Brewers: After Weekend in Nashville, Christian Yelich Hopefully Returning Sooner Than Later
By Paul Bretl
The good news for the Milwaukee Brewers is that Christian Yelich is off to a good start this season after struggling in 2020 by his lofty standards, as many hitters did, logging a .205 average and .786 OPS—although his OPS+ of 110 was still above league average.
The bad news, however, is that Yelich has only appeared in 10 games this season with 34 at-bats due to a nagging back injury. As I said, he’s been successful in this small sample size, recording a slash line of .353/.382/.846 with six walks and an OPS+ of 136. But as the old saying goes, your best ability is availability.
Yelich appeared in the Brewers’ first nine games of the season before heading to the IL after Milwaukee’s April 11th game against St. Louis. He would reappear in the Brewers lineup on May 3rd against Philadelphia before quickly heading back to the IL, where he has since been. But hopefully, for not much longer.
This past weekend, Yelich was in Nashville with the Milwaukee Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate on a rehab assignment. Yelich would play in three innings Saturday night and then four innings on Sunday afternoon. In seven plate appearances, he has drawn two walks but doesn’t have any hits—although that’s not an issue, how his back is holding up is what matters. He’s also caught a few fly balls in left field.
"“He’s been fine and he feels good,” Triple-A Nashville manager Rick Sweet said before Sunday’s game via The Athletic. “Actually we’ve tested him pretty well because we’ve had a couple of games where he’s had to stand out there for about 30, 40 minutes. Those were long innings. He’s held up well.”"
How Yelich is feeling on Monday will be very telling in how quickly he will return to action with the Brewers. Perhaps even seeing him as soon as this week in Kansas City if his back is holding up and the Milwaukee medical staff clears him.
"“I think we’ll have a better idea after we get through this game today (Sunday), talk to him, talk to our medical staff, and then determine where he’s headed Monday, Tuesday,” said Brewers’ President of Baseball Operations David Stearns via The Athletic."
Of course, assuming Yelich is fully healthy, his return can’t come soon enough. This is a Milwaukee Brewers’ offense that has struggled mightily this season. They currently rank 27th in team OPS, 28th in average, and 25th in runs.
Now that isn’t to say that Yelich is going to single handily turn this stagnant Brewers’ offense into a successful one, but he will undoubtedly help.
For now, we will continue to play the waiting game and could hear about Yelich’s status as soon as today. Both Milwaukee and Nashville are in action Tuesday evening, with the Brewers facing the Royals and the Sounds taking on Gwinnett.
UPDATE: Manager Craig Counsell told WTMJ that Yelich is with the team in Kansas City, and the Brewers will “evaluate him today and figure out what the next step is.”