Milwaukee Brewers: Why the Christian Yelich signing is good for baseball

The Milwaukee Brewers and Christian Yelich have agreed to a massive extension that will promise him $215M over 9 years with a mutual option for a 10th. The mid-market Brew Crew keep their star player, which is great for baseball.

Since being acquired by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2018, Christian Yelich has posted numbers that range from incredible to absurd. Yelich has obliterated pitching to the tune of a .327 / .415 / .631 slash line with a 170 wRC+. That wRC+ figure is second only to you know who.

Yelich set a career-high with 36 dingers in 2018 and broke that with 44 in 2019 despite missing the last part of the season with a fractured knee cap. Lastly, his 15.4 fWAR is fourth among all players behind only Trout, Mookie Betts, and Alex Bregman.

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Yelich is 28 now so this deal will take him through the prime and tail end of his career. He does so many things well that he should age gracefully from across the duration of the contract. Yelich is so good that decline over his contract will render him a very good player instead of the best in the league.

This signing is the best possible outcome for Baseball and Milwaukee sports fans alike. The Brewers went for it, they traded a massive prospect haul for one of the games more underrated players.

Now they have made it to the playoffs the last two seasons and were 1 game away from the World Series in 2018. Despite being a mid-market team, the Brewers have one of the best players in the game locked up for the foreseeable future.

There must be something in the air with Milwaukee as the city has been able to keep its franchise and Super Bowl-winning QB Aaron Rodgers in town for 15 years. With their baseball superstar now under contract, Milwaukee fans are now hopeful they can lock down Bucks star and probable repeat MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

It’s a great time to be Christian Yelich, a Milwaukee Brewers fan, and a baseball fan. Yelich gets a monster deal while the Brewers and their fans get to enjoy one of the best players in baseball over the next decade.