Milwaukee Brewers: 2 Players Who Are Turning Things Around, 1 Who Isn't

As we all know, the MLB season is a marathon, not a sprint. Players go through ups and downs as the season progresses. This is just as true for the Milwaukee Brewers as any other teams.

Lately, the Brewers have been battling through a tough stretch of 17 games in 17 days that started with a 10-game road trip and also featured 10 straight games against NL Central opponents going into the All-Star break. Amazingly, they are 10-6 heading into the final game of this stretch.

To have that type of success, it took some players turning things around at a crucial time and the Brewers had two players who did just that. Meanwhile, the stretch could have gone even better if certain players could have broken out of their struggles and one key player definitely fell into that category as well.

Here are two Brewers players who are turning things around lately and one player who is not.

Brewers player who is turning things around: SS Willy Adames

Outside of the resurgence of outfielder Christian Yelich and a mostly consistent performance by newcomer William Contreras, many of the players who were supposed to be key offensive performers have struggled to produce in 2023. One of the biggest examples of this is shortstop Willy Adames.

After being arguably the most valuable player on the Brewers offense after being acquired in May of 2021, Adames mostly saw his numbers drop in 2022. That trend got even worse in 2023 as the Milwaukee offense as a whole started bottoming out.

The months of May and June were not pretty for Adames. In 44 games played in those two months, the 27-year-old slashed just .175/.249/.331 with five doubles, seven homers, and just a 7.5% walk rate. In that time, his season OBP dropped below .300 and his season batting average dropped below .200.

But after reaching a hitless streak toward the end of June that reached more than 20 at bats, the final day of the month offered a glimmer of hope. Adames went 1-for-3 with a double and and RBI that day and ever since, he has been on an absolute tear.

Over his last nine games, Adames has looked like the version fans first knew and loved. He is slashing .316/.349/.763 (that's a 1.112 OPS) with 9 of his 12 hits going for extra bases (five doubles and four homers) while also driving in 12 runs. He has reached base safely in all nine of those games and has hits in eight of them.

Not so coincidentally, the Brewers offense has finally spiked as Adames has gotten not. In their last nine games, Milwaukee has scored 6.56 runs per game, bringing their season average back up to 4.26. If Adames can keep this up after the All-Star break, it will bode very well for the team's playoff chances.

Brewers player who is turning things around: SP Corbin Burnes

Over the last few years, one thing that Brewers fans could always count on was team rotation ace Corbin Burnes dominating when it was his turn to start. So it's been a little strange in 2023 to see him struggle a bit.

Granted, it's not as though his numbers were particularly bad to start the season. Through his first 13 starts, Burnes was sitting on a 3.36 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and .199 batting average against. But, then came an uncharacteristic rough patch over his next three starts.

In his final three starts of June, Burnes gave up 14 earned runs over 16.2 innings (7.56 ERA) while allowing batters to hit a whopping .319 with a .919 OPS. He struck out just three batters each in two of those starts and the Brewers lost two out of those three games. He also lasted less than six innings in two of the three outings and saw his season ERA jump to 4.10.

Things have looked much better in July, however. In two starts this month, Burnes has lasted seven and six innings, given up just two earned runs in each game, and struck out a combined 13 batters. He also gave up just four combined hits and saw his season ERA drop back below 4.00 on the season (3.94).

While his season hasn't fully gone as plan, Burnes is still clearly regarded as one of the top pitchers in the league, which was proven when he was selected as an All-Star replacement yesterday. Perhaps that, plus his strong couple of recent outings lead to a big second half of the season for the former NL Cy Young winner.