Brewers’ former everyday centerfielder just torched the Cubs in opening series

The Milwaukee Brewers took care of business during Opening Weekend, sweeping a hapless Chicago White Sox team en route to a 3-0 start to the season.

The same most certainly cannot be said of the Chicago Cubs. Though they beat up on their favorite punching bag (Miles Mikolas) in the middle of their series with the Washington Nationals, the NL East bottom-feeders shocked the Wrigley Field crowds by taking two of three to open up 2026.

While that feat was a full team effort by the Nats, they undoubtedly had an (unlikely) MVP in the series: former Brewer Joey Wiemer.

Wiemer was never known for his bat in Milwaukee, but he made the Cubs pay dearly over the weekend. Let's take advantage of the small sample size and dig into some truly ludicrous numbers.

Old Brewers friend Joey Wiemer detonates on Cubs in Opening Series, reaches safely in first 10 plate appearances of 2026

Wiemer started two of the three games against the Cubs (naturally, those being the two games the Nationals won), making eight trips to the plate in total. He reached base all eight times, finishing the series with a perfect 1.000/1.000/2.333 slash line. That all adds up to a mind-melding 728 wRC+ and 0.6 fWAR.

Yes, in literally two games, Joey Wiemer was worth more against the Cubs than Nick Mears was all of last season (0.5 fWAR). Like I said, ludicrous.

For good measure, he piloted the Nationals to another improbable victory over the Phillies on March 30, going 2-for-4 with a walk. At least Philadelphia was able to get him out a few times. In last night's game, however, Wiemer's two hits came in his first two at-bats, which made him just the second player in the live ball era (since 1920) to reach safely in 10 consecutive plate appearances to start a season.

This torrid stretch obviously won't continue for Wiemer; he owns a career 84 wRC+ even when factoring in his 2026 stats. His offensive struggles were precisely why he didn't last with the Crew.

Then again, we know he can run hot from time to time. During his rookie season in 2023 with the Brewers, he posted an .848 OPS and 127 wRC+ in June.

Even if he begins to lose steam sooner rather than later, though, he's already helped his old team out massively. The Cubs will be the first to tell you that they should have handily won that series against the Nationals, and though a now-one-game deficit in the division hardly means anything at this point (it's not even April yet), every game matters come September.

As it happens, the Nats and Wiemer will come to town in short order, from April 10-12. Hopefully, the National League's current MVP frontrunner has cooled off by then.