Christian Yelich understands the pressure that comes with being paid as a franchise player heading into the first season of his seven-year, $188million contract extension with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yelich, 30, has now spent four years with the Brewers after arriving from the Miami Marlins and was a revelation with his new club.
In his first year in Milwaukee, Yelich catapulted himself into the conversation of the game's elite players, winning NL MVP in 2018 and finishing second in the award in 2019, leading the National League in batting average in both seasons.
His incredible performance was rewarded with a juicy new contract – which officially kicks in this season – but since signing, he has regressed significantly.
The 2020 and 2021 season were the two worst of Yelich's career, but he now says he knew the entire contract would not be all "smooth sailing".
"I understand what comes with [the big contract]," he told The Athletic. "I understand that if you don't play well, people are going to be p***ed. Like, I get it.
"It's part of sports. It's part of what we do, especially when you sign a deal like that. There's no getting around that, and I'm very aware of that.
"I know that I am paid at a level where you need to produce and things are expected of you, and that's because of past performances in the game. That's how it works... so there's no shying away from it.
"I knew that contract is over a long time, so I didn't really assume that it was going to be smooth sailing all the time."
Yelich admitted the game felt "pretty easy at times" during his peak years but stressed his career is evidence plenty can change from year to year.
"That's the thing – every year is its own year," he said. "Just because you did well or did poorly the year before, it doesn't mean anything going into the next year or the year after that. Every year is its own thing – nothing carries over.
"There's different factors every year that go into whatever's going on for players and teams.
"The game is constantly adjusting and things constantly are changing. You have to do that as well or the game is going to kick your a**."
The Brewers kick off their season on the road against the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day.
Ohtani, Judge both unanimous picks for MVP awards
Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were both unanimously selected to win Most Valuable Player Awards in their respective leagues on Thursday.
Judge collected all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. garnered all 30 second-place votes.
Yankees outfielder Juan Soto finished third with 21 third-place votes.
Ohtani was an unanimous MVP for the third time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the BWAA. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second with 263 points and Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte third with 229.
It is the second AL MVP award of Judge's career after he also won the award in 2022.
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. He also drew a league-high 133 walks and posted a spectacular 1.159 OPS.
Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 109 RBIs.
With two MVP Awards to his name, Judge is the seventh player in Yankees history to win multiple MVPs. He joins Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez.
There was an extended stretch over the summer where Judge was on a pace to reach and possibly break his own single-season home run record (62 in 2022). The same goes for a bid at a Triple Crown.
The stretch that truly defined his season began on April 27. Judge entered play on that day in Milwaukee with a .178 batting average and .674 OPS on the season. He had only four home runs with 35 strikeouts across 27 games.
Over his next 100 games, through August 23, Judge hit .378 with 45 home runs. It was the first time in MLB history a player batted higher than .375 with 45-plus homers in a stretch of 100 games within a single season.
Ohtani was unanimously voted AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 as a two-way star for the Los Angeles Angels and finished second to Judge in 2022 voting. He didn’t pitch in 2024 following elbow surgery and signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December.
Ohtani hit .310, stole 59 bases and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs exclusively as a designated hitter, becoming the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. He helped the Dodgers to the World Series title, playing the final three games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
Ohtani is the first primary DH to win an MVP. He joins Frank Robinson for Cincinnati in 1961 and Baltimore in 1966 as the only players to win the MVP award in both leagues.
The Japanese sensation is the 12th player with three or more MVPs, joining Barry Bonds (seven) and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout (three each).
Sale, Skubal win MLB's Cy Young Awards
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale were each named the winner of their respective league’s Cy Young Award on Wednesday.
The announcement was hardly a surprise after each ace won their league's pitching triple crown during the 2024 regular season.
This is the first Cy Young for both pitchers.
Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, enjoyed a break-out year in his fourth full MLB season, and was a unanimous winner, receiving all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo finished second and Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase finished third in the balloting, which was completed before the play-offs.
Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes, while Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler finished second, ahead of Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who was selected as the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday.
The 35-year-old Sale has come close to winning the award before, finishing as runner-up to Cleveland's Corey Kluber in 2017, with five other top-five finishes in voting since his first full season in the majors in 2011.
Since the inception of the Cy Young Award in 1956, there have been 16 pitchers to win his league's pitching crown. And now, every one of them has also won that year's Cy Young.
Skubal and Sale each won an MLB-best 18 games, while Skubal led all pitchers with 228 strikeouts – three more than Sale. Sale's ERA of 2.38 was just a tick better than Skubal's 2.39.
Both were dominant down the stretch in leading their teams to the play-offs, with Sale permitting two earned runs or fewer in each of his final 18 regular-season starts, though he was unable to pitch in the season final or the Braves' NL Wild-Card series loss to the San Diego Padres because of a back injury.
Skubal posted a 1.94 ERA in his final nine outings, and then threw 13 shutout innings in his first two play-off starts in helping the Tigers surprisingly reach the American League Division Series. He ended up going 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three post-season starts.
Skubal became the fifth Tiger to win the Cy Young trophy – and first since Max Scherzer in 2017 – and Sale is the fifth Brave to earn the award – and first since Hall of Famer Tom Glavine in 1998.
Despite several close calls in Cy Young voting for Sale, he has dealt with injuries for the past five seasons, and was limited to a total of 151 innings over the past three years for the Boston Red Sox.
In his first season with the Braves, however, he threw 177 2/3 innings and was awarded the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award last Thursday.
Harden goes second in all-time 3-pointers list, does not expect to catch Curry
James Harden may consider himself one of the most confident players in the NBA, but he does not expect to overhaul Stephen Curry's all-time 3-pointer record after going second in the charts.
Curry made a pair of 3-pointers as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Utah Jazz 116-105 on Sunday, finishing with 20 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.
His first 3-pointer of the evening, made with around six minutes to go in the first quarter, was the 2,794th of his NBA career, the second-most in league history.
Having surpassed Ray Allen's total of 2,973, Harden only trails Curry – who has hit 3,782 3-pointers ahead of his Golden State Warriors facing the Clippers on Monday.
Asked about his feat after Sunday's game, Harden said: "Unbelievable accomplishment. It's just a testament to the amount of work that I've been putting in.
"As I get older and just chip away at an unbelievable career, I start to accomplish things like that. So I don't ever want to take it for granted.
"I just want to give motivation to the youth and every other person that's chasing a dream to play professional basketball or whatever it is, so it's an honour."
But when asked if Curry's mark was now within his sights, Harden – who is just a year younger than the all-time record holder – said nobody will ever take that honour, adding: "I'm one of the most confident guys that we have in this league, but no, I probably won't catch Steph.
"I don't think anybody will honestly. He can shoot the s*** out of the ball. Granted a lot of these guys are on that list for being catch-and-shoot players, so they came off pindowns, they were spot shots or whatnot.
"Now, where the game has evolved, guys like Steph are coming off pindowns, he's creating off isos, he's coming off pick-and-rolls.
"There's so many different variables to be able to shoot the 3, make shots and do it at an efficient high level.
"Somebody has to have an unbelievable career, shoot the ball well and make a lot of 3s. If it happens, it's going to be when we're not here anymore. So that'll be in there for a minute."
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