Andrew Vaughn Is Latest Example Of Brewers Elite Player Development

Forbes

a day ago

The Milwaukee Brewers are the talk of baseball now. They've been practically unbeatable all summer, and have the best record in the game by a comfortable margin. And they're doing this while being ravaged by injuries - their starting lineup and rotation are devoid of superstars, and in their current state nearly devoid of recognizable names. Outside of Christian Yelich, William Contreras, Brice Turang and Freddy Peralta, the casual fan likely wouldn't recognize many of the currently healthy Brewers.
The club cannot play with the big market franchises financially, but they are beating the tar out of them on the field. The club's raw materials might not match up well with the big boys, but their connective tissue is incredibly strong. The whole is much greater than the sum of the parts in Milwaukee.
Team chemistry is incredible, with everyone on the same page and all hands on deck. There's a different hero every night, insert your own applicable cliche here. Players seem to universally get better here, and it doesn't appear to be an accident. You simply do not want to trade with these guys, as they very well may see something in a desired player that the other team doesn't, and have a definitive plan to get that player to reach his potential. Starter Quinn Priester struggled with multiple organizations before being acquired by the Crew earlier this season, but has been a rotation mainstay since arriving in Milwaukee.
And then there's Andrew Vaughn.
Vaughn was once seen as a future franchise player, the 3rd overall selection in the 2019 draft by the Chicago White Sox. Something didn't seem right from the get go in the Sox system, as he didn't dominate Class A ball in his draft year, not making my annual statistically based list of top position player prospects (about 400 position players do every year). Then came the lost 2020 pandemic season. And then the Sox rushed him into their everyday major league lineup in 2021.
Both Baseball Reference and Fangraphs agree that Vaughn was basically a replacement level player in this time in Chicago, earning -0.5 bWAR and -1.8 fWAR, respectively. While he was clearly a disappointment overall, there were some bright spots under the hood that one could dream on.
Vaughn tended to hit the ball hard, across all batted ball types. From 2021-24, his fly ball, line drive and ground ball exit speeds were over one-half standard deviation above average, except for grounders in 2023. His batted ball mix wasn't particularly notable, either, except for a spike to an unacceptably high 7.0% pop up rate in 2024. In addition to hitting the ball hard on the ground, he also sprayed it around fairly liberally, a factor that generally has a positive effect on batting average. His platoon differentials have always been manageable, smaller than most regulars. His Adjusted Contact Scores were above 100 in all four seasons - but never higher than 108. Not bad, but not good for a first baseman/corner outfielder with zero baserunning or defensive skills.
He was also undermined by a poor K/BB profile. He's always made a decent amount of contact, with his seasonal K rates peaking in the league average range. But his walk rates have been low for a power-based hitter, over one-half standard deviation lower than league average in each of the last three full seasons.
So Vaughn entered 2025 on a rebuilding White Sox club kind of stuck in the mud development-wise. And struggled. His K/BB profile fell apart, with his K rate spiking to 22.3% and his BB rate plunging to 3.6%, way further short of league average than in the past. And while his batted ball authority didn't fall apart, his average fly ball and line drive exit speeds fell into the league average range. He 'should have' batted .250-.277-.429 in Chicago this season, not great but way better than his actual numbers. The Sox needed pitching, considered Vaughn a lost cause, and jettisoned him to the Brewers for starting pitcher Aaron Civale, who had just demanded a trade.
Now many current observers of the baseball scene would have looked at Vaughn and said, he should pull and elevate the baseball more to squeeze every ounce of power out of his game. Those observers, thankfully, do not work for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Sure, all those homers (7 in his first 102 plate appearances) are the most notable thing in Vaughn's Brewer stat line. But under the hood, there are some other eye-openers. How about that 12.7% K rate and 9.8% BB rate? He's recognizing pitches better, not getting himself out on bad ones and jumping on mistakes early in the count. And very interestingly, he's pulling the ball LESS and posting a significantly LOWER average launch angle since coming to Milwaukee.
He had 4.50 pulled grounders to every opposite field grounder in 2025 with the White Sox, just short of the 5.00 ratio I consider excessive. Since the trade, that mark has plunged to 2.29 without a material decline in grounder authority. His 2025 average launch angle has dropped from 15.4 degrees in Chicago to 9.3 degrees in Milwaukee, as his fly ball rate has cratered from 39.2% to 29.5%. Now Vaughn's going to cool off - it's physically impossible to maintain his 38.9% fly ball homer rate as a Brewer for long - but he's clearly successfully implementing his plan to hit the ball hard where it's pitched rather than carrying a lift and pull approach to the plate.
And believe it or not, Vaughn has actually been playing the best defense of his major league life since the trade. He's obviously relaxed, and letting the game come to him, perhaps for the first time in his career.
So what do the Brewers have in Andrew Vaughn? Probably not a star, but certainly a productive hitter who can at least flourish somewhere near the middle of a major league lineup. Perhaps a slight upgrade from the injured Rhys Hoskins, who makes a lot more money. And speaking of money, Vaughn has another year of team control remaining, and those early season struggles in Chicago could hold his 2026 arbitration salary down a bit, always a part of the calculus for a small market team like the Brewers.
So the Brew Crew has done it again. It remains to be seen how the last chapter of the book on their 2025 club will be written, but the ride sure has been something else to this point.