Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Christian Yelich is experiencing his best season in quite some time. Of course, he is not putting up the MVP numbers he did in 2018-19 when he averaged .327/.417/.631, 40 home runs, and 104 RBI per season. In those years, he won one NL MVP, finished second for another, and made two All-Star teams.
On the other hand, Yelich is not hitting as poorly as he did from 2020-2022 when he averaged .243/.358/.388, 12 home runs, and 43 RBI per game. Even in those years, though, Yelich continued to do one thing extremely well, and now he is set to join four former MVP’s (two of which are in the Hall of Fame) as the only players in the past 40 years to have an on-base percentage of .350 or better in each of their first 11 season.
Milwaukee Brewers Leadoff Hitter Christian Yelich Gets on Base
Even when Yelich’s bat disappeared, he still got on base at an effective rate. In fact, for his career, Yelich has never had a season with an on-base percentage lower than .355:
- 2013- .370
- 2014- .362
- 2015- .366
- 2016- .376
- 2017- .369
- 2018- .402
- 2019- .429
- 2020- .356
- 2021- .362
- 2022- .355
- 2023- .361
Through 11 seasons (including this one), Yelich has a career on-base percentage of .376. Only Albert Pujols, Frank Thomas, Joe Mauer, and Jeff Bagwell have had a .350+ on-base percentage in each of their first 11 seasons. Below is their career on-base percentage through their first 11 seasons:
- Pujols- .421
- Thomas- .440
- Mauer- .401
- Bagwell- .415
Obviously, there is a huge gap between those averages and Yelich’s. It just goes to show how great of players they were.
However, that does not diminish what Yelich has done and is still doing. Even in the worst years of his career, he was still able to get one base at least 35% of the time.
So far this season, Yelich is hitting .266/.361/.423 with nine home runs and 30 RBI. Those numbers are almost exactly like the ones he put up in Miami before the Brewers traded for him. This may be his version of “back,” with 2018 and 2019 being weird (but awesome) anomalies in his career.
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