At long last, the Milwaukee Brewers finally have all their big bats available to them in the starting lineup. The Brewers have not had their top group of bats, Jackson Chourio, Andrew Vaughn, and Christian Yelich together all season.
Now they finally will as Christian Yelich has been activated off the IL and is recovered from his adductor strain. The Brewers optioned Tyler Black to make room on the roster.
Prior to his injury, Yelich was hitting .314 with a home run, 10 RBIs, 10 runs scored, and a 132
OPS+. He was off to one of his better starts over the last few seasons and helped keep this lineup afloat after they had lost Chourio and Vaughn on the first and second games of the season.
With Brandon Lockridge currently on the IL dealing with a knee laceration and bone bruise, that could allow more opportunities for Yelich to play in left field rather than DHing upon his return.
Tyler Black had been performing well, hitting .333 with an .839 OPS and 135 OPS+. He had gotten his first semi-regular run at the big league level in quite some time and even though he wasn’t hitting the ball incredibly hard, the results were quite good and he’s put himself in line to be promoted again soon should a spot open up. But when everyone is healthy, it’ll be difficult for Black to crack the roster right now.
The Brewers are a much better lineup and team with Christian Yelich in it. A top five in the order of Chourio, Brice Turang, Yelich, William Contreras, and Andrew Vaughn is a much deeper and more dangerous group than the Crew had largely been putting out there over the first six weeks. Yet they still have been six games over .500 in the absence of that lineup and perhaps this will be the final piece to get this offense clicking like they know they can be.
