The Milwaukee Brewers rarely give out long-term contracts. Typically, they draft/sign and develop their own prospects and hold onto them until a year or so before they hit free agency. They then trade them away for more prospects.
Of course, they do sign free agents every offseason. However, these deals are typically guaranteed for one year and include a club, player, or mutual option. These options rarely get picked up by either the Brewers or the player, though Rhys Hoskins did exercise his player option for 2025 to return to Milwaukee next season.
There have been a few instances, however, that Milwaukee has given out long-term contracts to certain players.
These, of course, were given to Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich, and Jackson Chourio.
The Milwaukee Brewers Have a lot of Money Tied Up in Christian Yelich and Jackson Chourio
Back in May of 2008, Milwaukee signed Braun to a seven-year $45 million contract. Then, in 2011, they gave him a five-year $105 million contract extension in 2011 that ensured he would remain tied to the Brewers through the 2020 season.
Braun, of course, spent his entire 13-year career with Milwaukee and is the franchise leader in home runs (352). He also ranks third behind Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Paul Molitor in runs scored (1,080). His .296 career batting average ranks fifth in Brewers history.
After Yelich won the National League MVP Award in his first season with the Brewers in 2018, Milwaukee inked him to a seven-year $188.5 million contract. At the time, it looked like a great deal as he had just hit .326/.402/.598 with 36 home runs and 110 RBI and won the NL MVP Award.
Yelich followed that up with hitting .329/.429/.671 with 44 home runs and 97 RBI while stealing 30 bases in 2019. Unfortunately, he shattered his knee cap on a foul ball and missed the final month of the season.
And it took him a long time to come back to form.
Before last season began, the Brewers signed their top prospect, Chourio, to an eight-year $82 million contract. The deal includes two team options that could make it a 10-year deal worth $132 million.
Chourio hit .275/.327/.464 with 21 home runs, 79 RBI, and 22 stolen bases as a rookie in 2024.
Milwaukee Brewers Star Christian Yelich’s Contract Named on of the Worst in MLB
As mentioned previously, it took a long time for Yelich to get back to even a shadow of the player he was in 2018-2019 following his injury.
For this reason, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report included Yelich’s contract in his list of the 10 worst contracts in baseball, ranking it eighth:
“His production cratered during the shortened 2020 season, and he tallied just 4.3 WAR over the first three seasons of that shiny new contract, but he has returned to being an impact offensive player the last two years.
“The 32-year-old was an All-Star this past season for the first time since 2019, hitting .315/.406/.504 for a 151 OPS+ in 315 plate appearances before undergoing season-ending back surgery in August.
“For a team like the Brewers on a tight budget, having Yelich account for more than 30 percent of their $70.8 million payroll in 2024 was simply too big of a piece of the pie. That will continue to be the case in the coming years.”
Last season, Yelich again missed significant time due to injury. His year was cut short to 73 games due to back surgery. However, the former MVP hit .315/.406/.504 with 11 home runs, 42 RBI, and 21 stolen bases before he got hurt.
He also was voted as an All-Star starter for the first time in his career.
If his back is truly healed, hopefully he can continue to hit like he did in 2024 and his contract can come off lists like this.
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