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Christian Stephen Yelich (born December 5, 1991) is an American professional
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...
for the
Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...
of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
(MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Miami Marlins. Internationally, Yelich represents the United States. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC), he helped win Team USA's first
gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...
in a WBC tournament and was named to the All-World Baseball Classic Team. The Marlins selected Yelich in the first round of the 2010 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut for the Marlins in 2013 and was traded to the Brewers in the 2017–18 offseason. Yelich is a three-time MLB All-Star, a three-time
Silver Slugger Award The Silver Slugger Award has been awarded annually since 1980 to the best Batting (baseball), offensive player at each Baseball positions, position in both the American League (AL) and the National League (baseball), National League (NL), as determ ...
winner, a two-time National League batting champion, a Gold Glove Award recipient in 2014, and the winner of the National League's Most Valuable Player Award in 2018.


Career


Amateur career

Yelich was born in
Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, located in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles. Approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, it is named after the many oak trees pr ...
, and attended Westlake High School. During his freshman year, he batted .373 with 25 hits and 16 strikeouts in 67 at-bats. In his sophomore year, he batted .341 with 31 hits and 24 strikeouts in 91 at-bats. During Yelich's junior year, he batted .489 with 46 hits and struck out six times. In his senior year, he batted .451 with 37 hits, nine strikeouts and nine home runs in 82 at-bats. He was named Second Team All-American by Max Preps and was ranked 34 among the top 100 players in the nation in high school. Yelich accepted a scholarship to play
college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...
for the Miami Hurricanes baseball team.


Professional career


Miami Marlins

The Miami Marlins selected Yelich in the first round, with the 23rd overall selection, in the 2010 MLB draft. Yelich and the Marlins agreed to a $1.7 million
signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...
on August 17, shortly before the deadline to sign 2010 draftees was about to pass. Yelich played for the Gulf Coast League Marlins for six games, getting nine hits and seven strikeouts with a batting average of .375 before being advanced to Class-A. He played in six games for the Greensboro Grasshoppers in 2010, batting .348. In 2011, he batted .261 with 43 hits, six strikeouts, and four home runs. Yelich was named the Marlins' Minor League Player of the Year in both 2011 and 2012. On July 23, 2013, the Marlins promoted Yelich to MLB from the Double-A Jacksonville Suns. In the 2014 season, Yelich batted .284 with 21 steals out of the leadoff spot for the Miami Marlins. He also won a Gold Glove Award in left field, becoming the franchise's youngest ever player and first outfielder to win the award. During the season, Yelich set a franchise record for fielding percentage in left field, at .996. He served as the final out of Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on September 28, 2014, when Steven Souza Jr. made a diving play to save the no-hitter. Yelich and the Marlins finalized a seven-year, $49.57 million contract extension on March 22, 2015. He struggled to start the season, and was placed on the disabled list in April with lower back strain before making his return on May 8. His batting average reached a season low of .178 on May 22. In August, Yelich bruised his right knee and was again placed on the disabled list. Yelich had improved from his earlier offensive struggles and was hitting .275/.343/.376 with six home runs, 29 RBIs and 14 stolen bases up to that point in the season. Despite aggravating the injury shortly after his return, Yelich remained an active player for the quality of his bat. Near the end of the season, Yelich shared the field with Marcell Ozuna, the outfielder who had replaced him during his second stint on the disabled list. Yelich closed the 2015 season with a .300 average. For the season, he had the highest ground ball percentage (62.5%), and the lowest fly ball percentage (15.0%), of all major league hitters. Yelich was projected to bat third to start 2016. He hit well in that spot, and managed to increase his power output. On April 23, in a game against the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
, Yelich hit three doubles, which tied a franchise record. Defensively, Yelich was a starting outfielder, alongside Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton. In late May, Yelich missed some time due to back spasms. After Stanton was placed on the disabled list, Ozuna played Stanton's usual position in right field, while Yelich took Ozuna's spot in center on days that backup outfielder Ichiro Suzuki was unavailable.


Milwaukee Brewers

On January 25, 2018, the Marlins traded Yelich to the
Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...
for Lewis Brinson, Isan Díaz, Monte Harrison, and Jordan Yamamoto. Yelich was named to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game after batting .285 with 11 home runs, 36 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases. Yelich, a reserve for the National League, replaced Matt Kemp in left field and went 1-for-3, hitting a solo home run in an 8–6 extra-inning loss to the
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...
. On August 29, Yelich hit for the cycle against the Cincinnati Reds, collecting a total of six hits in the game. On September 2, Yelich hit his first career grand slam, in a game against the
Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...
. On September 17, Yelich hit for the cycle, also against the Cincinnati Reds, for the second time in 19 days, becoming the fifth player in MLB history to hit two cycles in the same season and the first player in MLB history to do so against the same team. Yelich finished the 2018 season with a .326/.402/.598 slash line, 36 homers, and 110 RBIs, winning the first NL batting title in Brewers history, while narrowly falling short of a triple crown. He also was second in the league in power-speed number (27.3). On October 26, Yelich was announced as the National League recipient of the annual Hank Aaron Award. On November 16, Yelich was named
Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...
of the National League, falling one vote shy of a unanimous selection. On March 31, 2019, Yelich became the sixth player in MLB history to hit a home run in each of his team's first four games. On July 1, 2019, Yelich became the first player in Brewers franchise history to reach 30 home runs before the All-Star Break, beating former Brewer Prince Fielder's record of 29 home runs. Yelich was selected to participate in the Home Run Derby but had to withdraw due to a back injury. He was replaced by Matt Chapman in the Home Run Derby. On September 10, 2019, Yelich hit a foul ball off his kneecap and left the game. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that his right kneecap was fractured, which prematurely ended his 2019 season. In 2019, Yelich won his second National League batting title. He batted .329/.429 (leading the NL)/.671 (leading the major leagues) with a 1.100 OPS (leading the majors), 44 home runs (4th in the NL), 11.1 at-bats per home runs (leading the league), a .342
ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...
(leading the NL), 30 stolen bases (3rd), a 93.75 stolen base percentage (3rd), and 97 RBIs in 130 games. He had the highest Hard Contact Percentage of all National League batters, at 50.8%. Yelich was the first National League player to lead the league in batting average and slugging percentage in consecutive seasons since Rogers Hornsby, who did so from 1920 to 1925. He won the NL Hank Aaron Award for the second year in a row and finished second in NL MVP voting. After the 2019 season, Yelich became the only player in Major League Baseball history to have consecutive seasons hitting .325 or higher with 35 or more homers and 20 or more steals. On March 6, 2020, Yelich signed a nine-year, $215 million contract extension with the Brewers, more than doubling Ryan Braun's previous record of $105 million for the richest contract in franchise history. In the shortened 60-game 2020 season, he hit .205/.356/.430 with 12 home runs. At the start of the 2021 season, Yelich had a lingering back problem that caused him to spend over half of April and the first few weeks of May on the injured list. Yelich hit his third career cycle on May 11, 2022, becoming the sixth player in MLB history to do so, and the first player to accomplish three cycles against the same team, the Cincinnati Reds. In 2022, he had the highest ground ball percentage of all major leaguers (58.6%), the lowest fly ball percentage (23.0%), and batted .252/.355/.383. In the 2024 season, Yelich's season stats as of early July had nearly matched the weighted runs created plus (wRC+) he achieved in his MVP and near-MVP seasons of 2018 and 2019. However, he was placed on the injured list with a back issue on July 24. Despite Yelich's attempt to put off a back surgery until after the season, he and the team announced on August 15 that he would be entering surgery the next day with the hope of returning in 2025. On September 8, the team officially ended Yelich's season by transferring him to the 60-day injured list. On May 5, 2025, Yelich played his 1,500th career game against the
Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...
, where he went 1–for–3 in the game with a solo home run, two RBIs, a stolen base, and walked just once. With that milestone, he becomes the 730th player to reach that milestone. On May 27, Yelich hit a grand slam walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat the
Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
5-1. It was his first career walk-off home run. On May 30 against the Philadelphia Phillies, Yelich notched his 12th multi-homer game as a Brewer. He ties Milwaukee legends Richie Sexson and Rob Deer for 9th-most in franchise history. On June 2, Yelich was named the National League Player of the Week for May 26-June 1, a span in which he batted .500 (10–20) with 5 Runs, 3 home runs, 9 RBI, and an OPS of 1.545. This is the sixth time that Yelich has won a Player of the Week award, but the first since April 2019.


International career

Yelich played for the
United States national baseball team The United States national baseball team, also known as Team USA, represents the United States in international level baseball competitions. The team is currently ranked 5th in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The United S ...
in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Following the conclusion of the tournament, he was named to the All-World Baseball Classic team. On September 10, 2018, he was selected to play with the MLB All-Stars at the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series, but he later withdrew from the event.


Personal life

Yelich is the eldest child of Stephen and Alecia Yelich, and the great-grandson of
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
player Fred Gehrke, who played for the
Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...
and the
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
. His uncle, Chris Yelich, played for the
UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...
. He has two brothers: Collin, who played minor league baseball in the Braves organization, and Cameron, who is a member of the
United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
. Yelich's paternal great-grandfather was a Serb from Trebinje,
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
. Yelich was baptized in the
Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...
as Risto Šćepan Jelić (). His maternal grandfather was Japanese. Yelich appeared (as himself) in an episode of '' Magnum P.I.'' that aired on March 4, 2019. His scene was with the 2018 Honolulu Little League World Champions in which he homers off a pitch from series protagonist Orville "Rick" Wright (played by Zachary Knighton). Yelich once invited
Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...
quarterback and 2017
Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...
winner Baker Mayfield to Brewers batting practice. Yelich grew up both a
Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
fan and a
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
fan. Yelich owns property in
Malibu, California Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...
. In October 2021, he purchased a $6.5 million home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, from
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
player Oliver Ekman-Larsson.


See also

*
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders In baseball, a Hit (baseball), hit is credited to a Batting (baseball), batter when he reaches first base – or Extra-base hit, any subsequent base – Safe (baseball), safely after hitting a fair ball, without the benefit of an Error (baseball) ...
* List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle * List of Milwaukee Brewers award winners and All-Stars * Miami Marlins award winners and league leaders


References


Further reading

*


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yelich, Christian 1991 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen 30–30 club 2017 World Baseball Classic players American baseball players of Japanese descent American people of German descent American people of Serbian descent Baseball players from Thousand Oaks, California Gold Glove Award winners Greensboro Grasshoppers players Gulf Coast Marlins players Jacksonville Suns players Jupiter Hammerheads players Major League Baseball left fielders Miami Marlins players Milwaukee Brewers players Nashville Sounds players National League batting champions National League Most Valuable Player Award winners New Orleans Zephyrs players Phoenix Desert Dogs players Silver Slugger Award winners United States national baseball team players Westlake High School (California) alumni World Baseball Classic players of the United States