The Milwaukee Brewers proved to be quite adept last season in coming up clutch at the plate with runners in scoring position (RISP). With their ability to do so, it helped Milwaukee secure a postseason spot and even knock the Chicago Cubs out.

With the 2026 MLB season just around the corner, one has to wonder: Can the Brew Crew repeat its success next season?

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One key number that ESPN baseball writer David Schoenfield pointed out for the Brewers is .279, which was the team RISP average in 2025. In his latest article for ESPN, Schoenfield explains in great detail about what this statistic really means.

“The Brewers hit .279 with runners in scoring position, second best in the majors behind the Blue Jays’ .292 average, and it is a key reason Milwaukee finished third in runs scored despite ranking 22nd in home runs,” Schoenfield wrote.

“That .279 average was 21 points higher than the Brewers’ overall mark of .258 (the average gain with runners in scoring position among all teams was a 10-point increase),” Schoenfield continued.

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“Leading the way: Brice Turang hit .368 with RISP (compared to .288 overall) while Christian Yelich hit .304, a 40-point increase from his .264 overall average.

“Analysts will tell you that hitting with runners in scoring position isn’t — for the most part — a repeatable skill,” Schoenfield wrote. “Check how the top two teams in batting average with runners in scoring position since 2021 fared the following season:

“2024 Diamondbacks: .285 to .249 (scored 95 fewer runs)
2024 Royals: .282 to .255 (scored 84 fewer runs)
2023 Orioles: .287 to .251 (scored 21 fewer runs)
2023 Rays: .285 to .212 (scored 256 fewer runs)
2022 Dodgers: .272 to .276 (scored 59 more runs)
2022 Astros: .270 to .270 (scored 90 more runs)
2021 Astros: .272 to .270 (scored 126 fewer runs)
2021 Blue Jays: .270 to .258 (scored 71 fewer runs)”.

Those are some pretty gaudy numbers when you take a look at how much that RISP statistic from a bird’s eye view.

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“Keep in mind that the MLB overall batting average has hovered between .243 and .248 since 2021,” Schoenfield wrote.

“The good news for the Brewers is they’ve been consistent in this category, hitting .268 in 2024 (fifth in the majors) and .269 in 2023 (eighth),” he added. “They also improved from 21st in the majors in strikeouts in 2024 to fifth in 2025, another reason they improved even more in 2025.

“A low strikeout rate doesn’t always translate to continued success, however: The Royals struck out the fewest times in the majors last season and still regressed from that high RISP average in 2024,” Schoenfield wrote. “Bottom line: The Brewers scored 806 runs in 2025, their most since 1999. That total may be hard to repeat in 2026.”

Look at those numbers once again, Brewers fans. They will need to have another bang-up season from Turang, Yelich, and others in the Milwaukee lineup. The Brewers desperately want to get back to the National League Championship Series. They want to win a World Series championship.

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There’s no way that Milwaukee was satisfied with being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. But Brewers manager Pat Murphy needs to make sure all his players know, going into spring training in just a few weeks, that getting runners home must be a point that he drives home.

With a bevy of statistics out there for MLB players ro review, knocking in runners throughout a ballgame can end up either leading to a win or a loss. A lack of productivity at the plate and not being able to get runners home with no outs or one out might prove costly.

Milwaukee will take note of these statistics and look forward to matching, or improving, their RISP numbers from last season.