Christian Yelich's Contract Isn't Large Enough for His Production

Christian Yelich tied an MLB record today, becoming just the sixth player in MLB history to hit a home run in each of his first four games of the season. He also hit a walk-off double to lead the Brewers to a 3-1 start to the season after being the key cog in their run to the NL Central crown last year.

For his efforts, the defending NL MVP isn’t among the Top 50 paid players in Major League Baseball. Hell, he isn’t even in the Top 90.

When Yelich was young and impressionable, he signed a 7-year, $49,570,000 contract with the Marlins. It probably seemed like a lot of money at the time. Now, with three more years on the contract AFTER this season, it looks like the greatest deal in the MLB.

In terms of total money, and remember, his contract was for seven long years, Yelich is the 91st highest-paid player in the MLB according to Spotrac.com. He’s just ahead of Rougned Odor, best known for punching Jose Bautista, and just behind Blake Snell, who won the AL Cy Young award last year. So at least he has one other underpaid player around him.

Hindsight is always 20-20, and when the Marlins offered Yelich and his agent Joe Longo that 7-year deal long ago, it was clearly a deal they felt they couldn’t pass up. The issue now, however, is Yelich is under contract for three more years and the Brewers are under no obligation to extend him before this deal is up in 2023. Yelich will be 31 at that point and, while another payday is definitely in his future, the idea of him getting a deal like Bryce Harper or Mike Trout seems out of the questions.

If you’re a Brewers fan, this is good news. If you’re Longo or Yelich, this is bad news.

Yelich is one of the Top 10 players in the MLB and he’s already proving last year’s MVP run was no fluke. We’ll see if he keeps up this torrid pace (he’s on pace for 162 HR, which feels slightly out of the question), but at this point, he’s among the most underpaid players in a sport known for overpaying just about everyone.