Burnt Toast Sports – Brilliantly Stupid

Out of all the smiling faces in the Brewers clubhouse after their sixth straight win, perhaps none are shining quite as brightly—or as thinning—as Andrew Vaughn. Balding and beaming, Vaughn has driven in 10 RBIs over just five games with the Crew, including four today. His biggest moment so far? A clutch two-run double in the ninth inning off Kyle Finnegan.

It wasn’t all smiles for Vaughn until recently. After pitcher Aaron Civale (Civale since has given up 18 runs in 25 innings of work) requested a trade, Milwaukee acquired Vaughn on June 13th, hoping for a spark. Since then, he’s been playing his best Willy Adames impression—bringing immediate impact and energy, just like Adames did during his own hot start with the Brewers. Vaughn’s arrival has given the offense the thump it desperately needed.

Small in stature, balding, and trying to reignite his career, Vaughn is an easy player to root for.

Drafted third overall in 2019 by the White Sox—right after Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr.—Vaughn entered the league with high expectations. But things didn’t go according to plan on the South Side. After a rocky rookie season in 2021, the White Sox still managed to win the AL Central with 93 victories. The years that followed were a freefall: 81 losses, then 101, and finally a modern-era record 121 losses in 2024. Vaughn struggled too—of the top 14 players selected in that 2019 draft, his career WAR is the lowest at –0.1.

He hit rock bottom on May 23rd, when the last-place White Sox sent him down to Triple-A. Through 48 games with Chicago this season, he was hitting just .189, with a .218 OBP and a lifeless .314 slugging percentage.

“Nobody likes to struggle, but you learn a lot about yourself when you are going through those times,” Vaughn said in a 2024 interview with Scott Merkin. With each disappointing season in Chicago, his batting average—and his hairline—continued to recede. One thing Andrew hasn’t done? Give up. Though he’d undoubtedly be better off shaving his head, he’s shown great resilience, strength—and a steady supply of receding hope that one day it’ll grow back.

But maybe it wasn’t just mechanics or genetics weighing him down. Maybe it was something bigger—something in the air. During his time in Chicago, Vaughn’s batting average followed a strikingly similar trend to the city’s air quality. With a correlation coefficient of –0.71, the data suggests a moderately strong inverse relationship: as the air worsened, so did the swing.

If air quality really played a part in Vaughn’s Chicago slide, then Milwaukee might just be the breath of fresh air he needs—literally. Through his first five games with the Brewers, Vaughn is hitting .428. He may be the unlikely star Milwaukee has been waiting for.