Milwaukee Brewers get good news on Christian Yelich
By David Hill
It has been nearly two weeks since Christian Yelich has played for the Milwaukee Brewers. He had been placed on the Injured List on April 17 due to a strained lower back, backdated to the 14th. While he was eligible to be activated on Saturday, Yelich had plateaued in his recovery, leading to an MRI and the understandable concern of Brewers’ fans.
The Brewers received good news on Sunday. The MRI did not show any structural damage, allowing Milwaukee to rule out any significant injuries that would have caused his recovery to have come to a standstill.
Counsell said there's no news from MRI that will change how they are proceeding. So nothing structural. "This was to rule out anything and get another piece of information. We ruled out anything significant."
— Tom (@Haudricourt) April 25, 2021
Milwaukee Brewers treading water without Christian Yelich
There were some concerns about Yelich heading into the 2021 season. His 2020 campaign was a disaster by his standards, as he posted career lows in batting average and OPS+, while his strikeout rate jumped over 10% from his career norm. However, given the strange circumstances of the season, it was easy to write those issues off as being due to the shortened schedule.
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He had alleviated some of those concerns in the early part of 2021. In the short sample size of 37 plate appearances, Yelich had posted a .333/.459/.367 batting line, drawing six walks and stealing two bases. As the Brewers rank last in the National League in batting average and 13th in OPS, that production was certainly needed.
However, there were still reasons to be concerned. Yelich had just one extra base hit on the season, a double on April 7th. His strikeout rate has continued to remain high, as his 32.4% strikeout rate was even worse than last year’s. Additionally, these back woes have been an ongoing concern, and had flared up in spring training.
Fortunately, it appears that these back issues are minor in nature. It is just a matter of getting Yelich to the point where he can manage the pain and have it not affect his performance. The Brewers certainly hope that will happen sooner rather than later, as their offense has been putrid in his absence.
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The Milwaukee Brewers received good news as it comes to Christian Yelich. Now it is just a matter of getting him back on the diamond.