The Milwaukee Brewers’ players did not perform well in MLB’s awards season, with only manager Pat Murphy walking away with a trophy following his second consecutive Manager of the Year Award.
Christian Yelich — who fell short in Silver Slugger voting in a loaded designated hitter category — was the team’s last chance to have a rostered player win big, though he fell short once again in Comeback Player of the Year voting. Instead, it’s Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. who received the award.
Now, the CPOY award hardly has the same prestige as things like the MVP or Cy Young awards, but there is a certain value in the recognition of a player’s tenacity to return to form following a serious injury or setback. Though MLB doesn’t make the vote totals public for the award, we can safely assume Yelich was a serious candidate after returning from a back surgery that prematurely ended his 2024 campaign.
Christian Yelich’s brilliance shouldn’t be diminished by disappointing awards season
Yelich may be removed from his MVP peak, but at 33 years old and coming off a back surgery, it’s safe to say he impressed a lot of onlookers in 2025.
He hit .264/.343/.452 with 29 home runs, 103 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases, good for a 121 wRC+ that ranked second on the team. His 3.1 bWAR and 2.4 fWAR were some of the highest figures among all MLB designated hitters this year. By all accounts, Yelich had a great year.
He simply ran into the unyielding force that is Ronald Acuña Jr. The Braves’ right fielder played in just 95 games this year, but he was dominant in that time. He hit .290/.417/.518 with 21 home runs, good for a 161 wRC+. And though his defense was a mess (to be expected after tearing his ACL), he at least played most of his games in the outfield, whereas Yelich was relegated to essentially a full-time DH role.
It’s a shame that team results don’t matter for the award, seeing as the Brewers won a MLB-best 97 games and made the NLCS while the Braves collapsed and missed the postseason for the first time since 2017.
Following Yelich’s loss to Acuña, the Brewers remain one of a number of National League franchises without a Comeback Player of the Year winner in franchise history. Notably, former Brewer Prince Fielder won the award with the Texas Rangers in 2015.
