Milwaukee Brewers MVP, Best Newcomer, and other season awards

MEDAL RESULT | Most Disappointing Player

Christian Yelich

Justin Smoak

Avisail Garcia

Where does one even start with this category? These medalists really earned this award, because they had plenty of competition. Keston Hiura, Omar Narvaez, Brock Holt, and more could have been considered for these spots and they’ll all take home honorable mention participation ribbons.

Christian Yelich takes the top spot because of his new monster contract and his level of success in the last two seasons. His .205 batting average was a fall of over 100 points from .329 last season. That’s simply unheard of. He also struck out at an alarming rate.

His strikeout percentage last season was in the 61st percentile in the league and in 2020 it was 11th percentile. When he did hit the ball, he hit it hard and his exit velocity was 99th percentile. It was a combination of unluckiness with balls in play, more struggles, and what seemed to be general discomfort at the plate for one reason or another. The Milwaukee Brewers need their MVP caliber player back if they want to contend in years to come.

Justin Smoak was brought in to replace Eric Thames and he just didn’t do a good job. By many metrics, he was the worst player on the team. His .186 batting average was second-worst on the team among players with over 30 at-bats, his .262 on-base percentage was last, and his slugging percentage was seventh-last. He also was the team’s least valuable player in terms of WAR at -0.7. There’s not much more to be said about Smoak’s year and I don’t think any of you want to hear much more about it either.

Rounding out the most disappointing players top three is Avisail Garcia. He wasn’t the worst player on the team and his offensive numbers were below average, but not awful. However, unlike other candidates, he was getting paid big money this season. He was the fourth-highest paid player on the team this season behind only Braun, Cain, and Yelich. He was supposed to come in and be an impact player in this outfield. I can guarantee that a slash line of .238/.333/.326 and OPS+ of 79 is not what the Brewers were hoping for when they signed him to a 2-year, $20 million contract this offseason. But there’s always next year, right?

What Milwaukee Brewers’ players would you give awards to for this season? How did you do on the trivia question? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @DairylandXpress.