Welcome to another edition of the Brewers Beat newsletter. This week’s edition was written by Casey Drottar, an editorial producer with MLB.com. MILWAUKEE – Jared Jones served up a 1-1 four-seamer to Jackson Chourio, throwing it right over the heart of the plate. If Jones didn’t realize it was a mistake pitch upon release, the Brewers slugger let him know seconds later. Chourio blasted the offering a Statcast-projected 399 feet over American Family Field’s right-center-field wall, the second of three hits he tallied in Milwaukee’s 4-2 Aug. 4 win over the Pirates. “A homer finally went my way,” Chourio told MLB.com via interpreter Daniel de Mondesert, “and that was a positive.” There are two big reasons why that solo shot was more than just a positive. For one, it was Chourio’s first home run since July 4. But most importantly, that blast alone provided enough proof to the Brewers that the month-long power outage their star outfielder had just endured was officially over. “When balls start going over there into center field the right way,” Milwaukee hitting coach Daniel Vogelbach told MLB.com, “you're like, ‘Uh oh, Jack-Jack is back.’” Everything Chourio has done since has hammered that point home. The 22-year-old has followed a difficult July – a month in which he only tallied six extra-base hits – with the loud contact and booming blasts Milwaukee fans have come to expect from him. |
“We know it's a long season,” Chourio said. “In that moment in time, things just weren't falling for me. … But I'm always trying to give the best at-bats that I possibly can to help the team win.” A struggle finding slug is hardly a problem you’d have expected Chourio to deal with this year, not with the way he got his season started. He showed little rust despite his 2026 debut being delayed until May 4 due to a left hand fracture, slashing .295/.349/.533 through the end of June.
The Brewers’ offense was all the better for it. Milwaukee posted a team slugging percentage of .354 over 33 games in Chourio’s absence, which topped only two teams in MLB. In the first two months after his return, the Brewers slugged .425, the seventh-highest rate in the Majors.
As soon as the calendar flipped to July, all of Chourio’s slug suddenly went missing. The hard contact vanished, and so, too, did the power numbers Chourio was putting up. After he posted a 48.9% hard-hit rate in June, that number dropped to 37.2% in July. Following a month in which he slugged .638 with a 1.013 OPS, both his slugging percentage (.305) and OPS (.588) plummeted over the next 26 games. While Chourio noted there were no changes in his plate approach, the Brewers began to notice a trend. The less frequent the extra-base hits became, the harder Chourio fought to bring them back. “When you go through a little stretch of not getting the hits and you're not getting the results that you want, it's just the human nature of, ‘I’ve got to do more,’” Vogelbach said. “People forget how young he is. He's still young and he's learning that about himself. And we just keep preaching to him, ‘You’ve got to realize how good you are. You don't have to do anything else other than just be yourself.’” The instruction Chourio was given, simple as it may sound, was essentially “don’t try so hard.” |
“Less is more with him,” Vogelbach said. “Sometimes it's hard in this game when things aren't going your way, or you want more and try to do more. When he does less up there, it's almost like he plays pepper.” “I think he's right, there,” Chourio added. “It's easy in the thought of it. It's about just trying to take better quality at-bats, be a little bit more patient whenever the game's calling for it, and you find ways to get on base and help the team produce.” That’s exactly what Chourio started to do once he began applying the “less is more” mindset. Once August arrived, so, too, did the hard contact he’s used to providing. As of Sunday, Chourio produced 22 batted balls for the month. Seventeen of those qualified as hard-hit. His Aug. 4 homer was one of four he slugged in a six-game stretch. That included a leadoff shot on Sunday, which he sent once again to right-center as if to reiterate that the approach is still paying off. “He's calmed it down a little bit,” manager Pat Murphy said. “He's seeing the ball much better, not trying to do too much, and that leads to a good version of Jackson, which leads to extra-base hits.” |
Because he is at such a young age, this will hardly be the last time Chourio encounters a stretch where finds himself trying to do a little too much at the plate. But for now, it does indeed seem like “Jack-Jack is back.” Not only is he back, but the Brewers believe what he’s done so far this month is only scratching the surface. “It's crazy to say, but he's not even close to being the player that he can be,” Vogelbach said. “There is still much more to come.” |
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Brewers fans might’ve been a bit confused on Sunday afternoon when Andrew Vaughn made the trot out to third base to open the series finale against the Twins. He’d logged just 10 innings at the hot corner since joining Milwaukee last season, and hadn’t started there since Sept. 23, 2021, with the White Sox. But with the Brewers playing shorthanded after Pratt and Joey Ortiz were sidelined, Vaughn embraced the club’s next-man-up mentality. Naturally, the very first play of the day was a pop fly to third. “Vaughn's a baseball player,” Murphy said. “It's like asking someone who's a veteran baseball player to do something they haven't done before. They're not going to be panicked about it.” Vaughn held his own at third, making several plays before being subbed out for a pinch-hitter in the sixth. And after showing off his versatility to a Brewers club dealing with several ailments, his manager knows no request might be too wild. “I told him, ‘Hey, be ready for left field,’” Murphy said. “You never know.” |
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