The Milwaukee Brewers might not be littered with star power, but they did have one player who many MLB fans felt fit the "must-watch" category. Jackson Chourio, coming off an unbelievable rookie year, looked like a player who was going to assert himself as a legitimate NL MVP candidate in his second full season. Instead, he's taken a massive step back, and his regression is becoming harder for the Brewers to ignore.
Chourio got off to a sluggish start as he tried to acclimate to the Majors last season, but once he settled in, he was really tough to stop. He had a .914 OPS in the second half, displaying immense five-tool talent, while also having a strong postseason showing in the NL Wild Card Series against the New York Mets. He didn't win the NL Rookie of the Year award because of Paul Skenes doing Paul Skenes things, but he did receive down-ballot NL MVP votes, showing just how good he was.
This season, for whatever reason, he has not been close to the guy we saw down the stretch of the 2024 campaign.
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Jackson Chourio's sophomore slump is getting tougher for the Brewers to ignore
Chourio began his 2025 season by going 0-for-5 with five strikeouts. Brewers fans shrugged that off, understandably so, but that's starting to look like an omen for what was to come. He did go 2-for-5 in Wednesday's game, but Chourio entered the day slashing .237/.257/.415 with seven home runs and 25 RBI on the year.
He has shown off some power, and he's stolen eight bases in 10 tries, but what has stuck out with Chourio this season has been his plate discipline, or lack thereof. Chourio has a whopping 41.1 percent chase rate, good for the second percentile according to Baseball Savant. That's nearly 10 percent higher than his 31.9 percent mark from last season.
Hitters can still produce while chasing a lot — like fellow NL Central center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, for example — but Chourio's chasing is truly out of control. He has fanned 48 times as a result of his wild swings while drawing just five walks. Nobody expects Chourio to be Juan Soto when it comes to his patience, but why should pitchers throw him anything to hit if he's willing to swing at just about anything that comes his way?
What makes his struggles more alarming is that things aren't exactly getting better. Yes, he had a good day on Wednesday, but prior to this game, he was in a 1-for-26 rut with 11 strikeouts. His struggles are starting to concern manager Pat Murphy, who even hit him sixth one game during this recent slump. If he doesn't snap out of it soon, he should hit lower in the order more often until he starts to show signs of life.
It's far from only Chourio's fault that the Brewers are now 24-26 on the year, but it's hard to see them coming close to challenging the Chicago Cubs and even the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central barring a massive Chourio turnaround. Hopefully, for Brewers fans, he starts to get going sooner rather than later.