Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich told reporters Saturday he plans to participate in the 2019 MLB Home Run Derby, which will take place July 8 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Yelich, who won the 2018 National League MVP, has a league-leading 29 home runs in addition to 63 RBI and a 1.127 OPS. He has hit 47 home runs since Aug. 18 over a span of 115 games.

The Home Run Derby field already looks stacked, with Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and Cleveland Indians first baseman Carlos Santana taking part, per Mike Axisa of CBS Sports. ESPN noted that Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell will also participate. Alonso in particular is hot on Yelich's heels for the home run lead with 28.

Other big names could be on the list, but Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger, who is Yelich's primary competition for the 2019 NL MVP, will not take part.

Elsewhere, Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo told reporters he has not been asked to take part, although that could change.

Regardless of who fills out the eight-man field, the winner will be receiving a fat $1 million bonus, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

The Milwaukee Brewers are reportedly set to recall second baseman Keston Hiura, who's rated as their No. 1 prospect by MLB.com, from the Triple-A San Antonio Missions.

Robert Murray of The Athletic reported the update Tuesday morning.

Milwaukee selected Hiura with the ninth overall pick in the 2017 draft. The former UC Irvine Anteaters standout is now in line to make his MLB debut.

The 22-year-old California native was on fire for San Antonio with a .333/.408/.698 triple-slash line to go along with 11 home runs and four stolen bases through 37 games. He ranked fifth in the Pacific Coast League in total bases (90) and sixth in OPS (1.106).

His success comes on the heels of being named the 2018 Arizona Fall League MVP after helping lead the Peoria Javelinas to a championship.

During spring training, Hiura said his main priority was staying healthy to continue his development both offensively and defensively while awaiting the call from the Brew Crew, per Tyler Maun of MiLB.com:

"It'll be cool when the time comes. Right now, I can only control what I can control, give my best effort and attitude to San Antonio. My goal is to do whatever I can to help the team win there, and if [the Brewers] need me, of course I'll be excited for that moment to take it all in, cherish those moments and do what I can to help contribute at that level."

Hiura is likely to take over as the team's starting second baseman. That will allow Mike Moustakas, who has played second for the first time in his career this year, to return to his traditional spot at third base, while Hernan Perez shifts into a super-utility role.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported third baseman Travis Shaw is "likely" heading to the injured list with a wrist injury to open a spot on the 25-man roster.

The moves should add depth to a Brewers offense that ranks 12th in runs scored and 14th in OPS.

Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun's durability issues continued Saturday when he was scratched from the lineup against the Chicago Cubs with left hamstring soreness, the Brewers announced.

The 35-year-old is hitting .254 with eight home runs and 23 RBI.

In 2017, Braun was twice placed on the injured list with a left calf strain, landing on the shelf a second time just days after he was activated following the first stint.

He followed that up with two trips to the IL in 2018 and finished with a .254 batting average, 20 home runs and 64 RBI in 125 games.

The 2011 National League MVP can be a big-time contributor when healthy, but he hasn't appeared in more than 140 games since 2012.

Braun is a six-time All-Star and face of the franchise, and an extended absence could hurt the Brewers' power potential.

The five-time Silver Slugger has hit 25 or more home runs in a season on eight occasions, and he drove in 100 or more runs in five straight seasons from 2008 through 2012.

His production has been inconsistent in recent years, but Braun did put up a .305 batting average with 30 homers and 91 RBI in 2016, which marked his best campaign since 2012, when he was the runner-up to Buster Posey in the NL MVP race.

Milwaukee has a talented lineup, and its depth should help balance the potential loss of Braun.

If he is forced to miss some games, though, Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich and Ben Gamel will likely comprise the starting outfield.

The Brewers have significant question marks in their starting rotation, which forces them to score a lot of runs in order to win.

If Braun is not available, it will be more difficult for Milwaukee to successfully engage in slugfests.

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain was forced to leave Sunday's game against the New York Mets early after getting hit in the hand by a pitch, according to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.

Although he was diagnosed with a left hand contusion, X-rays were fortunately negative, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

He was 0-for-1 with a sacrifice fly in his first two at-bats before heading to the clubhouse.

Cain is one of the team's most important players as someone who makes an impact in all phases of the game, which could make an extended absence especially damaging for Milwaukee.

He entered the day hitting .261 with four home runs and three stolen bases.

The 33-year-old is a catalyst on the offense and a quality defender, which means there will be a drop-off with whoever replaces him. Ben Gamel replaced him in Sunday's game and could see extra playing time in the outfield, while Christian Yelich is also capable of sliding over to center field if needed.

Still, the team will hope Cain is able to return soon.

The outfielder is in his second year with the team after signing a five-year deal, and he certainly lived up to his billing in 2018. Cain finished with a .308 batting average, .813 OPS, 10 home runs and a career-high 30 stolen bases.

It was the fourth time in five years he posted at least a .300 batting average.

He also finished in the top 10 in MVP voting for the second time in his career, becoming one of the most reliable players in the league at his position when healthy.

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich was forced to leave Sunday's game against the New York Mets due to lower back discomfort, according to MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.

Yelich has left the game with back discomfort. #Brewers pic.twitter.com/8FTaHTRUBn

— FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin (@FanDuelSN_WI) April 28, 2019

Ben Gamel took over for Yelich in right field.

Yelich is in his second season with the Brewers after a dream first year with the team.

The former Miami Marlins player won the National League MVP in 2018 after leading the league with a .326 batting average and 1.000 OPS. He came close to winning the Triple Crown thanks to his 36 home runs and 110 RBI.

This included a .367 average and 25 home runs in 65 games after the All-Star break to help Milwaukee finish with the best record in the National League.

While he had always shown promise with Miami, he never earned an All-Star selection until last year when he truly broke out.

Yelich once again had massive expectations going into 2019, and he has responded with a league-high 14 home runs, 34 RBI and a .810 slugging percentage.

The latest injury could be devastating for the Brewers, although the 27-year-old has been able to stay healthy in his career. He has averaged 146 games per year over the past five seasons, only once missing more than 20 games.

This should provide hope he will be able to bounce back soon.

The Milwaukee Brewers reportedly agreed to a one-year $2 million Major League contract with starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez on Wednesday with $2 million in performance bonuses, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

The New York Yankees released Gonzalez from his minor league contract Monday after signing him in March.

In three starts at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, the 33-year-old Gonzalez went 2-1 with a 6.00 ERA, 1.67 WHIP and 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

Milwaukee seems like a logical landing spot since Gonzalez pitched well for the Brewers down the stretch last season. After getting traded to Milwaukee from the Washington Nationals, the lefty went 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 22 strikeouts in 25.1 innings over five starts.

Gonzalez struggled in the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, though, as he posted a 6.00 ERA in two starts.

Milwaukee is fourth in the National League Central at 13-12, but it is just two games behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals.

Inconsistency in the starting rotation is a big reason why the Brewers are not off to a better start. Aside from Zach Davies, who is 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA over five starts, the Brew Crew's starters have performed poorly.

Jhoulys Chacin (5.92 ERA), Brandon Woodruff (5.81 ERA), Corbin Burnes (10.70 ERA) and Freddy Peralta (7.13 ERA) are all struggling to record outs.

In addition to being familiar with the club, Gonzalez has a strong track record over the course of his 11-year MLB career with the Oakland Athletics, Nats and Brewers. He is a two-time All-Star who owns a career record of 127-97 with a 3.69 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings.

Gonzalez is also just two seasons removed from posting 15 wins and a 2.96 ERA for the Nationals in 2017.

While Gonzalez may not be the ace Milwaukee needs, he comes at a relatively reasonable price, and he provides the Brewers with a far more reliable arm than most of the pitchers currently in their rotation.

Craig Kimbrel's free agency may be winding to a close.

According to Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com, the veteran relief pitcher is "moving 'closer' to a decision on where he will sign his next contract, one source said Monday, but the situation remains sufficiently fluid that there is no clear favorite to sign the seven-time All-Star closer."

Morosi also noted that the Milwaukee Brewers have spoken with Kimbrel's agent in recent weeks, though "Milwaukee's need for Kimbrel is tied to the performance and durability of reliever Jeremy Jeffress, who has yet to pitch in the Majors this season because of weakness in his right (throwing) shoulder."

According to that report, the Atlanta Braves are also monitoring the Kimbrel market. 

The cost will be the question for any potential suitors. Ken Rosenthal of MLB.com (h/t Morosi) reported that Kimbrel was seeking a deal in the Wade Davis (three years, $52 million) and Zach Britton (three years, $39 million) range. That's no small chunk of change for a closer, though it's hardly unrealistic for a player of Kimbrel's level.

The 30-year-old Kimbrel has produced at an elite level in his career, with 333 saves in 367 opportunities. The seven-time All-Star and 2018 World Series champion finished last season with a 5-1 record, recording 42 saves in 47 opportunities. He posted a 2.74 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 96 strikeouts in 62.1 innings. 

There are a number of contending teams that could use an upgrade like Kimbrel at the back end of their bullpen, making his continued free agency a surprise. And he's going to miss time even when he does sign, cutting his season short. But with plenty of bullpens around baseball struggling, Kimbrel should find a home soon.

Maybe Christian Yelich will just keep hitting forever after all.

The Milwaukee Brewers actually managed to win Wednesday without much help from Yelich, who went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks in their 1-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

Otherwise, the reigning National League MVP's fingerprints are all over Milwaukee's 6-1 start to 2019.

Yelich has nine hits in his first 24 at-bats, including four home runs in the Brewers' opening four-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park. He also has three doubles, one of which was a walk-off job that clinched a victory in the aforementioned series.

The Major League Baseball season is only a week old, so warnings about small sample sizes go without saying. Yet nobody should be surprised to see Yelich with a .375/.531/1.000 batting line, much less an NL-best 0.8 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs as of Wednesday.

After five seasons with the Miami Marlins, Yelich's first season with the Brewers in 2018 got off to a pretty good start that included an .823 OPS and 11 homers. But in the second half, he transcended from merely pretty good to downright sublime with a 1.219 OPS and 25 homers.

Altogether, it added up to exactly a 1.000 OPS and 36 homers. The 27-year-old was also the National League's top position player in the eyes of both Baseball Reference WAR and FanGraphs WAR.

Yelich's fiery bat boosted the Brewers to 96 wins and the NL Central title, and ultimately turned the NL MVP race from a tossup into a laugher. He received 29 of 30 first-place votes to become Milwaukee's first MVP since Ryan Braun in 2011.

If anyone is surprised by what Yelich is doing, it's probably for reasons that the man himself acknowledged when he showed up to spring training in February:

Christian Yelich reported to camp today to begin his MVP defense. “A lot of people’s favorite words in baseball now are ‘regression’ and ‘coming back to the mean’ or whatever you want to say. We’ll see, you know? I hope that’s not the case. I don’t plan on it being the case.” pic.twitter.com/zhVRYFzGiY

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) February 15, 2019

He was right. Everyone's an armchair general manager, and it is the responsibility of every armchair GM to treat anything that (figuratively) comes out of left field as a possible fluke.

With this case, specifically, it was perfectly reasonable not to expect Yelich to continue hitting like peak Barry Bonds for a full season. Before 2018, his offensive pinnacle was a 2016 campaign in which—under Bonds' tutelage, oddly enough—he finished with an .859 OPS and 21 homers.

Accordingly, projection systems at FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus anticipated Yelich's offensive output for 2019 would fall closer to those marks than to what he did in 2018:

• ZiPS: .901 OPS and 28 HR
• Steamer: .902 OPS and 27 HR
• PECOTA: .853 OPS and 26 HR

Further, as Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer covered, regression just comes with the territory for reigning MVP hitters. Perhaps they're cursed. More likely, baseball is just that hard.

Yelich always had the potential to be an outlier, however, in large part because his 2018 outburst was simply the culmination of tapping into talent that had always been there.

One of the things that held him back in Miami was Marlins Park, which is big enough to double as a landing strip for jumbo jets. Yelich's home/road splits between 2013 and 2017 very much fit the narrative that it's one of the worst places to hit for power:

• Home: .396 SLUG% and 18 HR
• Road: .465 SLUG% and 41 HR

If anything, Yelich's road figures undersold what kind of power he was packing. He averaged 95.4 mph exit velocity on his fly balls and line drives between 2015 and 2017, which ranked 12th among all hitters who hit at least 500 such balls.

Yelich also featured other hallmarks of a great hitting talent. He balanced good patience and strike zone discipline (10.7 BB%) with a decent ability to put the ball in play (20.6 K%). He also had a completely shift-proof spray pattern punctuated by a modest 32.2 percent pull rate. Hence how he could hit .290 with a .369 on-base percentage.

Still, Yelich didn't do himself any favors with his frustrating tendency to hit the ball on the ground. Between 2013 and 2017, his 59.1 ground-ball percentage was second to only Nori Aoki. If he were ever going to make his offensive potential his offensive reality, that had to change.

Perhaps because Yelich was emboldened by the comparatively friendly slugging environment of Miller Park, change indeed came in 2018. He knocked his GB% down to 51.8 overall, and he was rocking a 45.1 GB% by the final two months of the season. At long last, his batted balls were finally free to fly.

Much to his credit, Yelich didn't have to sacrifice any of his other talents to maximize his new power-friendly approach. Amid his hot second half, he kept walking (11.9 BB%), putting the ball in play (17.7 K%) and using the whole field.

What it all led to was the real deal, as Statcast's contact-quality-based expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) metric confirmed. Yelich's .473 second-half xwOBA was a whopping 55 points better than the runner-up.

Rather than merely keeping all this up in 2019, Yelich is pushing all the envelopes. He's walked twice as often as he's struck out, and his GB% is all the way down to 25.0 with hard-hit balls to all parts of the yard. His .509 xwOBA isn't the best of the early going, but 10th place will do for now.

Now's a good point to finally mention that Yelich isn't just useful within the confines of the batter's box. With Keon Broxton out of town, Yelich might be the fastest runner on the Brewers. He's also a former Gold Glove outfielder whose defensive metrics are consistently above average.

A guy like this has a 10-WAR season in him somewhere, and every indication is that Yelich's is going to come this year. If it does, he'll be breathing the same rarefied air that only American League superstars Mike Trout and Mookie Betts have breathed within the last three seasons.

This is, of course, unless opposing pitchers come up with something anything that might put out the fire in Yelich's bat. But since it's evident nobody could come up with a good scouting report over the winter for how to approach him, the only thing left to do is wish them good luck with that.

                           

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.

Christian Yelich closed the 2018 regular season on a tear, and the Milwaukee Brewers star continues to torch opposing pitching to open the 2019 campaign.

Yelich homered off St. Louis Cardinals starter Michael Wacha in the bottom of the first inning Sunday, giving him four home runs already in the new season.

YELICH WITH THE BOMB!!@ChristianYelich is now the 6th player in MLB history with a HR in each of his team's 1st 4 games of the season 😮

(via @fswisconsin) pic.twitter.com/RCcUDlwnZS

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 31, 2019

According to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, he joins Mark McGwire, Willie Mays, Nelson Cruz, Chris Davis and Trevor Story as the only players with four home runs in his team's first four games.

Yelich led all National League position players in WAR last year (7.6), per FanGraphs, en route to winning the NL Most Valuable Player Award. The 27-year-old isn't resting on his laurels in his quest to become the first player since Miguel Cabrera in 2013 to earn back-to-back MVPs.

The Milwaukee Brewers are reportedly interested in adding a World Series champion and seven-time All-Star to their bullpen for the 2019 season.  

On Tuesday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the reigning National League Central champions had discussions with free-agent closer Craig Kimbrel.

Signing Kimbrel would give the Brewers insurance while Jeremy Jeffress' status is still up in the air:

#Brewers GM David Stearns talks about expectations for return of Jeremy Jeffress to active status. pic.twitter.com/drIiLu5pnY

— Tom (@Haudricourt) March 19, 2019

Kimbrel wasted little time making an impact at the start of his MLB career. En route to becoming the 2011 National League Rookie of the Year for the Atlanta Braves, he posted a 2.10 ERA and 1.04 WHIP with 46 saves and 127 strikeouts in 77 innings. He has saved 31 or more games eight years in a row, surpassing 40 five times in that span and reaching 50 in 2013.

It's a testament to his longstanding brilliance (1.91 ERA and 0.92 WHIP throughout his career) that his 2018 campaign with the Boston Red Sox was a slight step in the wrong direction. He still finished with a 2.74 ERA and 1.00 WHIP while converting 42 of his 47 save opportunities.

The playoffs were a different story, though. Kimbrel posted a 5.91 ERA in nine appearances. He didn't blow a save on the path to a World Series title, but Red Sox fans endured uneasy adventures every time he entered the game.

Perhaps lingering memories of his postseason struggles have caused his market to slow this offseason, but Kimbrel is still just 30 years old and one of his generation's most dominant closers.

With Josh Hader as the anchor, the Brewers bullpen was a strength in 2018 and finished with the fifth-best ERA in the league. The combination of the left-handed Hader and right-handed Kimbrel at the back end of the 2019 bullpen would be even more daunting for opponents.