Christian Yelich Is Regaining His Previous Form in 2023

Christian Yelich Snaps Back to Reality

Yelich Metrics This Season

xBA- .294

xSLG- .488

xWOBA- .378

Barrel/PA %. 6.9

All best stats since 2019

Yelich’s slashline looks like one when he was with the Miami Marlins. Before he was the Mvp and exploded into a player, he became with Milwaukee. His expected batting average is nearly .300, his expected slugging is almost at .550, and his barrel is very high. All that, including his three-hit day in Philadelphia, where he raised his OPS to .856, the highest it’s been at any point of the season in the last four years. Yelich is hitting the ball hard and striking out less. His exit velocity and exit barrel percentage have all gone up. Even his hard-hit rate is the highest in the last three to four years.

From Injuries to Redemption 

Nobody believed that Yelich would come back to his true form. When he fouled a pitch off his kneecap to his season in 2019, he was leading the NL in batting average, on-base, and slugging. The reigning NL MVP at the time was on pace for one of the best offensive seasons in MLB history. He became a shadow of himself in 2020 when he struck out more than 30 percent of his plate appearances. He also saw his batting average drop 100-plus points.

His total lack of power the next two seasons, just 23 combined home runs, could be a factor in his long history of back issues. Three straight seasons of a mid-.700s OPS with assorted IL stints concluded he was coming out of his prime. But, a more recovered Yelich hit his 14th home run of the season, leaving him tied with his total from last year. While he’s not in MVP form, his play made way for him to establish himself as a top-ten outfielder in the majors. He is still a tremendous power-speed threat who’s been among the best hitters in the last two months. This production, including an .850 OPS and 21 stolen bases, is what Brewers fans hoped for when Yelich signed his extension in 2020.

Is He A Top 10 Outfielder?

Yelich is a top-ten outfielder in the game. He went from a good player for the Marlins to one of the most important players in the game. He’s the most significant because he plays for a small market team in Milwaukee. Yelich is constantly put up with a challenge offensively to score runs. The 31-year-old is the biggest reason the Brewers scored enough runs to get to the postseason. It’s rare for a player like Yelich to be young and good, but he dropped as far as he did. A close comparison to Yelich’s situation is Jeff Burroughs. Burroughs won AL MVP with the Texas Rangers, then went way down but returned later with Atlanta as he had a 41-home run season. Yelich is on a different path than Burroughs, as he remains a top-ten outfielder in baseball. The unlikely leadoff man with a team lead in both runs scored (70) and RBI (54) is precisely enough on this team.