I’ll preface this conversation by stating that so far in a small sample Mitchell has looked very good. I loved the pick back in June, and so far he's looked even better than I could've imagined.

The reason I bring up this topic is because a lot has been made of him likely needing to make swing changes. While everyone seems to agree he’ll be a fantastic defender, the reviews on his current in-game offensive approach and swing are more divisive. Since he was drafted last summer a lot of national evaluators have indicated that Mitchell is going to need swing adjustments to be an impact hitter in professional baseball.

The typical narratives within Mitchell’s offensive scouting reports go something like this:

- 80 runner
- Shows plus to plus-plus raw power in batting practice
- Choppiness in his swing which is geared towards hitting low line drives and grounders in games
- Uses speed to take extra base hits by stretching out singles
- "Slap-and-dash" approach has worked for him in college, but he has the build and power potential to be a middle-of-the-order hitter
- Sometimes relies on his upper body too much, which suppresses his in-game power potential

From the little bit of footage we’ve seen of Mitchell so far his swing is still that low line drive approach that evaluators have mentioned. He has had some fantastic exit velocities thus far (topping out at 109.7-mph), and he hits the ball so hard that even the grounders have a good chance of making their way through the infield if they aren’t hit directly at a defender.

It’s admittedly way too premature to make any definitive conclusions based on the minuscule sample we’ve seen so far. That being said this is a board that’s open to thought experiments, so here we go.

The question: From what we’ve seen so far would you want Mitchell to attempt a swing change in order to access more power, or do you think his current approach and skill-set give him a chance to be plenty valuable enough?

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My take is that a significant swing change of any sort could be very risky. It could obviously have a huge payoff, but it could also be a potential setback to his development. With his current approach and speed I think he could be a fantastic lead-off hitter that gets on base and causes havoc from there. I could see an argument to be made that his decline phase could come sooner in his career since his current approach relies heavily on speed, but my counter would be that a swing change could delay his path to the majors which would also shrink his peak window. I’m torn because I do understand for those who have seen his incredible BP raw power how they could envision a 30+ home run hitter (not to mention the fact he's built like an NFL strong safety). I’m just not certain if the risk associated with a swing change is worth it for someone so gifted that he's already successful with his current approach and swing.

Would be interested in hearing others thoughts? (even with the caveat that we need to see a whole lot more of his success and failure with his current swing)