Baseball was never far from Mitchell Schulewitz’s mind while he growing up in Mundelein.
Schulewitz was even good enough as a pitcher to play for Illinois-Chicago for four years and to play professionally in 2017-18.
“I was your standard little boy who just loved baseball, whether it was with trading cards, watching games or playing,” he said. “I was obsessed with the game and all the strategy involved, and I wanted to keep playing as long as possible.”
Schulewitz’s playing career has ended — he was released by the Kansas City Royals after one season in the minors and played for the Schaumburg Boomers the following year — but his involvement in professional baseball continues. He’s a scout for the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I was naive as a player to think that I genuinely could pitch in the major leagues if I got the opportunity,” Schulewitz said. “But that first spring training, seeing the size and athleticism and how hard they threw, I realized, ‘I’m not a big leaguer.’”
A career transition was in order, and Schulewitz interned with Prep Baseball Report. That stint “sparked an interest,” he said, and the next step came after he received a phone call from UIC asking whether he’d be interested in being a volunteer coach.
Among Schulewitz’s responsibilities in his new role was scheduling the Flames’ meals and hotel accommodations. But he also rolled up his sleeves to find different ways to critically observe the game.
“It’s a sport that has become driven by numbers and analytics, and he truly embraced that,” UIC coach Sean McDermott said. “He took the lead in analyzing all of our metrics and taught us how we could get the most out of our guys if we changed some of our methodologies.”
It turns out Schulewitz was just getting started analyzing players. Around the same time, the UIC staff was asked whether they knew anyone who might be a good candidate for a newly opened scouting job with the Dodgers. Schulewitz’s name was mentioned, and after multiple phone and in-person interviews, he was tasked with a much higher-profile role as an evaluator.
“I didn’t know anything about scouting or the industry and didn’t have a ton of connections, but I fit the bill for what they were looking for,” Schulewitz said. “During the process, in a weird way I didn’t totally think I was qualified. But I think, looking back, that might have helped me because I was able to be laid-back and authentic.”
The cerebral way in which Schulewitz approached pitching and his job with UIC was a perfect primer for his work with the Dodgers. He also majored in communications and minored in psychology at UIC and has a master’s in kinesiology.
“The fun part of the job is putting the puzzle pieces together,” Schulewitz said. “Every player is a different puzzle. There are certain checkpoints you need to see athletically as a baseline. But my philosophy is ever-evolving. I do gravitate toward certain attributes and tend to like players who do things differently.”
Schulewitz, who started with a seven-state territory in the upper Midwest, is based in Arizona, and his range has expanded to 11 states.
McDermott isn’t surprised that the Dodgers clearly value Schulewitz’s work.
“He’s been given tremendous responsibilities with his new job, and the thing I love about Mitch is that he has aspirations of doing more,” McDermott said. “But he hasn’t lost track of where his feet are now, and that includes staying humble and hungry and doing a great job scouting baseball players.
“When the door to his playing days ended, he found another door that opened, and that’s a great lesson. He’ll be in a front office someday making a lot of decisions.”
Indeed, Schulewitz is focused on the work at hand.
“I’m just trying to enjoy every day,” Schulewitz said. “You don’t know what will happen in the future. To win the World Series last year and have two championships with an organization that treats us so well, it’s surreal to look back.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
