2018 was truly a magical year for the Milwaukee Brewers. For the second time in franchise history, Milwaukee made it all the way to the National League Championship Series. While they lost the series in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers, fans remember that Brewers team fondly.
Christian Yelich, of course, was the NL MVP that year after hitting.326/.402/.598 with 36 home runs, 110 RBI, and 22 stolen bases. First baseman Jesus Aguilar had the best season of his career, hitting .274/.352/.539 with 35 home runs and 108 RBI. Additionally, third baseman Travis Shaw hit .241/.345/.480 with 32 home runs and 86 RBI.
As fans may recall, the Brewers also made a huge midseason acquisition that year, trading for Mike Moustakas from the Kansas City Royals. In 54 games with Milwaukee after the trade, he hit .256/.326/.441 with eight home runs and 33 RBI.
Moustakas etched his name into Brewers lore with a walk off single in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game One of the NLDS:
Moustakas hit .364/462/.455 in that series, but only .138/.194/.172 in the NLCS.
He re-signed with the Brewers in 2019 for one year and made the All-Star team, hitting .254/.329/.516 with 35 home runs and 87 RBI that season.
Former Milwaukee Brewers Pitcher Jorge Lopez Has Signed with the Washington Nationals
Moustakas is fondly remembered in Milwaukee, despite only playing for the Brewers for one-and-a-half seasons. In order to get him, though, the team had to part ways with some of their young talent at the time.
Many fans recall that fan-favorite outfielder Brett Phillips was included in the deal. So too was right-handed pitcher Jorge Lopez, the Brewers’ second round pick in the 2011 amateur draft.
Since being traded by Milwaukee, Lopez has bounced around the Majors, playing for six different teams in six years.
He will hope for a little more stability in 2025 as he as agreed to a one-year $3 million contract with the Washington Nationals:
Jorge Lopez gets $3 million plus incentives from the Nationals, per source. @JonHeyman was on it.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) January 11, 2025
Lopez split 2024 with stints with the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs. He was 2-3 with a 3.76 ERA for the Mets, but 1-1 with a 2.03 ERA with the Cubs. He finished the season with a 2.98 ERA, just the second time in his career he had a sub-3.00 ERA for a year.
The other instance came in 2022 when he made his first and only career All-Star team. He started out that season with the Baltimore Orioles and went 4-6 with a 1.68 ERA and 19 saves in 44 games. He was traded ahead of the MLB deadline, though, to the Minnesota Twins, with whom he was 0-1 with a 4.37 ERA and four saves.
He finished that season with a 2.54 ERA between the two teams.
Jorge Lopez with the Milwaukee Brewers
Lopez made his Major League debut for the Brewers in 2015. He started two games for the Major League club that year, going 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA.
He did not appear in the Majors again until 2017, when he pitched in one game for Milwaukee, giving up four hits and a run in two innings of relief.
One of the reasons he was intriguing to the Royals ahead of the 2018 Moustakas trade was because, at the time, Lopez was 0-1 with a 2.75 ERA in 10 games with the Brewers that season.
After the trade, though, he was 2-4 with a dismal 6.35 ERA in seven games (all starts) for Kansas City.
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