Christian Yelich wins NL Player of the Week

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich has had a confusing start to the 2025 regular season. While the Brewers are surprisingly a top-10 offense in baseball and currently riding a seven-game winning streak, Yelich underperformed during the first few weeks prior to his recent turnaround. After an 0-for-5 effort on May 21, Yelich was hitting .184 with an OPS of .600. That's alarming, to say the least, for a player on a contract worth $188.5 million that's making $24 million this season.

Since then, Yelich has hit five home runs, he's raised his batting average almost 50 points, and his OPS has skyrocketed. At the start of June, Yelich had a slashline of .233/.314/.423. That improvement is largely thanks to Yelich's impressive performance over the past week, which led to him winning an award that he hadn't won since his 2019 near-MVP season.

Christian Yelich wins first NL Player of the Week Award since 2019

Throughout the 2018-19 seasons, Yelich won five NL Player of the Week Awards, including three during the second half of the 2018 season. While he certainly put together some strong weeks in the last few seasons, it wasn't enough to take home the elusive award. Now, that slump is over as Yelich earns the NL Player of the Week Award for the week of May 26-June 1.

Yelich was more than deserving of the honor. He posted a ridiculous slash line of .500/.545/.1000 with five home runs and nine RBI. That includes a walk-off grand slam against the Boston Red Sox last Tuesday and a multi-home run game on Friday. Despite an injury scare, Yelich is back in the lineup Monday night against the Cincinnati Reds, playing at Great American Ball Park, where he has done a considerable amount of damage throughout his career.

This seems like a clear inflection point for the Brewers superstar, who was off to a slow start in 2025. However, slow starts aren't out of the ordinary for Yelich, and looking back on his first few months in recent seasons could offer some encouragement about what he has in store for the rest of the season.

How Yelich's start in 2025 compares to recent seasons

Yelich started red-hot in 2024. He missed some time due to injury and only played in 31 games over the first two months of the season, but his production looked like his old MVP self. On June 1, 2024, Yelich was batting .325 with an OPS of .970. He had six home runs, 27 RBIs, and eight stolen bases in 117 at-bats. But coming out of the gates hot like that is actually somewhat unusual for Yelich. Normally, the first few months are slower, and he heats up with the weather.

In 2023, Yelich was hitting .252 with an OPS of .742 on June 1. He played in 52 games with seven home runs, 24 RBIs, and 12 stolen bases. In 2022, he had a .234 batting average and .708 OPS with only five home runs on June 1.

This year's numbers are right on track with 2023. That's the easiest comparison to make. Yelich's 2025 OPS is within .005 of where he was that season, and he only has 24 more at-bats this year. The biggest difference is the power production. 12 home runs before June 1 is almost double the total Yelich had in 2023, despite having a similar OPS. 39 RBIs is a significant jump from 24 RBIs.

That should be encouraging for Brewers fans who are hoping Yelich will continue riding his hot streak. After June 1 in 2023, Yelich had an OPS of .858 in 359 at-bats. He hit 12 home runs, drove in 52 runs, and stole 16 bases over that stretch.

If the next 90 games of Christian Yelich look similar to that, he's going to have a really big year. That would have Yelich flirting with a 25-25 season and 100+ RBIs. The Brewers are already looking like a well-built lineup with Yelich having middling production, but if he keeps hitting, Milwaukee will keep winning. It's not a coincidence that when Yelich got hot, the Crew started winning.