Brewers: Is Garrett Mitchell Now The Crew’s Top Minor League Prospect?

The Milwaukee Brewers have added outfielder Garrett Mitchell to their farm system after selecting him in the first round last night. Is he now the Brewers top prospect?

By most accounts, the Milwaukee Brewers have one of the worst farm systems in baseball. After last night, that farm system got a little bit better, and it stands to get even better after the final four rounds of the MLB Draft are completed.

Garrett Mitchell is the headliner of the Brewers 2020 Draft class. But is he now the headliner of the Brewers farm system and their best prospect?

The Brewers Top Prospects

Currently, Brice Turang is the Crew’s top rated prospect and he’s followed by Ethan Small and Mario Feliciano on MLB Pipeline’s list.

Feliciano is a strong all-around catcher but his offensive upside isn’t nearly as high as Mitchell. Small has a ceiling as a No. 4 starter and should reach the big leagues quickly, but his upside is limited.

Based on the tools Mitchell has, at the very least, he would be initially ranked as the Crew’s No. 2 prospect. That sets him up with a battle with Brice Turang for the top spot.

Garrett Mitchell vs. Brice Turang

First off, there is a lot of upside with both of these players. Both show the ability to be everyday starters in the big leagues one day and none of this is meant as a criticism of either player.

Now, let’s compare the scouting grades that MLB Pipeline has for both Mitchell and Turang.

Mitchell: Hit – 60 | Power – 50 | Run – 70 | Arm – 60 | Field – 50

Turang: Hit – 55 | Power – 40 | Run – 60 | Arm – 55 | Field – 55

By most of those raw scouting grades, Mitchell is the superior player. There have even been some scouts that gave Mitchell an 80-grade run tool, which is the highest grade you can give.

There are still some adjustments that will need to be made with Mitchell’s swing and there are concerns that he won’t achieve his high offensive ceiling. Post-draft, he said that UCLA asked him to focus more on just making contact and getting on base since they had him as their leadoff hitter. The power is there, it’s just a matter of tapping into it now.

Turang will likely never have power be a big part of his game. The power that he does have will play up in Miller Park because he’s a left handed hitter, but Mitchell is also a lefty hitter and he has more raw power to play up.

I asked one of Mitchell’s UCLA teammates about him and the player said “He’s one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen. He could be a dude.”

“Dudes” are extremely lacking in the Brewers system. Guys like Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun, and Keston Hiura are all “dudes”, which is essentially a star-level player. A “dude” makes you sit up a little straighter in your seat and pay closer attention when he steps into the box or onto the mound or when he makes a play in the field. The Brewers don’t have many of those.

Turang could be considered a “dude”, but outside of that, there’s not much in this system.

With everything developing as it should, Turang is a 4-tool player at maturity while Mitchell would be a 5-tool player. Plus, as we showed up above, Mitchell’s tools are rated as better than Turang’s. For those reasons, Garrett Mitchell should be considered the Brewers top minor league prospect.

Mitchell is exactly the kind of player the Brewers need to raise their farm system from the cellar in terms of talent rankings. The ceiling and upside potential with Mitchell is tremendously high and he should find himself in the new Top 100 prospect list whenever that comes out.

By the time Mitchell is ready for the big leagues, Lorenzo Cain‘s contract is going to be close to expiring and he could be the heir apparent to Cain in centerfield.