Christian Yelich is finally being traded.
The outfielder is being dealt by the Miami Marlins to the Milwaukee Brewers, as first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
The Marlins are receiving Lewis Brinson, Monte Harrison, Isan Diaz and Jordan Yamamoto in return.
The #Brewers have acquired OF Christian Yelich from Miami in exchange for OF Lewis Brinson, OF Monte Harrison, INF Isan Diaz and RHP Jordan Yamamoto. pic.twitter.com/1Cni0JA67B
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) January 25, 2018
This news should not come as a huge surprise given recent chatter. On Tuesday, SiriusXM’s Craig Mish reported that the Brewers had put together an offer for Yelich and had shown strong interest in him.
Yelich is an extremely desirable player thanks to how affordable he is. The 26-year-old is under contract for four years and owed only $43.25 million, which is an amount even a smaller-market team like Milwaukee can afford. Though it does not sound like the Brewers will be acting like a small-market team. They also have interest in Lorenzo Cain, even with the Yelich addition.
Acquisition of Yelich does NOT necessarily rule out the #Brewers on free-agent outfielder Lorenzo Cain. Brewers have been on Cain the entire off-season, and might be plotting a major push.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 25, 2018
The Brewers also have offered a contract to Yu Darvish.
Yelich is a career .290 hitter with an .800 career OPS. He’s taken his power to a new level with 21 home runs in 2016 and 18 home runs last season.
The Marlins have now almost completed stripped down their team since Derek Jeter’s ownership group took over. They traded Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees; Dee Gordon to Seattle; Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals, and now Yelich to Milwaukee. Next on the trade list could be catcher JT Realmuto.
