Marlins trade Christian Yelich to Brewers

The Brewers have acquired outfielder Christian Yelich from the Marlins in exchange for outfielders Lewis Brinson and Monte Harrison, infielder Isan Diaz and right-handed pitcher Jordan Yamamoto, the club announced.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the trade happening.

The Brewers will be receiving a budding young star in Yelich who is controllable.

The 26-year-old a left-hand hitting outfielder has a .290/.369/.432 career slash line, won a Gold Glove honor and earned a Silver Slugger Award since breaking into the big leagues in 2013. Last year, he hit 18 home runs with 81 RBI while slashing .282/.369/..439 in 156 games.

As far as his contract, Yelich has four years, $46.5 million left on it and has a $15 million club option for 2022. Yelich also has a buyout of $1.25 million if a team does not pick up his option.

There were a ton of teams who were interested in Yelich this offseason after Derek Jeter and company decided to shop him and other stars in an attempt to slash payroll. The Rangers, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Brewers, Giants, Phillies and Braves had been connected to Yelich over the last month.

Yelich’s agent Joe Longo revealed on Jan. 16 that Yelich and the Marlins had a “broken relationship” because they decided to rebuild entirely by trading off Stanton, Ozuna and veteran second baseman Dee Gordon. Longo said it was best for both parties to trade off Yelich before spring training.

Now that he is in Milwaukee, Yelich will join a loaded outfield group that includes Ryan Braun, Domingo Santana, Keon Broxton, Brett Phillips and Hernan Perez.

As for the Marlins, they will get four quality prospects that Rosenthal said before the trade was official that the return “will exceed what they received for Ozuna and Stanton, and possibly by quite a bit.”

Brinson, 23, was the Brewers’ top outfield prospect after coming over to them in a trade with the Rangers for Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress. The former 29th overall pick back in the 2012 MLB Draft did play 21 games in the majors last year, but spent most of the season in Triple-A Colorado Springs, slashing .331/.400/.562 in 76 games.

Harrison, 22, split time in Class-A Wisconsin and Class-A Advanced Carolina in 2017. The former second-round pick from the 2014 draft slashed .278/.350/481 in 122 total games.

Diaz, 21, was the top prospect the Brewers received from the Diamondbacks in a trade for Jean Segura in 2016. Diaz played 110 games in Class-A Advanced last year.

Yamamoto, 21, played in Class-A Advanced Carolina as well in 2017. A 12th-round pick in the 2014 draft, Yamamoto posted a 9-4 record with a 2.51 ERA and 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings in 111 innings pitched.