Swing Change Helps Free Up Pirates’ Mitch Jebb At Plate
Mitch Jebb used a fantastic Cape Cod League performance in 2022 to eventually propel him into being the Pirates’ second-round pick out of Michigan State a year later.
When reflecting on it after playing his first full pro season at High-A Greensboro in 2024, the 22-year-old second baseman looks at it a little differently now.
“A lot of guys failed in that league,” Jebb said of the Cape. “I didn’t, fortunately.
“It’s weird because sometimes I wished I had failed a little more in that league, because maybe early in the year I would have been more susceptible to failure just because I spent so long at the end of my college career never failing.”
Jebb was one of the higher-rated college hitters available in the 2023 draft. After signing he went to Low-A Bradenton for his pro debut and played well there.
Opening the 2024 season at Greensboro, Jebb didn’t get off to the ideal start. He batted .200/.264/.300 and struck out 26% of the time through May.
Failure on the baseball field wasn’t something that Jebb had to overcome as an amateur, but he quickly assessed his game and made the proper adjustment.
“I still had the same swing I had from college,” Jebb said. “And if I’m being honest with you, it probably wasn’t going to work in MLB, so I had to make some changes.”
The lefthanded hitter said he simplified things at the plate. Jebb admitted to having a more unorthodox swing, and the results were immediately evident.
In his final 73 games of the season, he hit .284/.382/.387 with 42 walks and 49 strikeouts. Getting on base more allowed him to flash his greatest tool: speed. Jebb stole 34 bases in that time frame.
His plan was to simplify things to free up time to do other things in the box.
“Once I made those changes, that allowed me to free up and really execute my plan and approach,” Jebb said, “because then I wasn’t thinking about my swing.”
