Does Christian Yelich have any shot at making the Hall of Fame?

Christian Yelich has had an excellent career, but when discussions of future Hall of Famers currently playing come up, you rarely hear his name. It’s true that Yelich’s Hall of Fame chances are probably remote, but his career numbers are likely going to be a bit better than most people realize. He’s not far away from being someone who needs to be taken seriously as a candidate. Is there a world in which Yelich uses his remaining years to build a legitimate Hall of Fame case?

The career so far

Though not many people discussed it at the time, Yelich was definitely on track to be a serious Hall candidate after his back-to-back MVP-caliber seasons in 2018-19. Just 27 at the time, Yelich already had over 1,000 hits, a good balance of power and speed (culminating in his 44-home run, 30-stolen-base season in ’19), an MVP, and a second-place MVP finish, and over 32 career WAR. He’d also earned three Silver Sluggers and a Gold Glove.

Since then, things haven’t gone nearly as well. Injuries, the pandemic, and sometimes bafflingly inconsistent play have plagued him over the last five seasons. After three straight subpar years following 2019, Yelich had in 2023 a solid season that resembled those he’d had in Miami before he was traded to the Brewers. In 2024, for the first time in years, Yelich flashed the offensive form that had made him a superstar; he started the All-Star Game, was in the thick of the race for a batting title, and had the highest OPS+ (153) of his career outside of his 2018-19 peak. But a nagging back injury reared its head once more, and Yelich played only three games after the All-Star break before undergoing back surgery that ended his season.

2025 started poorly, and for the first two months of the season, he looked so bad that fans were giving up on ever again getting real quality out of Yelich, who is the Brewers’ highest-paid player and whose contract is guaranteed through 2028. But a switch clicked in late May, and he has lately looked, again, like a star. How long that lasts remains to be seen.

To this point in his career, Yelich has collected 1,645 hits, 311 doubles, 217 home runs, and 215 stolen bases at a sparkling 85% success rate; that’s currently the third-best stolen base percentage in baseball history for a player with at least 250 attempts, behind only Carlos Beltrán and Trea Turner.

Who can we compare him to?

For a modern comparison, Yelich can be compared to a player familiar to Brewers fans: Andrew McCutchen.

Cutch, like Yelich, was one of the best players in the league in his late 20s. He won an MVP and finished in the top five on three other occasions. Through his age-28 season, McCutchen looked like he was headed to Cooperstown.

But, like Yelich, things didn’t go smoothly after his peak. Cutch had a bizarrely terrible season in 2016, and after a decent year in 2017, he started a journeyman phase of his career in which he served as a veteran bat for several teams (including Milwaukee). He’s basically always been a useful hitter (and remains one, at age 38), but the multi-tool player who shone so brightly for Pittsburgh in the early 2010s was gone.

McCutchen has reached some major statistical milestones that Yelich hasn’t reached—he’s well over 2,000 hits, 400 doubles, 300 homers, 1,000 RBI, and 200 steals. But Yelich should reach those numbers if he can manage to stay healthy over the next several years. That’s a big if, of course.

But McCutchen, like Yelich, probably isn’t quite a Hall of Famer. He’s going to get at least some consideration, and his career counting stats will be solid, but it’s the advanced numbers—his WAR, which likely won’t move much past 50, if at all—that will likely keep him out of Cooperstown.

As far as players already in the Hall, there aren’t many that compare to McCutchen and Yelich. The only non-Negro League outfielders who played in the major leagues after integration who have less than 50 career WAR are Ralph Kiner, Jim Rice, Lou Brock, Tony Oliva, and Dave Parker. Kiner had an odd career—he played only ten years but led the league in homers in seven of them. Brock had over 3,000 hits, was a postseason hero, and was, for a time, the all-time stolen base leader; those accomplishments made him a lock, even if advanced stats really don’t like him.

Rice, Oliva, and Parker are where Yelich and McCutchen need to put some hope if they want to get into the Hall, but none had an easy path. Rice snuck into the Hall on his 15th and final ballot in 2009 (and likely wouldn’t have had stats like WAR been more widespread at the time). Oliva and Parker were both players with major reputations who didn’t get voted in by the writers but made it later via the Veterans Committee.

There are comparisons to be made between Oliva and Parker and Yelich and McCutchen; the common thread is that all four were viewed, for a time, as the best or one of the best players in their league. Oliva’s effective career was short—he really only played eight effective seasons before injuries and age sapped him—and Parker battled a variety of issues after his five-year run as one of the best players in baseball. Parker and Oliva both won multiple batting titles, like Yelich has. Both had multiple top-three MVP finishes, like Yelich and McCutchen (of this group, only Oliva never won MVP, but he finished second twice).

Will he ever make it?

We’re doing a lot of assuming on Yelich’s behalf; to get him even to the McCutchen level of consideration, he’ll need to stay generally healthy and effective at the plate for another four or five years.

If he can do that, he’ll at least give himself a shot. Both Yelich and McCutchen, certainly do have careers that compare to those of Hall of Famers Oliva and Parker. But those guys got into the Hall in a roundabout way mainly because of their reputation with their peers. It seems a near certainty that neither Yelich or McCutchen will get the requisite 75% needed to get inducted via the writers, and that question of their reputation among peers is likely what will determine their fate. In any case, we likely won’t know for a very long time. But Yelich has put together a career that can at least get him into the conversation, even if it’s a long shot.