• CLUTCH SUMMARY: Fighting to help get the Milwaukee Brewers back into playoff contention, Christian Yelich continues to mash the ball, becoming the next member of the 40 home run, 20 steals club.
  • Having already entered that club with a month and a half left in the season, Yelich has the tools to reach 50+ dingers and steal over 30 bases.
  • The Brewers have been playing from behind the vast majority of this season, so they will need to ride Yelich’s offensive burst again to make it back to the playoffs.

Winning the Most Valuable Player award just once in a career is an impressive feat in itself, putting that player among some of the best to ever play their respective sport. But for the Milwaukee Brewers, the growing, living legend that Christian Yelich is becoming is something they could have never seen coming.

Having traded for Yelich was seen as a bit of an overpay, especially with the type of prospects that they had to give up to get him. But almost two seasons later, that package will go down as one of the best value deals ever made in a professional sports trade.

Having already won the 2018 National League MVP award, Yelich is trying to get two in a row in that category, and his play in 2019 looks to be enough to put him in the final running for it, if not winning the damn thing again. But before that award race is captured, the Brewers outfielder has added an accolade to his steadily-growing list of accomplishments.

Hitting 40 home runs and stealing 20 bases in one season is quite the remarkable feat, but for someone like Yelich to accomplish that feat with a month and a half left in the regular season, that just goes to show the level of play that he is currently on. 41 dingers, including two against the Washington Nationals in their marathon 14-inning game that pushed him over the edge on Saturday, and 24 steals puts him at or near the top in both categories in the NL.

Yelich has become one of the few members in the history of the Brewers to put up a 40/20 season, with Ryan Braun being the most recent player to do it. Being on the levels of MVP-era Braun, Yelich seems to already have passed him in the hearts of the Brewers faithful.

With more than a month left in the regular season, Yelich has plenty of time to join the 30/30 club too, only needing to steal six more bases to reach that mark. With his back injury hopefully behind him for the remainder of the season, he is well on his way to setting more crazy records for the Brewers and vying to go back to back for NL MVP.

Sitting two games back of both the NL Central divisional lead and the Wild Card race, the Brewers are in the thick of things yet again, although not as good as they were last season. Needing to fight all the way to the end, Yelich will need to be the main catalyst for this team as the dog days of summer and baseball hit.