Milwaukee Brewers: Grading Christian Yelich’s 2022 season at the break

There has been no player for the Milwaukee Brewers so far this season that has had more of a spotlight over their performance than Christian Yelich. Particularly on offense, it seems that Yelich’s results are being evaluated each time he steps up to the plate.

Yelich has not put up the numbers in 2022 that would’ve been expected when he signed his contract extension in March of 2020, but let’s take a closer look at them and give them a grade at this point in the season.

Grading Christian Yelich’s 2022 season for Milwaukee Brewers at the All-Star break

Christian Yelich’s season can be broken down into two parts. There’s pre-leadoff Christian Yelich and then there is leadoff Christian Yelich.

Yelich moved into the leadoff role for the Brewers on June 8th. Before that, things were not looking very pretty for him. Up to that point in the season, Yelich had produced batting average, OBP, and OPS splits of .224/.316/.679. The OBP being .316 is impressive, given how poorly Yelich was swinging the bat at the time. His patience was still allowing him to draw walks.

Unfortunately, the other parts of those splits are numbers that I would expect from former Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia and not somebody who is a former National League MVP. You can’t cover for the pre-leadoff Yelich, he was just bad at the plate, especially for somebody who the Brewers are paying over $20 million to this season.

The good news is that Yelich has been able to shake that rough start since moving to the leadoff spot. In 34 games as the team’s leadoff hitter, Yelich has turned around his season.

Yelich’s numbers have seen significant increases with splits of .294/.395/.799. While those aren’t the numbers of an elite player, it does show that he at the very least has been better in the leadoff role. With how bad he was before the switch, the Brewers will probably take anything.

Overall, Yelich has compiled totals of .251/.347/.726. The .347 on-base percentage and .726 OPS are career-lows for Yelich in what has been a frustrating season. He’s seemingly been a hit or miss in the Brewers lineup for most of the season.

Dairyland Express Grade: B-

The reason why Yelich gets a B- for his performance this season is because he has turned it around recently. While his recent numbers aren’t those that you want from somebody with a contract like Yelich’s, they do show signs of improvement. Given what we’ve seen out of Yelich since his kneecap injury in 2019, improvement is all we can ask for right now.

Yelich’s 2022 season has been an interesting case so far because while his offensive stats don’t suggest it, he hasn’t been a terrible hitter. Yelich ranks in the top ten percent of baseball in hard-hit percentage in 2022. Sadly, those hard hit balls have been met with weak contact. Yelich’s weak contact rate is at 5.4 percent in 2022, the highest it has ever been.

With a few days to rest over the All-Star break, the hope is that Yelich comes out of the break producing as well as he did in the leadoff spot. It would be even better if he can find his power, which would really put the Milwaukee Brewers in business.