Brewers: Christian Yelich's Numbers are Right At His 2018 MVP Pace

It's not a mirage and it's not a small hot streak anymore, Milwaukee Brewers fans. Christian Yelich has been hot for well over a month now and is showing no signs of easing his foot off the gas anytime soon.

And it was another strong game for Yelich on Monday. In the series opener against the rival Cubs, he went 3-for-4 with a walk collecting two singles and a triple while driving in a run and scoring three of his own. The Brewers needed every bit of that production, too, as they were able to erase an early 6-0 deficit and come back to score eight unanswered for an 8-6 victory.

Brewers fans have been waiting for the Yelich resurgence ever since his production bottomed out following his MVP level 2018 and 2019 seasons. And with every sustained streak, fans, serious or not, have questioned whether the franchise cornerstone was "back," and that includes us here as well.

But for Yelich to be truly "back," it would mean returning to MVP levels. Well, do I have some news for you about the former MVP's current stats.

Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich's numbers are on pace with his 2018 stats through the same amount of games.

On Monday, Yelich played in his 81st game of the 2023 season for the Brewers. In 2018, he reached that mark on June 14th. And man, take a look at how similar a lot of these stats are when you compare the two years.

2018 Christian Yelich: .288 AVG, .361 OBP, .454 SLG, .815 OPS, 15 2B, 2 3B, 11 HR, 43 RBI, 12 SB, 58 R, 23.3% K rate, 45.5% hard hit rate, 121 wRC+

2023 Christian Yelich: .282 AVG, .379 OBP, .452 SLG, .831 OPS, 17 2B, 2 3B, 10 HR, 41 RBI, 22.4% K rate, 54.1% hard hit rate, 126 wRC+

I mean it's crazy how similar some of these numbers are. And on top of that, he's getting on base quite a bit more than five years ago and hitting the ball hard much more (nearly a 10% increase from 2018 to 2023).

Now as impressive as those sets of numbers are, Brewers fans may remember how Yelich went on an absolute tear in the second half of 2018 in order to secure his first and only NL MVP award. To be truly "back," he'd have to do the same this season.

But Yelich's first half of the year has been mighty impressive, not to mention extremely important for this squad. The Brewers find themselves in first place in the NL Central after Monday's win despite a number of injuries and some severe struggles by the offense during long stretches. Imagine where they'd be had Yelich not reached this level again.

There's still a lot of season left to go and anything can happen. But we've seen what can happen when Yelich starts a season this way and it's hard not to get excited thinking we could see the same thing happen again.