Andrew Vaughn’s Midseason Move Sparked a Glow-Up Like No Other

In Chicago, Vaughn was maybe MLB's worst player. Since going to Milwaukee, he's been one of its best. Wait, what?

Andrew Vaughn of the Milwaukee Brewers hits a three-run home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the sixth inning at American Family Field on August 12, 2025. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

When a team is as hot as the Milwaukee Brewers have been recently — Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds was their first defeat in all of August (and it’s the 18th now!!) — there’s always a lot of credit to spread around.

The Brewers entered Sunday with the league’s highest batting average (.319), on-base percentage (.393), slugging (.547) and OPS (.940) for the month; they also owned the most home runs (27 — tied with Toronto), hits (166) and RBIs (108); sixth-lowest WHIP (1.15), seventh-lowest ERA (3.52) and ninth-lowest xFIP (3.90); and the most batting WAR (4.5) and fielding WAR (0.42), and 10th-most pitching WAR (2.0).¹ In short, they’ve been dominating across the board, with contributions coming from every corner of their impressively retooled roster.

One of the most important sources of Milwaukee’s recent surge, however, has been arguably the most unlikely as well: the all-around excellence of first baseman Andrew Vaughn.

Since making his Brewers debut on July 7, Vaughn is hitting .330/.395/.624, good for a 1.019 OPS that ranks seventh among all MLB hitters. He’s also been the league’s best defensive 1B among those who primarily play the position. Add it up, and Vaughn has been one of the most valuable players in baseball over the past six weeks.

For a former No. 3 overall draft pick and Top-15 prospect, that might not seem too strange — “touted talent helping team win a lot of ballgames” is a tale as old as the game itself. But before joining Milwaukee, Vaughn was not helping his former team, the Chicago White Sox, win ballgames. In fact, he was helping them lose ballgames, possibly as much as any player in the league. At the time he was designated for assignment by Chicago in late May, Vaughn was hitting .189 with a .531 OPS and was dead last in the league in WAR:

Once again: Vaughn was literally the worst player in baseball in Chicago. Now he’s been one of the best with Milwaukee, boosting his OPS by 488 points since the trade that brought him to the Brewers. This is, without hyperbole, the greatest midseason team-swapping glow-up we’ve ever seen in MLB history.