Brewers will face tough roster decision as Garrett Mitchell's return looms

After a long couple of months, the Brewers are finally going to get the return of Garrett Mitchell within the next week. The promising young outfielder has spent more time on the injured list than the active roster through his first three seasons in Milwaukee. When active, he has provided the Brewers with a spark, slashing .278/.343/.452 in a small sample size of just 47 total games.

Mitchell began his rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League this past week. In his first game, Mitchell went 2-4 with two singles, and a walk. He scored twice and drove in three runs, while playing center field. It's a promising sign not just to see success at the plate, but also for Mitchell to play the field.

Mitchell fits the mold of this Brewers team perfectly, as he's young, speedy, and very solid defensively. The only true test for him thus far has been his health. If Mitchell could stay healthy, he'd provide the Brewers with a tremendous amount of value. In doing so, he will inevitably make the playing time decisions for manager Pat Murphy very difficult.

The Brewers have been surging recently, as they've become the 3rd team in the National League to win 40 games this season. They lead the division by 7 games, and have found success up and down their lineup. Mitchell is primarily a centerfielder, and the outfield is flooded with talent right now.

Murphy has played Christian Yelich just about every day in left field, but the other two spots have featured a mix of players. Between Blake Perkins, Sal Frelick, and Jackson Chourio, the three have split playing time fairly evenly. When you throw Garrett Mitchell into the mix, it will make for a very interesting decision.

If Mitchell had been coming back two weeks ago this decision would have been much easier, but Jackson Chourio has been on a tear at the plate. Although it's a smaller sample size, over the past two weeks, Chourio has looked much more confident at the plate and his approach has improved. In his last 27 plate appearances, he has a slash line of .320/.370/.600, this is eerily similar to his performance from last year in the minor leagues, where he only got better as the year went on.

We saw a bit of Sal Frelick at third-base in spring training, and with Joey Ortiz banged up right now, that could be one possibility in fixing this problem in the short term. However, Ortiz definitely has won the every-day role of third baseman, so Frelick moving to the infield isn't a long term solution.

Pat Murphy will have quite the decision on his hands whenever Mitchell is ready. It will be interesting to see how this surplus of outfielders is handled. Will one of them need to be optioned down to Triple-A? Only time will tell, but ultimately this is a pretty good problem to be running into in mid-June.