Brewers Need Their Young Bats To Take a Step Forward in 2025

Opening weekend was a wake-up call for the Milwaukee Brewers. They went into Yankee Stadium hoping to pick up right where they left off in 2024, but they came away from their trip to New York with a plethora of questions that need to be answered quickly.

The dreadful pitching performance from the Brewers grabbed early headlines, and rightfully so. Their normally reliable starters got ambushed on multiple occasions, and injuries have decimated this pitching staff.

As a result, the Brewers will be heavily reliant upon some arms who weren’t expected to be in the picture to start the year. That means in order for Milwaukee to tread water until they get their pitching staff back to full strength, there will be elevated pressure on this lineup to produce.

While Milwaukee’s veterans will continue to lead the way at the top of the lineup, there’s a golden opportunity for many of the Brewers’ youngsters to step up and elevate this offense in 2025.

Stats and results taken before play on April 3.

Who Has Room For Growth In the Brewers’ Lineup?

With Willy Adames no longer in the picture, the Brewers will need some of their younger players to step up if this offense is going to continue its momentum from last season.

Of course, the trio of hitters at the top of Milwaukee’s lineup will drive this offense forward. Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich, and William Contreras all have increased expectations to perform, and many expect that they will answer the call in a big way.

While it’s been a slow start for some of their stars, there’s little doubt that they will elevate their game sooner rather than later. Instead, it will be the back half of the lineup that could dictate how this offense performs, especially in the coming weeks.

We’ve seen flashes of potential from many of these players at points throughout their big league careers, but which of these names can blossom into a foundational piece of this offense in 2025? Let’s dig into the names who have ample room for growth.

Sal Frelick

Sal Frelick has plenty of room for improvement offensively in 2025, and he has the potential to establish himself as a pivotal hitter in this lineup.

His bat-to-ball numbers were fantastic last season, sporting a whiff rate in the 98th percentile (12.9%). As a result, he maintained a strong strikeout rate of 14.9% and put the ball in play at a high rate.

However, he failed to do any type of significant damage with the bat, and that severely limited his overall production at the plate. Frelick had a barrel rate under one percent last season (0.8%), and he had the single-lowest hard-hit rate in MLB among qualified hitters last season at 19.5%.

Now that alone isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as plenty of hitters with low hard-hit rates can still manage to be productive big league hitters. For example, the two names around him on that list — Steven Kwan and Luis Arraez — have carved out important roles with their respective ball clubs.

However, he simply didn’t provide enough value in the hitting department to make up for his lack of impact with the bat. He hit just .259 in 2024, which was actually an improvement from his .246 batting average from the season before.

Combine that with the fact that he finished with the second-worst ISO (.076) and the third-worst slugging percentage (.335) in baseball among qualified hitters, and that’s where the problem lies with Frelick.

With all that being said, however, Frelick has the talent to be an impactful big league hitter. We’ve seen it at times throughout his major league career, and we often saw it from him in the minor leagues as well.

He may not be the one to consistently hit double-digit homers, but he has the sprint speed and the bat-to-ball skills to do more damage than we’ve seen from him thus far.

Frelick has started the year 6-for-22 through his first six games, and he’s carved out an everyday role in Milwaukee’s outfield thanks to his defensive prowess. It’s also encouraging to see that most of his production to this point has come left-on-left, as he’s 5-for-11 with two walks against southpaws. The Brewers faithful will hope he can keep that momentum going.

Garrett Mitchell

The 2025 season is an important one for Garrett Mitchell, and all of Milwaukee’s fanbase is pulling for him to put together a healthy season for the first time in his big league career.

The 26-year-old has flashed plenty of talent throughout his young career, but missing weeks or months at a time due to numerous injuries has prevented him from building any sort of momentum in the majors.

Many are aware of the value he brings with his glove in center field and the threat he poses on the basepaths with his speed. However, it’s also easy to see his shortcomings on offense as well.

For starters, swing-and-miss has been a major problem for Mitchell. In 121 career big league games (383 PA), Mitchell has a whiff rate of 34.6%. For reference, MLB average is around 25%. What’s perhaps even more concerning is his in-zone whiff rate, which sits at 27.3% for his career.

As a result, Mitchell has posted strikeout rates of 41.2% in 2022, 35.6% in 2023, and 31.7% in 2024. Now, it’s important to keep in mind that these are in relatively small sample sizes, but it’s undeniably the most noticable area that needs to be improved in 2025.

Mitchell demonstrates exceptional pitch selection at the plate, sporting a chase rate under 20% in his career, and he has the raw power to really make an impact in this lineup if he can cut his strikeout rate and elevate the ball a bit more.

Mitchell has posted some strong exit velocities throughout his professional career, but he’s often struggled with elevating the ball. That was a problem dating back to his time in the minors, and the trend continued in 2024, where he ended the season with a 56.7% groundball rate.

Mitchell has the skills to take a step forward offensively, and there is plenty of room to improve. He doesn’t need to be a major home run threat, but turning a few hard-hit grouners into doubles in the gap would go a long way for his offensive outlook.

Brice Turang

“I’m expecting this kid to take a quantum leap,” skipper Pat Murphy told the media last offseason as Brice Turang geared up for his sophomore season. To some extent, Murphy called his shot, as Turang secured the first Gold Glove Award and Platinum Glove Award of his career in 2024.

What’s more, he showcased the special type of hitter he can be in the first half of the season.

From Opening Day to June 30 (322 PA), Turang slashed .292/.354/.417 with a 117 wRC+ and a .338 wOBA. Combine that production with his premium defense, and he was one of the better second baseman in MLB over that stretch.

The problem, however, is that his production fell off when the calendar turned to July.

From July 1 through the end of the regular season (297 PA), Turang slashed just .214/.275/.277 with a 56 wRC+ and a .247 wOBA. He was walking and striking out at a similar clip between the two time periods, but his average exit velocity dropped over three percent, and his hard-hit rate fell over eight percent (according to Baseball Savant).

Turang has already put together some impressive at-bats in the early goings of the 2025 season, and he’s shown that he can be an extremely valuable table-setter for Chourio, Yelich, and Contrereas. If he can get back to the form fans saw in the first few months of 2024, it completely changes the top of that lineup.

The talent is in there, and perhaps another year in the big leagues will help Turang complete his quantum leap.

Joey Ortiz

As has been the theme with some of the other youngsters discussed, consistency will be key for Joey Ortiz to unlock a new level in 2025.

On July 3 of last season, the Brewers placed Ortiz on the injured list due to neck inflammation. Prior to that date, Ortiz was one of Milwaukee’s most productive hitters and even worked himself into the All-Star conversation.

In 74 games (256 plate appearances) prior to hitting the IL, Ortiz slashed .269/.373/.444 and was second on the Brewers in wOBA (.357) and wRC+(130). He was walking at a 13.7% clip, striking out just 16.8% of the time, and was flashing an encouraging blend of both contact and power.

His injury derailed that momentum, however, as he wasn’t quite the same level of hitter when he returned to the lineup.

From the time he returned to the lineup on July 12 through the end of the season, Ortiz hit just .210 to go with an OPS of .637 and a wRC+ of just 73. His walk rate dropped, and his strikeout rate rose nearly seven percent up to 23.5%.

Ortiz has what it takes to be the X-factor in this lineup. Now the club’s starting shortstop, he does a little bit of everything for the Brewers and will be a key bat in the back half of the lineup.

He’s a capable baserunner with plenty of speed, he brings a disciplined approach to the plate, and he puts the bat on the ball at a high rate while demonstrating an ability to do some damage when he connects as well.

That’s the type of player the Brewers value, and it’s why they were comfortable acquiring him for Corbin Burnes last offseason. If Ortiz can realize his potential in 2025, it will do wonders for this offense.

It’s obviously early, and the Brewers got back on track in a big way to close out their series against the Royals. But pitching is going to be pieced together for the next couple of weeks, and the offense needs to pick up the slack to avoid digging themselves too big of a hole to start the year.

The Brewers don’t need all of these youngsters to experience a full-fledged breakout in 2025. But they will need someone to step forward and provide some length to supplement the stars at the top of the order.