Remembering When the Brewers Absolutely Fleeced the Marlins in the Christian Yelich Trade

Technically, the "jury" is still "out" on the trade that brought Christian Yelich to Milwaukee.

But, seeing as one piece involved in this deal has become a franchise icon and recently inked a massive extension, and the Marlins aren't throwing around $200 million to Lewis Brinson, we don't feel the need to wait for the jury to deliberate.

On January 25, 2018, the Brewers traded a whole bunch of talent to Miami, and the reports at the time (and in the Twitter replies) were quite conflicted over who came out on top.

Yelich's age-25 season in Miami (his final campaign) didn't represent a tremendous leap from the year prior; he fell from 21 to 18 homers, and his batting average dropped from .298 to .282. The Marlins weren't selling high here, and there were questions about whether the third-best player in that vaunted outfield would ever be more than just a solid slap hitter (though no one knew how Marlins Park was bringing him down).

At the time, Brinson was seen as the five-tool crown of the Brewers' farm system, and Isan Diaz was a top-10 prospect, too (though Keston Hiura was proving to be a better version of him). Harrison was Brinson lite, essentially mimicking his tools in an unpolished package.

The 23-year-old Diaz arrived in Miami in 2019, hitting just .173 in 179 ABs. Brinson has, unfortunately, been dramatically unsuccessful, hitting under .200 in three opportunities in consecutive seasons, cranking 11 homers in '18, but failing to stand out in the way that was promised. Harrison hasn't sniffed the bigs, but hit .274 with limited pop at Triple-A last season. Yamamoto's been the Marlins' best coup, whiffing 82 in 78.2 innings of 4.46 ERA ball in 2019.

Meawhile, Yelich has an MVP and a second-place finish under his belt, and Milwaukee has a face of baseball. Not bad.