Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios for the Brewers at Designated Hitter

The Roster Situation
Christian Yelich appears lined up to take most of the at-bats at designated hitter in 2025, primarily due to the presence of Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, and Sal Frelick as the main starters in the outfield, with Blake Perkins as the fourth outfielder when he returns from injury.

Yelich rotated with Gary Sánchez, Rhys Hoskins, and William Contreras (among others) at designated hitter in 2024. This year, he may be the primary option, which will help him after he lost a large chunk of 2024 to back issues. When he was healthy, Yelich was at his best form since 2019, but he only played 79 games.

Hoskins and Contreras will each see time at DH, too, and Tyler Black could yet win a place in that mix later in the season. Of course, it's likely that other players (like Frelick or Brice Turang) could get a game or two at DH to give them a break (as was the case in 2023 and 2024), but much of their value is in their defense, so the team will lean as heavily as health allows on Yelich.

The Best-Case Scenario: Christian Yelich Gets 150 Starts At DH
Let’s put it this way: Yelich may prefer to be out in the field, but the best-case scenario for the Brewers is to get 150 or more starts from Yelich at designated hitter. This would mean two things:

1. Yelich is healthy and hitting at a similar clip to 2024, if not better. A healthy Yelich playing twice as many games as he played in 2024 would be a huge assist for the 2025 Brewers in replacing some of the production lost when Willy Adames went to San Francisco.
2. The Brewers have significant stability across the lineup. In the outfield, Chourio, Mitchell, Frelick, Perkins, and maybe Black would be getting the playing time at the three spots in various combinations, producing offensively and helping the run prevention work out. Yelich will only be close to a full-time DH if he's not needed in the outfield, which would mean good health from Mitchell and others. This would also mean more rest (or maybe some games at first base) for William Contreras, keeping him fresher.

The Worst-Case Scenario: DH Is A Revolving Door For Yet Another Season
In 2024, 17 different players appeared as the DH for Milwaukee. Six of them were at the position for 10 games or more. It was, to put it nicely, the sign of a somewhat unstable lineup, mostly due to injuries suffered by players like Yelich, Mitchell, Sánchez, Hoskins, and Oliver Dunn, as well as the Brewers’ refusal to give Tyler Black an extended look in MLB after Yelich was lost for the season.

If designated hitter again becomes a revolving door, it means that Yelich hasn’t held it down, especially if one of two scenarios has emerged: Either Yelich’s injury woes have not been overcome (which would be a devastating blow to the Brewers’ offense), or Yelich is seeing time in the outfield because of injuries in that position group (perhaps just as bad, depending on who is out).

Historically, the Brewers have never had a player lock down the DH position. The player listed most often as the primary DH at Baseball Reference is Dick Davis, who totaled -1.5 Wins Above Replacement. If 2025 is like many other Brewers seasons where they have a revolving door, the Brewers could have some real trouble.

Overview
Designated hitter could be the biggest “tell” about whether 2025 has gone well for Milwaukee. If Yelich is serving as the DH most days, it means the team’s managed to put together a superb lineup. There are other scenarios where the team could do well without Yelich handling most of the DH duties, but they usually will revolve around prospects like Jeferson Quero, Ernesto Martinez, or Tyler Black forcing their way to Milwaukee.

If the Brewers are rotating players broadly and equally, then the likely reason is that things have gone very badly downhill. Some of these situations may not be as bad as others, but it is hard to imagine a positive scenario if Jake Bauers is playing DH on a semi-regular basis.