Christian Yelich has agreed to a significant extension with the Milwaukee Brewers. According to The Sporting News, Yelich agreed to a nine year contract extension worth $219 million on Tuesday. The new contract will allow Yelich, a native of Thousand Oaks, California, to remain with the Brewers through to the 2028 Major League Baseball regular season. There will also be an option for Yelich to return to the Brewers for the 2029 MLB season.
Yelich has clearly become one of the best hitters in all of baseball. In 2019, he led the National League with a .329 batting average and a .429 on base percentage, and led all of Major League Baseball with a .671 slugging percentage. In 2018, Yelich led the National League with a .326 batting average, .598 slugging percentage and 343 total bases and was named the senior circuit’s most valuable player.
At the end of the 2017 season, the Miami Marlins traded outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (the 2017 National League Most Valuable Player) to the Yankees with cash for second baseman Starlin Castro and two prospects. At the time there was a ton of buzz that the Yankees were getting a superstar because Stanton had just hit 59 home runs a year ago.
However, when the Marlins traded Yelich to the Brewers on January 25, 2018 (six weeks after trading Stanton), for outfielder Lewis Brinson, second baseman Isan Diaz, pitcher Jordan Yamamoto and prospect Monte Harrison, this deal lacked some attention compared to the Stanton deal. However due to numerous injuries to his biceps, shoulder and knee, Stanton only played in 18 games for the Yankees in 2020 and was nowhere close to his former self.
The Brewers meanwhile got what turned out to be the best hitter in baseball. Yelich has been that strong the last two years. Now it will be interesting to see if Yelich can help the Brewers get to or even win the World Series sometime in the 2020’s.
