. Health is a priority, as it has been since being diagnosed with diabetes at age 9. This year, instead of having an insulin pump in his back pocket, he’s playing with an Omnipod – a tubeless, automated insulin delivery system controlled from his phone.
But when asked to enumerate some goals for 2026, it was illustrative that he didn’t mention health or hits. Instead, he said he wants the Brewers to win the World Series.
“I’m not putting up walls on anything,” Mitchell. “I’m going to go play baseball. I’m not overthinking anything. Once we’re out of [Spring Training], it’s time to go.”