Christian Yelich's Numbers This Season Are Shockingly Bad

• The Milwaukee Brewers extended to contract of Christian Yelich after his incredible 2018 season, with the thinking that he would continue on the path to superstardom. Now three years later, its been all injuries and poor play

• This seems to happen in baseball far too often, where a player gets a large contract and doesn't live up to expectations for one reason or another. In 104 games played, he has 8 home runs and 46 RBI and is slashing just .250/.363/.374.

• The Brewers will need to have him get going if they want to win a World Series behind this pitching staff. They are currently +850 to win the title in 2021.

Yelich Has Declined Every Season Since Extension

The Brewers gave star outfielder Christian Yelich a massive contract extension in the spring of 2020, two or three years before he was supposed to be a free agent due to a 2022 option.

They gave him a seven year deal that would keep him in Milwaukee for the next nine seasons, all for a cool $215 million.

The Brewers were betting themselves here, on the hope that Yelich would continue to blossom into the next great MLB superstar, while the annual value on his deal would be relatively low.

Pretty much as soon as the ink was dry on his new deal, Yelich fell off the side of a cliff in terms of production. He has hit just .216/.365/.388, and his strikeout rate has risen from 20% to 30%. Not something you want to see from a guy you just locked up for the next decade.

It reminds me of the Jason Heyward situation on the Chicago Cubs, where the Cubs thought they were getting a star entering his prime, and instead got a mediocre hitter at best.

Injuries Have Begun To Mount

Not only has Yelich been playing poorly and not helping the Brewers in any way, but what could be most concerning are the back injuries he continues to deal with each year.

At now 30 years old, those injuries may never really get better, and might be something that he will have to deal with for the foreseeable future. Which isn't good news for Milwaukee, as they have kept him out for prolonged stretches of the season.

The deal was structured to pay him most of the money in 2022 and beyond, which is extremely scary to say the least. He will be owed $26 million annually for the next seven years.

If he doesn't get his act together for Milwaukee soon and recover from these injuries, the Brewers could be strapped for cash for a long time, if they don't find someone to dump him off to.

The Cubs sure haven't been able to with Heyward.