It was less than a year ago that Christian Yelich ran the risk of being marooned in Miami, stuck on a moribund Marlins team and easing into the peak of his career with financial security, but little in the way of tentpole baseball achievements.

Never an All-Star. Never played for a winner. Never hit more than 21 home runs. And October baseball? That happened elsewhere. 

Now, nine months after a trade from Miami to Milwaukee, Yelich has almost everything he could’ve possibly desired. 

Yelich was named National League Most Valuable Player on Thursday, winning the award in overwhelming fashion over the Chicago Cubs’ Javier Baez and Colorado Rockies’ Nolan Arenado. Yelich received 29 of 30 first-place votes and a total of 415 points.

Baez finished second with 250 points, Arenado third with 203 and Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman placed fourth.

NL Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom received the final first-place vote and finished fifth.

At 26, Yelich has claimed the game’s top honor, an award he epitomized both statistically and in the fashion he finished the season. 

Yelich, the Brewers’ fourth MVP and the first since Ryan Braun in 2011, hit 36 home runs, drove in 110 and led the NL in batting average (.326), slugging and OPS (.598, 1.000) and OPS-plus (164). He also led NL position players in Wins Above Replacement (7.6). 

Yelich might have stolen the award from Baez over the season’s final two months: He hit 21 home runs and batted .335 in August and September, and twice hit for the cycle. In his final five games, Yelich reached base 16 times in 21 plate appearances, including three home runs. 

The finishing kick pushed the Brewers into a 163rd and decisive game against Baez’s Cubs, and their 3-1 victory gave them their first division title since 2011.

The Brewers went on to sweep Colorado in the NL Division Series before losing in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series. In 2019, they will return the top two NL players based on WAR in Yelich and center fielder Lorenzo Cain, who signed a five-year contract the same January week the Brewers traded for Yelich. 

That may go down as one of the greatest weeks in franchise history. And perhaps for Yelich, too.