Brewers: 3 “X” Factor Offensive Players For Remainder Of 2021 Season

The 2021 Milwaukee Brewers have been lead by a dominant pitching staff.  Both the starting staff and bullpen pitchers have played a huge role in the teams success this year.

Despite the great team record, the offense has been rather inconsistent this year.  Willy Adames has played like a MVP candidate at times since arriving in Milwaukee and Avisail Garcia has provided the most production over the course of the season.

We’ve seen in years previous that it may only take one player to “get hot” and carry the team.  In 2018 it was Christian Yelich and as a result he won the NL MVP award.

In this article we are going to take a look at three X-factor offensive players for the Brewers for the remainder of the 2021 season.

1) Eduardo Escobar

Escobar was acquired primarily for his offensive fire power. As a member of the Diamondbacks the first time All-Star slugged 22 home runs and drove in 65 runs. He has a career .435 slugging percentage and excels at hitting extra base hits.

Now a Brewer, he joins the team as the new club leader in home runs and will bat consistently in the middle of the order. If he is able to replicate what he had been doing all season with Arizona than he is going to make a huge impact on this team.

2) Lorenzo Cain

After opting out of the 2020 season, Lorenzo Cain has not had an ideal return in 2021. He has spent two trips in the IL with the second stint lasting nearly two months, including the rehab assignment.  Since returning to the Brewers on July 27th, Cain has collected eight hits in five games.

Cain formerly was the team’s leadoff hitter, which is a role that now belongs to Kolton Wong. Even though there is no chance that Cain returns to this role, he still can make an impact at the bottom of the order. Having Cain getting on base in front of hitters such as Rowdy Tellez or Luis Urias and being able to utilize his speed/baserunning is one way for the bottom 1/3 of the lineup to generate runs.

3) Christian Yelich

Out of all the offensive players, having Christian Yelich performing near his peak is the most valuable. At his best, Yelich has the ability to hit for average, power, and steal bases. He was a member of the 40 home run and 30 stolen base club in 2019 while also having a batting average of .329.

Unfortunately, for the second season in a row, Yelich has not looked the same since a fractured knee cap ended his 2019 season. This season low back issues sidelined him for a majority of the first half and most recently he landed on the COVID-19 IL.  At this point his final season numbers will not look pretty, but should he get hot at the right time that may be all the Brewers need this year.

There currently is less than 60 games to go in the regular season.  The Brewers are in a good position from a standing perspective, but it sure would be nice for a few players to play consistently well down the stretch as the team looks ahead to the post season.