The Milwaukee Brewers are off to a 5-1 start, which includes a sweep of the New York Mets. Among the stars in the first week of the season for the Brew Crew are three rookies: Garrett Mitchell, Brice Turang and Joey Wiemer.
Through the first six games of the season for the Brewers, these three rookies are providing significant offense … especially after being shutout by the Cubs in their first game of the season. Mitchell, the center fielder, has six hits, including a triple and three home runs. Wiemer, the right fielder, also has six hits that includes a home run and a .353 average. Turang, the club’s second baseman, has five hits, a grand slam, and tops the team with two stolen bases.
The Milwaukee Brewers trio was expected to provide a spark for the team, but having it happen in the first week of the 2023 season may have been a stretch.
No doubt, the play of the three has been a catalyst for the team’s hot start.
While it is early in the season, you can’t help thinking about what a full season of Mitchell, Turang and Wiemer could mean to the Brewers. With a hit per game, it may be far-fetched to project that each of the three will end the season with 160+ hits on the season.
MLB teams with two rookies with 160+ hits in same season
For the record, 175 rookies have collected 160 or more hits in a season since 1901. Cleveland’s rookie Steven Kwan had 168 hits last year, the only rookie with 160+ hits last season. There have been only nine times in MLB history where a team had two rookies collect 160+ hits in the same season. The last time it happened was in 2006 when the Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez (185) and Dan Uggla (172) had over 160 hits in their rookie campaign.
A season with 160+ hits for Mitchell, Turang and Wiemer would certainly be historic.
But a more realistic look may be a season where all three Brewers rookies each have over 100 hits in their first season. In their history, the Brewers have had 17 different rookies get 100 or more hits in their rookie season; however, they have never had more than one rookie do it in a season. The last rookie to get 100+ hits in his rookie season with the Brew Crew was Nori Aoki in 2012 (he had 150 hits that rookie season with the Brewers).
The 1982 Minnesota Twins are the only team to have five rookies get 100 or more hits in the same season. Since 1980, there have been eight teams that have had three or more rookies collect 100 or more hits in the same season.
Teams with three rookies with 100 or more hits in same season
1982, Minnesota (Tom Brunansky, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Bobby Mitchell, Ron Washington)
1987, Oakland (Mark McGwire, Luis Polonia, Terry Steinbach)
1993, Pittsburgh (Carlos Garcia, Al Martin, Kevin Young)
1993, Florida (Chuck Carr, Jeff Conine, Orestes Destrade)
2000, Houston (lance Berkman, Julio Lugo, Mitch Meluskey)
2005, Colorado (Garrett Atkins, Clint Barnes, Cory Sullivan)
2006, Florida (Mike Jacobs, Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Josh Washington)|
2007, Tampa Bay (Brendan Harris, Akinori Iwamura, Delmon Young)
Could the Milwaukee Brewers trio of Mitchell, Turang and Wiemer join this group?