Most Red Sox fans don’t know a lot about what is happening in the National League on a day-to-day basis during the regular season. Of course, when the Red Sox are playing an interleague series against a National League team, they get a crash course in that team from Dave O’Brien and Jerry Remy.
When the Braves were still in Boston, until 1952, Boston fans had a reason to follow the National League, even though the Braves won only two pennants and one World Series from 1903 until leaving Boston for Milwaukee in 1952 and then moving on to their current location in Atlanta in 1966. The Boston Braves won their only World Series in 1914, sweeping the Philadelphia Athletics in the Series and lost to the Cleveland Indians, four games to two in 1948.
Carl Johnson
Milwaukee got Major League Baseball back in 1970 when the short-lived Seattle Pilots franchise moved there as the Brewers. The Brewers have made just one appearance in the World Series, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in 1982 when the Brewers were still in the American League before going to the National League in 1988.
Last year’s Brewers team won the National League Central Division with a 96-67 record but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series in seven games. In 2017, they finished in second place, six games out, with an 86-76 record.
The No. 1 reason for the Brewers improvement in 2018, and for their expected bright future, is a young man by the name of Christian Yelich, who was traded to the Brewers from the Miami Marlins on Jan. 25, 2018.
At age 26, Yellich, who had hit just .290 in five years with the Marlins, led the league in batting in his first year in Milwaukee with a .326 average. After hitting just 59 homers and driving in 293 runs in his five years in Miami, he hit 36 homers and had 110 RBIs in 2018. He won the Most Valuable Player Award, he was named to the All-Star team, he won the Silver Slugger Award and he won the Hank Aaron Award, which goes to the best hitter in the National League.
As all Red Sox fans know, the American League MVP last year was 25-year-old Mookie Betts, Boston’s right fielder. In Mookie’s first four years in the Major Leagues, all spent with the Red Sox, Mookie hit .292 with 78 homers and 310 RBIs – very similar to Yelich’s .290, 59 homers and 293 RBIs in his first five years in the Majors.
Boston Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts stands with his daughter and his girlfriend Brianna Hammonds in front of his 2018 awards, including, a Rawlings Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and AL MVP before a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays Thursday, April 11, 2019, at Fenway Park in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Like Yelich, 2018 was a breakout year for Betts. He led the American League with a .346 average, hit 32 homers and drove in 80 runs from the lead-off spot. Like Yelich, he led the Red Sox to a division championship. Of course, Mookie’s Sox won 108 games and easily beat the Dodgers in the World Series.
Yelich was born Dec. 5, 1991, and Betts was born 10 months later, on Oct. 7, 1992. Both were drafted right out of high school, Yelich, by the Marlins in the first round of the 2010 draft, from Westlake High School in California, and Betts, by the Sox, in the fifth round of the 2011 draft, from Overton High School in Tennessee.
Both are principally right fielders who can play any of the outfield positions although Betts began his career as an infielder. Yelich made his Major League debut on July 23, 2013, and Betts did so 11 months later on June 29, 2014. Both got their first Major League hit in their debut, Yelich going 2-for-4 against Colorado and Betts 1-for-3 against the Yankees.
Yelich has picked up this season where he left off last year. In his first 32 games, he hit a league-leading 15 homers, drove in 36 runs to go along with a .342 batting average.
On the other hand, Mookie struggled at the beginning of this season but has started to regain his form. After 35 games, he’s raised his batting average to .288 and had six homers and 19 RBIs.
Through Monday of this past week, including this year’s totals, Yelich had a career batting average of .298 and Betts .302. Yelich had 110 homers and Betts 116, while Yellich led in RBIs with 439 to Betts’ 409.
While the Brewers, despite a 21-16 record, were in third place, a game out at the start of this week, the Red Sox, with a 17-19 record were also in third but trailed by six. Despite the team’s slow start, as Mookie’s numbers have improved, the Sox had won 11 of their last 17 games.
Yelich is signed through 2022 with the Brew Crew but Mookie has only one year left before he is eligible for free agency. Yelich earns just $9.75 million this year while Mookie has a one-year, $20 million agreement. It is expected that the Sox will make every effort to negotiate a long-term contract with Mookie.
If the Sox are successful, there’s a good chance that these two MVPs, two of the best players in baseball at this time, will meet each other in a World Series in the next few years.
I am going to see Yelich play against the Reds in Cincinnati and Betts twice against the Tigers in Detroit in July as part of a trip that includes six different ballparks and Red Sox weekend at the Hall of Fame in 10 days.
I expect by then that both their teams may be at or near the tops of their divisions. To see either of them would be worth the trip, to see them both is a bonus. At their young ages, they are as good as it gets and their careers, to date, are remarkably similar.
Carl Johnson is a noted baseball lecturer and author. His books include the popular series “THE BASEBALL BUFF’S BATHROOM BOOKS” and “THE BEST TEAM EVER?” which chronicles the Red Sox 2018 World Series win.
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