Sal Frelick is not a perfect baseball player. But Frelick might just be a perfect ballplayer, if you’ll allow me to jump into backwards baseball cliches that I don’t really believe in. And right now, he feels like the spark that’s keeping the Brewers’ season alive.
This week’s series against the Red Sox has been sort of a perfect microcosm of Frelick’s season. On Monday, he knocked a pinch-hit single. On Tuesday, it was Frelick’s clutch hit that tied the game in the ninth inning, setting up Christian Yelich’s walk-off grand slam in the tenth. On Wednesday, he picked up four hits. Sure, they were all singles, one of them a blooper and one of them an infield hit, but four hits are four hits.
It’s not just the hits, though. After his sixth-inning single on Wednesday, Frelick aggressively advanced to second base on a flyout to center field. He was initially called out, but a challenge overturned the incorrect out call. Literally on the next pitch, Caleb Durbin hit a two-run double to give Milwaukee the lead.
Frelick as an igniter is a common theme. In the tenth inning of that Wednesday game, he led off—and outraced Boston reliever Justin Slaten to the bag for an infield single. He would have had a productive out even if he’d not won that race: his grounder to the right side advanced Milwaukee’s ghost runner to third, setting them up to tie the game. But by busting down the line, Frelick gave the Brewers an extra out to work with; he made it to third on the next play and scored on Durbin’s game-winning sac fly.
There were reverberations from another great Frelick play on Tuesday that affected the game on Wednesday, too. On Tuesday, Frelick made one of the better throws from right field that you’ll ever see, when he nailed Marcelo Mayer at third base when he attempted to tag and advance. On Wednesday, the Red Sox decided not to run on him, which led to confusion on the basepaths and, technically, another outfield assist for Frelick, when Cedanne Rafaela got caught between second and third with Connor Wong still on third, unwilling to test the arm.
Frelick has rated as just slightly above average as a fielder in 2025, but he’s a reigning Gold Glove winner, and the arm has been a terror—with his assist on Wednesday, Frelick moved into sole possession of first place for outfield assists. He’s very fast, and Statcast views him as in the top 12 percent of all baserunners this season. He’s stolen ten bases. He rarely chases and strikes out less than almost anyone else in baseball. After the four-hit game on Wednesday, his batting average is up to .294.
Frelick does not hit for power, even after supposedly adding 25 pounds of muscle in the offseason. That lack of power may prevent him from ever becoming a true star; he has just three home runs in 209 plate appearances this season and is barely slugging over .400 despite the solid batting average. The Statcast numbers aren’t great: he’s in the bottom 12 percent in the categories of average exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard-hit percentage, launch angle sweet-spot percentage, and bat speed. He hits a lot of ground balls and doesn’t do enough damage when he does hit the ball in the air.
But to my eyes, Frelick has been supplying the edge that this team has seemed to lack for most of this season. He’s been getting fired up after big plays and coming through in clutch moments. Despite the lack of power, he’s still got a solidly above-average OPS+ and has been one of the team’s most consistent offensive performers this season. Add in his baserunning and defense, and Frelick is doing a lot for this team.
He’s a Good Ballplayer. He’ll probably never hit 20 homers or 40 doubles, he may never make an All-Star Game and he certainly isn’t ever going to be an MVP candidate. But he’s a Good Ballplayer, and he’s a huge part of why the Brewers are still hanging around as the calendar turns to June.