Brewers Hitter of the Month: April 2025

Honorable Mentions
William Contreras
90 AB, .278/.394/.400, 25 H, 2 2B, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 4 SB
Contreras has gotten off to a slow start—especially compared to the torrid pace he set in the first month of last year—but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been productive. His .794 OPS in April was the fourth-highest of any Brewer, and despite lagging slightly behind his understudy Eric Haase, he had six times as many at-bats.

The biggest thing that seems to be missing is his power, as his quality of contact numbers have decreased across the board and his cumulative slugging for the season is just .339. Still, his strikeout and walk rate are perfectly matched at 15.7%, and he has been outstanding defensively. With more time to settle in and improve his approach against offspeed pitches and sweepers, he should still be one of the better-hitting catchers in MLB.

Statistical Nugget: Despite seeing just 27 curveballs so far, he has already accumulated a Statcast run value of 5, given his .500 average, 2.000 slugging percentage, and 0% whiff rate against the pitch.

Christian Yelich
96 AB, .240/.345/.427, 23 H, 3 2B, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 5 SB
In 2024, Christian Yelich was seemingly back to his MVP ways—before going down with yet another back injury, one that required surgery. He isn’t quite as impressive this year, but he has done just enough to still be one of the better bats in the lineup. His 22 RBIs were tied for the most on the team in April, and he wasn’t too shabby on the basepaths, either.

His launch angles are down once again, and he’s having trouble making contact as frequently as he probably would like, but he’s still hitting the ball hard and walking at a 12.8% clip. He’s absolutely crushing offspeed pitches, but is getting beaten by all sorts of fastballs. That could be a sign that the lingering effects of his injury are still holding him back.

Statistical Nugget: Against offspeed pitches, Yelich is averaging .417 and slugging .917.

Rhys Hoskins
76 AB, .303/.413/.447, 23 H, 2 2B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB
A year further removed from the campaign he lost to injury, Hoskins is putting up numbers comparable to what he did with the Phillies. His OPS of .860 was the best mark of any Brewers hitter in April, and he also led the lineup in on-base percentage. His 15.3% walk rate in 2025 so far is close to his single-season best of 16.5%, achieved in 2019.

One of the biggest steps forward for Hoskins has been cutting his chase rate by about 6 percentage points year-over-year, which has also helped him reduce his strikeout rate by about 8 percentage points. He’s back to crushing fastballs, but has struggled against breaking pitches other than the slider.

Statistical Nugget: Despite averaging just .185 against four-seam fastballs this season, he’s slugging .630.

Hitter of the Month - Jackson Chourio
114 AB, .281/.297/.535, 32 H, 9 2B, 1 3B, 6 HR, 22 RBI, 2 SB
Chourio is having quite an interesting sophomore year. Like his rookie season, he has had his ups and downs at the plate, but he has managed to lock in a little quicker this time around. He also seems absolutely allergic to drawing free passes, walking at a bottom-percentile 1.3% clip.

Instead, he just swings. In fact, his swing/take profile and general approach at the plate are deserving of their own article, something our very own Jake McKibbin did a few weeks ago. As a quick summary, Chourio is still very good and has proven that he is capable of driving the ball out of the park—but a 43.2% chase rate is simply not conducive to long-term success.

We expected him to take some time to become accustomed to big-league pitching, and many anticipated a few years of average or below-average offensive production before he really came into his own. He proved to be ahead of an already accelerated development schedule when he posted a .914 OPS in the second half of 2024, so who knows? Maybe he’ll continue to tweak his swing decisions and reach new heights once again in 2025.

Statistical Nugget: Chourio has an .869 OPS when swinging at the first pitch and a .612 OPS when taking the first pitch.