Brewers Outfielder Christian Yelich Wins NL MVP

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich was named the 2018 National League MVP award on Thursday.

Yelich defeated Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies and Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs by receiving 29 of 30 first-place votes.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "It's really hard to put into words right now. You never dream of winning an award like this."

Yelich was traded to the Brewers this past offseason after spending his first five MLB seasons with the Miami Marlins. He became the fourth Brewers player in franchise history to win the MVP award, joining Rollie Fingers (1981) and Robin Yount (1982 and 1989), both of whom played for the team when it was part of the National League.

Teammate Ryan Braun was the first Milwaukee player to win the National League MVP award in 2011 during the last season in which the Brewers won a division title before a late-season rally propelled them to the top of the NL Central standings in 2018.

Yelich's MVP candidacy was propelled by a huge second-half of the season in which he hit .387 with 25 home runs and 67 RBIs in his final 65 games. But he was even better during the season's final weeks, going 11-of-24 with 17 RBIs as the Brewers won eight consecutive games to surpass the Chicago Cubs for the division title.

Milwaukee advanced to the NL Championship series before being eliminated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven game, falling one win shy of its first pennant since 1982.

Yelich nearly became the NL's first Triple Crown winner since former Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Caridnals in 1937 due to his historic post-All Star Game surge. He became the first player in Milwaukee franchise history to win an NL batting title, leading the league with a .326 average and fell two home runs shy of Arenado with 36, as well as one RBIs short of Baez's total of 110.

Yelich witnessed his former teammate Giancarlo Stanton -- who was also traded by the Marlins this offseason -- win the NL MVP Award last season and said he didn't expect to be in the same situation the following year.

"To think about doing that a year ago ... it didn't even cross my mind that I might be in those same shoes a year [later]," Yelich said.

Yelich finished the 2018 season with career highs in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, runs, RBIs and stolen bases.