Yelich gets candid on Brewers Unfiltered podcast

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MILWAUKEE -- It was Christian Yelich unfiltered on this week’s Brewers Unfiltered podcast.

During a 30-minute conversation, the resurgent Brewers star opened up about reaching the elusive 10-year milestone in the Major Leagues, the pressure on Milwaukee’s current crop of rookies compared to his callup in Miami and, maybe most interestingly, why this era of Brewers baseball should be celebrated -- even if it hasn’t produced a World Series.

“I want to say it the right way, just so I don't misspeak when I say this here,” Yelich said. “I think what this team has done in the last five, six years, it shouldn't be taken for granted. It should be appreciated. I know everybody wants to win a World Series -- us included. This run of competitiveness that this team has been on, it hasn't really happened here like this before.”

It’s impactful to hear this case made by Yelich. When Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, GM Matt Arnold or manager Craig Counsell point out that the club has done a pretty good job winning games, it tends to get chalked up as excuse-making for not getting to the World Series (the franchise’s only Fall Classic was in 1982). When a broadcaster or a beat writer points it out, they’re called homers.

But Yelich, as one of the team’s longest-tenured players and a well-respected name around the game, can credibly speak on the topic.

And the facts are behind him. From the franchise's arrival in Milwaukee in 1970 through 2017, the Brewers made the playoffs four times. After Yelich arrived in a January 2018 trade with the Marlins, they made the playoffs four years in a row.

Of course, an expanded postseason field played a part in that. During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, for example, the Brewers made the postseason with a losing record. Nobody was particularly thrilled about that season, unless you count Devin Williams winning NL Rookie of the Year.

But in the bigger picture, the Brewers have been on a run that only a few teams can rival. Since Yelich’s arrival in 2018, the Brewers own baseball’s sixth-best winning percentage (454-366 going into Saturday night). Among NL clubs, only the Dodgers and Braves have won more regular season games in that span.

“It's just been really fun to be a part of these teams for this organization, because winning in this league is extremely hard,” Yelich said. “Like, to win one game in the Major Leagues is very, very hard, let alone to be on a team that does it year after year after year. And it's with a lot of the same guys -- but it's also not with a lot of the same guys. There's a lot of interchangeable pieces every year and a lot of turnover. To still be competitive, to still be in the division race every year late into the season, there's something to be said for that. …

“There's been frustrating times, for sure. But for the most part, we've been pretty good. A lot of things go into winning the World Series, and hopefully we can do that one year. It's obviously everybody's goal. But at the same time, it's a special era of Brewers baseball, I feel like.”

It’s something to chew on.

Then there’s this: Yelich also addressed the question any Brewers fan surely asked themself or others in the wake of those otherworldly seasons in 2018 and ‘19, when Yelich won an MVP Award one year and finished as the runner-up the next.

“What happened?” So many fans asked in the ensuing years, before Yelich re-emerged this season as one of baseball’s most productive hitters.

Yelich took that question head-on.

“You know, I kind of knew that I was always going to be measured against those seasons, because it's the first two years that I had here,” he said. “That's what people know. But just, that's not how the game works. I'm obviously capable of doing that. That's in me. I know that, probably no matter what I do for the Brewers going forward, it's always going to be like, 'Well, was it 2018 you? Or 2019 you?’ People are always going to want and expect that level of play. It's just what it is. You just have to understand that, most of the time, people are never going to be happy with what you do. ...

“I still think I'm capable of being a good player. And personally, I don't think my measuring stick is, like, do I have 1.000 OPS? Is everybody okay with that? Like, I don't know. Obviously, I heard everything that people say after those seasons. You'd have to live under a rock to not hear them.

“For me personally, it got to the point where I just stopped caring. I don't care what people have to say or [what] people think. I realize people are always going to have an opinion, and they're entitled to that. It comes with the territory of being a professional athlete. But I know that I prepare the best I can, I know that I work hard every day, I know that I want to do well and win every night. That's really all you can control.”

There’s much, much more in the podcast. I hope you’ll give it a listen.