Brewers Name Christian Yelich First Team Captain

[Steve Drumwright]

For the first time in Milwaukee Brewers history, they have a team captain.

The Brewers on Saturday announced that Christian Yelich would be their captain and wear a C on the front of his uniform.

Since joining the Brewers via a trade from the Miami Marlins before the 2018 season, the 34-year-old has produced on and off the field. Early on, it was a lot on the field, becoming the fourth player (fifth time) in Brewers history to win an MVP, taking the NL honor in his debut season with the Crew. Yelich followed that up with a better 2019, but a fractured kneecap in August sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

 

 

 

 

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That would be the first of a handful of injuries, mainly dealing with his back, that Yelich dealt with, with his offensive production not necessarily matching the nine-year, $215 million contract he signed in 2020.

But he made up for whatever downswing in his stats with his leadership. Yelich has been a three-time All-Star with the Brewers, a three-time NL Silver Slugger and a two-time NL batting champion during his nine seasons in Milwaukee. He won an NL Gold Glove with the Marlins.

The announcement was made to the team during a meeting before Saturday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Yelich also made sure to have the approval of Brewers legend Robin Yount, the Hall of Famer and two-time AL MVP.

 

 

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[trwi7]

Honestly kind of embarrassing.

[liveforoctober]

This feels strategy based more than merit based to me. I don't mean that negatively.

[MrTPlush]

38 minutes ago, trwi7 said:

Honestly kind of embarrassing.

How long did it take Murphy to convince Yelich to agree to this? 
 

This is cringe. 

[young guns]

Well I guess this means he's not getting benched in the playoffs.

[Frisbee Slider]

I actually interpret this as a lifetime achievement award intended to signal his importance to the team, even if he gets fewer AB

[trwi7]

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

I actually interpret this as a lifetime achievement award intended to signal his importance to the team, even if he gets fewer AB

But what is the achievement?  His career OPS as a Brewer is just slightly higher than Geoff Jenkins.  To do this at the end of the year when he's been terrible this year is embarrassing.  There's no reason to do it.

[owbc]

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

I actually interpret this as a lifetime achievement award intended to signal his importance to the team, even if he gets fewer AB

Yeah I don’t question Murph’s clubhouse decisions. 

[owbc]

1 minute ago, trwi7 said:

But what is the achievement?  His career OPS as a Brewer is just slightly higher than Geoff Jenkins.  To do this at the end of the year when he's been terrible this year is embarrassing.  There's no reason to do it.

Captain and MVP are completely different roles. 

[trwi7]

7 minutes ago, owbc said:

Captain and MVP are completely different roles. 

What is the role of the captain?  We're only the third MLB team to have one so obviously it can't be that important of a role if 27 teams manage to go without one.

[BCF]

It’s more so his role in leadership in the clubhouse and helping the younger players rather than his performance on the field 

There was stories the other month about Yelich personally working with Turang on the field hours after the game ending throwing him BP etc 

[BCF]

Murphy talked about it in his press conference and he basically said it was to recognize Yelich for helping enforce the standards in the locker room and holding people accountability as well as comforting the guys 

https://x.com/FSRWI/status/2104035939232448548/mediaViewer?currentTweet=2104035939232448548&currentTweetUser=FSRWI

[thebruce44]

Hasn't Yelich even been part of the conversations when they have sent prospects back to AAA?

I don't think this is cringe, I think its just recognizing his role as a leader and I'm okay with the leader of a team not being the best player.

[liveforoctober]

Think about how Murphy has talked when asked about Yelich all year. It's rarely about statistics or performance or mechanics or anything on the field... it is almost ALWAYS about leadership and setting an example and what he means to the clubhouse.

What Murphy is best at is knowing his players and which buttons each one responds to.

Yelich is going to play in the post season. If we get any kind of old Yeli we just might do the darn thing. At this point it isn't going to be a swing change in the next week that brings the old Yelich back ... but do something like this that means so much to the guy and MAYBE it triggers something. It's not absurd to say if Yelich goes on a 4 week heater right now he could have a statue built when he is all done someday.

Cringe is a bit dramatic IMO. Arbitrary might be a better word. But if the worst case scenario is you do something meaningful to one of your franchise's all time greats and best case scenario is your morph him into a game changing bat again ... what is this hurting? 

[AdvantageSchneider]

It seems like some of the people that post here aren't even Brewer fans.

 

[BCF]

48 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

Think about how Murphy has talked when asked about Yelich all year. It's rarely about statistics or performance or mechanics or anything on the field... it is almost ALWAYS about leadership and setting an example and what he means to the clubhouse.

What Murphy is best at is knowing his players and which buttons each one responds to.

Yelich is going to play in the post season. If we get any kind of old Yeli we just might do the darn thing. At this point it isn't going to be a swing change in the next week that brings the old Yelich back ... but do something like this that means so much to the guy and MAYBE it triggers something. It's not absurd to say if Yelich goes on a 4 week heater right now he could have a statue built when he is all done someday.

Cringe is a bit dramatic IMO. Arbitrary might be a better word. But if the worst case scenario is you do something meaningful to one of your franchise's all time greats and best case scenario is your morph him into a game changing bat again ... what is this hurting? 

Murphy always used to talk big about Wily Adames leadership in the clubhouse and he was someone all the younger guys looked up to. Seems like Yelich has filled that role the last few years as he got older and that can be extremely valuable especially to a younger team full of rookies 

[SF70]

If we can’t recognize Yelich for being the consummate team player and leader then whatever. 

It’s NOT HIS FAULT that injuries have hurt his career performance and it’s a credit to him that he’s risen above it to do whatever he can to help his teammates excel.

Just an eloquent talk he gave at the press conference. Tremendous person and deserves recognition for his helping his teammates improve, not being denigrated by some for no good reason. Ridiculous.

[Frisbee Slider]

7 hours ago, trwi7 said:

But what is the achievement?  His career OPS as a Brewer is just slightly higher than Geoff Jenkins.  To do this at the end of the year when he's been terrible this year is embarrassing.  There's no reason to do it.

Won the MVP (probably should have been twice. 

Only Braun and Fielder have higher career OPS+ than Yelich while in Milwaukee (min: 3,500 PA) source

Yelich has career 130 OPS+ and Jenkins 116. When Jenkins was putting up .800 and .900 OPS, so was Scott Podsednik and John Vanderwal. Different eras.

[Frisbee Slider]

I also want to say Yelich is slightly above replacement level this season and Trea Turner is below replacement level and has seven more years remaining on his contract.

Yelich has two years remaining.

Signing aging veterans to long term deals is almost always painful. We should remember that every off season.

[MrTPlush]

I went down the rabbit hole of captains in MLB. There are currently three in baseball:

Royals - Salvador Perez

Yankees - Aaron Judge

Brewers - Christian Yelich

Babe Ruth was a Yankees captain for five days before the title was stripped from him for getting ejected and having an altercation with a fan. 

[Frisbee Slider]

52 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

I went down the rabbit hole of captains in MLB. There are currently three in baseball:

Royals - Salvador Perez

Yankees - Aaron Judge

Brewers - Christian Yelich

Babe Ruth was a Yankees captain for five days before the title was stripped from him for getting ejected and having an altercation with a fan. 

Salvador Perez has barely been replacement level 3 of the past 4 seasons.

Embarrassing.

[formerlybis]

8 hours ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

It seems like some of the people that post here aren't even Brewer fans.

 

Seconded.

The concept of “team captain” also seems to be lost on some. Every good team I’ve ever been on - athletic or otherwise - has had someone that modeled the behavior that reflected the values of the organization (who’s not the “boss”). 

[dlk9s]

14 hours ago, trwi7 said:

Honestly kind of embarrassing.

Murphy told Yelich of his captaincy with a letter from Uke.

[wildcat83]

Team captain has nothing to do with performance on the field this year.  He’s checked the boxes for on field achievements throughout his career and by all accounts he is a tremendous leader in the locker room.  If people are complaining about this they are just looking for something to complain about.  I get the negativity in the IGT’s as emotional reactions to live games, but the overall negativity on this board is crazy right now in the midst of the best season the Brewers have ever produced.

[MrTPlush]

29 minutes ago, wildcat83 said:

Team captain has nothing to do with performance on the field this year.  He’s checked the boxes for on field achievements throughout his career and by all accounts he is a tremendous leader in the locker room.  If people are complaining about this they are just looking for something to complain about.  I get the negativity in the IGT’s as emotional reactions to live games, but the overall negativity on this board is crazy right now in the midst of the best season the Brewers have ever produced.

It isn’t that deep. People can give their opinion regardless of team success without it divulging into some deep philosophical analysis of their true fandom.

People can think this is dumb and also not care at the same time. No one is going to care tomorrow whether they had a positive/negative reaction to the news.