Young Brewers Hitters Growing Confidence Against Left Handed Pitching

Under manager Pat Murphy, the Brewers have put their young hitters in situations against lefties and that's been by design.

"Murph had kind of talked to Brice (Turang) and I and said he was going to try and get us as many at-bats against lefties in spring as he could just to get us comfortable. But they throw it over the plate just like righties do." Sal Frelick said.

The results so far have been continually improving as the young players have gotten more and more reps.

"Maybe it is good, you know, maybe that does lock you in a little bit. You gotta stay closed" Murphy said.

"No question these types of things really help when you're facing so many lefties" Murph said on how each of these young Brewers hitters can learn from each other's at-bats and success.

All three of Turang, Frelick, and Mitchell made big improvements against lefties last year, with OPS jumps of 90-120 points while doubling their sample size from the previous year. Mitchell's sample size was a bit more skewed because he missed most of the 2023 season with injury, but he had a better batting average against lefties than he did righties in 2024.

The 2025 season sample sizes are variable still right now, just one week into the season. Frelick has been on fire, hitting .500 against lefties with a 1.111 OPS. While those numbers won't be sustainable over the course of the season, it's a sign that the increasing reps have led to progress.

"I think once you get used to it, you get pretty confident up there." said Frelick.

The growing confidence of the Brewers young trio of Turang, Frelick, and Mitchell is exactly what Milwaukee needs to develop to sustain the level of success they've enjoyed in recent years. All three are right on the cusp of taking that next step in their development and these reps against lefties and the confidence they've gotten from it is what's helping them get there.