Yelich has evolved into elite slugger
He is a perfectionist in the batter’s box
It was the Friday night after the 2018 all-star break, the Milwaukee Brewers’ first game of the second half against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Miller Park. As Christian Yelich stepped in the batter’s box against veteran lefty Rich Hill with down in the bottom of the first inning, there was something different about him.
What was it? What had he changed?
The 6-foot-3 Yelich was standing straighter, bat held high, striking a classic hitting pose with his longlegged frame unbent. Sort of like Stan Musial used to stand tall in the box, eschewing the crouch that so many hitters employ.
“I went in the (batting) cage and, for whatever reason, I wanted to try that,” said the Brewers rightfielder, who like all hitters was constantly tinkering with his setup at the plate, seeking maximum comfort and results.
“It wasn’t where it ended up being (later) but that’s kind of where it started. I came back (from the AllStar Game) and wanted to make some adjustments.”
Ever the perfectionist, the lefthanded-hitting Yelich was not satisfied with his first-half performance with the Brewers, the team that acone
quired him in a blockbuster trade with Miami that January. Never mind that he made the National League all-star team, coming off the bench and smacking a home run off Houston’s Charlie Morton. In 82 games before the break, he batted .292 with 11 home runs, 43 runs batted in and .823 OPS.
Most players would have been pleased with that showing, especially garnering the all-star berth. Not Yelich. He met with manager Craig Counsell and told him there was much more fuel in his tank, and he planned on using every ounce of it.
“It was a very ‘Christian conversation’ about how he sees things,” Counsell recalled. “How much he expects of himself, is the best way to say it. I think we were all thrilled with what he was doing in the first half, and thought he had a really good first half.”
Instant success
Hitters don’t always see immediate results when they make changes at the plate but Yelich struck gold with his first mining attempt. He doubled in his first at-bat off Hill, normally a tough customer for left-handed hitters. After lining out to deep left in his next at-bat, Yelich ripped another double off Hill, this time driving in a run.
In his final at-bat in the ninth inning against Dodgers dominant closer Kenley Jansen, Yelich crushed a two-run triple. The Brewers would lose the game, 6-4, but with three extra-base hits, Yelich was all-in with the change in his batting stance.
“I don’t know why I chose that,” he said. “I wanted to see how it felt. Guys do that all the time, just play around with things. I took it into the (batting) cage, then into batting practice (on the field), and continued to tinker with it.”
There was no way to know it at the time, but that game against Hill and the Dodgers jump-started one of the greatest second halves by a hitter in majorleague history. In 65 games after the break, Yelich batted .367 with 25 homers – four more than he ever hit in a full season in Miami – 67 RBI, .449 on-base percentage, .770 slugging percentage and 1.219 OPS.
Yelich hit for the cycle twice against Cincinnati in a three-week period, made a legitimate run at the Triple Crown, became the first Brewers player to win a batting title (.326) and ran away with the NL most valuable player award, garnering 29 of 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America. He finished with 36 homers, 110 RBI and 22 stolen bases, claiming his second Silver Slugger Award and first Hank Aaron Award as the top hitter in his league.
The Brewers climbed on board the runaway Yelich train and were pulled to the NL Central crown, catching the Chicago Cubs and forcing a Game No. 163 showdown, which they won at Wrigley Field. They would keep pushing forward until getting eliminated by the Dodgers in Game 7 of the NLCS, one game shy of the World Series.
“I thought there was room for improvement,” Yelich said of his approach to that wondrous second half. “It wasn’t necessarily, ‘Oh, I made the all-star team. I’m satisfied with this.’ It was great, really cool and an honor to be part of it. But, at the same time, I thought there was more, that I could get better.”
Not a fluke
It was arguably the greatest season in Brewers history, one that Yelich had every right to cherish. But, because Yelich had outperformed all previous majorleague seasons by such a large margin, he soon started hearing critics say it was an outlier year that never would be approached again. Never mind that Yelich did not turn 27 until December and had been trending in a positive direction offensively for a few seasons.
“There were a lot of questions about me coming into this season,” Yelich said recently. “Could you do it again? Was it a fluke? Are you really this good? All that stuff. I just took it to heart. As I said in spring training, that stuff kind of lights a fire under me. It pisses me off.”
If there were truly serious doubters as the 2019 season began, Yelich quickly extinguished any critical fires still simmering. He tied a major-league record by hitting home runs in each of the Brewers’ first four games, and was off and running.
On April 15 against the St. Louis Cardinals, Yelich slugged three home runs to power the Brewers to a 10-7 victory. He added two more homers five days later in a 5-0 victory over the Dodgers and finished the month of April with a remarkable total of 14, compiling an insane .804 slugging percentage.
Because Yelich hit his first 13 home runs at home, he began hearing a different critique: that he was merely a Miller Park monster, taking advantage of that hitter-friendly environment. When he finally hit his first home run on the road on April 27 against the Mets at Citi Field, Yelich smiled afterward and poked his doubters, saying, “Now, at least I’ll have one this year on the road.”
The next day in New York, Yelich exited the game early with lower back discomfort and missed the next five games. That issue cropped up again in late May, forcing him to miss a couple of games, but Yelich regrouped and continued his assault on opposing pitchers.
Yelich hit the all-star break with a major league-leading 31 home runs, only five shy of his total for his entire 2018 season. He compiled a gaudy .705 slugging percentage and 1.132 OPS to go with his .325 batting average and 67 RBI in 81 games. Not surprisingly, he led all NL players in fan voting for the All-Star Game.
Yelich, who has done countless interviews since the end of last season, both on the local and national levels, invariably is asked to give his take on his transformation into one of the most feared sluggers in the game. Beyond the change in batting stance coming out of the all-star break last season, he points to another factor hiding in plain sight: you are allowed to improve as a player
coming to the major leagues. “You can get better,” Yelich said. “Some people say you can’t. They say you got lucky or you’re really not that good. People need things to talk about, I guess. I don’t really care what they think.
“It is possible to get better in the big leagues. That should be every player’s goal. You shouldn’t just be satisfied to be in the big leagues. You want to be the best version of yourself, whatever that is. It’s different for everyone.”
No place like home
As for the boost in power, specifically, Yelich said, “It’s not just that I went from Marlins Park to Miller Park. Miller Park helps a little bit but it’s not reason. There are a lot of things that go into it.
“It’s such a hard game. You’re going to fail a lot. Even when you’re really going really well, there’s still a lot of times when you suck. That’s how the game was created. You just try to learn from that and get better, continually improve.”
It would be negligent to completely ignore the Miller Park factor, however. The most home runs Yelich hit in cavernous Marlins Park in any season was eight in 2016, when he finished with a then-personal best of 21 overall. Last year, Yelich hit 22 homers in 74 games at Miller Park, eclipsing his high for that ‘16 season in Miami. And 21 of his 31 home runs this season have come at home.
Brewers general manager David Stearns and his staff figured Yelich’s home-run production would soar in Miller Park, where the ball carries well, particularly to right-center. That’s why they’ve stocked up on as many lefthanded sluggers as possible in recent years, including Eric Thames, Travis Shaw, Mike Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal. And, of course, Yelich, who wasn’t previously regarded a slugger, per se.
Getting into the swing
At the time of his acquisition, some wondered if Yelich would be able to take full advantage of the friendly aerodynamics at Miller Park. He was more of a ground-ball hitter with Miami, with percentages of 62.5% in 2015, 56.5% in 2016 and 55.4% in 2017. But that changed after he was traded to the Brewers for four of the organization’s best minor-league prospects.
Yelich steadfastly has denied changing his swing path in any significant way to join the game’s homer-happy “launch angle revolution.” But his ground-ball rate dropped to 51.8% in 2018 and is a career-low 43.3% this season. His current fly-ball rate is 38.2%, by far his highest in the major leagues.
“People think if you just swing upward, you’ll have a better launch angle,” Yelich said. “That’s not the way it works. If it was that easy, everybody would do it.”
Beyond hitting more balls in the air, Yelich is striking the ball harder, period, another sign of his offensive maturity. In his final season with the Marlins in 2017, his “hard-hit” rate was 35.2%. That figure jumped significantly to 47.6% last season and again this year to 54%, according to FanGraphs. His line-drive rate, a career-high 24.7% last year, currently sits at 18.5%, a reduced byproduct of his much higher fly-ball percentage.
So, in many ways, Yelich is simply a different hitter than he was in Miami. And no one has a more unique and qualified perspective than Andy Haines, who managed Yelich for three seasons in the low minors of the Marlins’ system before being reunited this year as the Brewers’ new hitting coach.
“It’s interesting to think back to when he was 17 or 18,” said Haines, who watched Yelich’s MVP performance last season from across the field while on the Chicago Cubs’ coaching staff. “Some of it is just natural progression with the strength and how his body works, and professional experience. But I can’t say anybody saw this magnitude of power developing.
“You could definitely see there was some power there. Even at 17 or 18, he would surprise you with some home runs to the big part of the field. They just didn’t come as frequently. What stood out so impressively as a young player was just the hit ‘tool.’ The ability and the feel to hit.”
Dedicated to improvement
One of the keys to Yelich’s immense improvement at the plate is something fans and media don’t see: his dedication to his craft behind the scenes. Yelich is constantly looking for ways to get better, tinkering with possible adjustments in the cage, constantly watching video for red flags, trading ideas with Haines, doing whatever preparation is necessary to assure success in the game that night.
“It is amazing to see what he’s doing but at the same time you know he’s capable of doing that. That’s how well he prepares, the pride he takes in his work and everything he does to be as good as he is,” said Moustakas, a fellow Southern Californian who knew Yelich before becoming Brewers teammates.
“Not too many guys do what he does on a daily basis. Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to him. It’s awesome to watch, and fun to be a part of. And it’s cool to see how humble he is. He just wants to be better and he thinks he can. If he thinks he can, I think he can.”
New challenges
With Yelich’s new-found fame came constant demands on his time, which he has handled willingly and seamlessly, for the most part. Beginning with his finishing kick in 2018 to winning the MVP Award to the start of another promising season with the Brewers, Yelich has been besieged with requests for interviews, time with sponsors, television spots and any number of other offfield commitments.
In many ways, Counsell has been more impressed with how Yelich has handled those demands than yanking a nasty slider from a crafty lefty into the second deck for another home run.
“I think it’s definitely changed his life,” Counsell said of Yelich’s higher profile. “Off-the-field stuff is probably more challenging for him right now. He’s a very gracious and accommodating guy. But I don’t think he’s necessarily allowed to be a private person anymore. If you ask him what’s different, that’s probably the biggest thing that’s different.”
From conversations with Yelich as the Brewers gathered in Phoenix to prepare for the 2019 season, Counsell knew he would be playing this season with a chip on his shoulder. Mentioning the “R” word – regression – was tantamount to waving a red cape in front of an angry bull. There was no easier way to get Yelich worked up.
The way Counsell saw it, that would be the engine that drives Yelich throughout the year. And that was perfectly fine with the manager.
“That’s how it works,” Counsell said. “It’s different for all players, especially those who achieve those levels. It’s different but there has to be something. There is always something there.
“It’s not really for us to judge what’s right and what’s wrong, and what it should be or shouldn’t be. It’s motivation, and you’ve got to use it to your advantage. That’s what he’s doing. He’s using it to his advantage.”
The future
The only possible red flag is the ongoing concern over the periodic back issues Yelich has experienced. He sat out the final game of the first half in Pittsburgh with slight soreness and reluctantly withdrew from the All-Star Home Run Derby.
When Yelich steps in the batter’s box for his first at-bat of the second half Friday night against San Francisco at Miller Park, don’t be surprised if he again has tweaked something in his set-up. He certainly doesn’t need to do so, especially if you believe in the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But Yelich is always looking for an edge. Always has. Always will.
And, if you’re assuming this is as good as it gets for Yelich, don’t bet the farm on it. Haines, who knows him as well or better than anyone as a hitter, made a prediction that should send shivers down the spines of opposing pitchers.
“You look at the numbers, and you have to look twice to believe them,” Haines said. “But I will tell you, he has not played the best he can play. He’s capable of more. He’s capable of being a little more locked-in for a longer period of time. That sounds crazy to even come out of my mouth but it’s very true.”
As Yelich will be happy to remind you, it is possible to get better after arriving in the big leagues. Even better than this? Let your imagination run wild.