Brewers’ Christian Yelich battling concerning injury amid strong 2024 start

After leaving during the Brewers’ 11-1 win over the Orioles, Christian Yelich is listed as day-to-day currently. Since back problems have been a lingering issue for him, though, it is unclear how long he will be out of the lineup.

Fortunately, Yelich did tell reporters that this current injury doesn’t seem as bad as others he has had in the past.

“This one doesn’t feel as bad as before,” Yelich said. “But you never really know. I’m hoping for it to be quick, but you never really know. It just sucks, man.”

Yelich has dealt with various back issues since 2019, but over the past few years, the problems have seemed to become increasingly more prevalent, even limiting him for most of September last year in the lead-up to the playoffs. To combat this, Yelich has occasionally played as the Brewers’ designated hitter; Yelich has played 56 games at DH over the last two seasons, including about a quarter of the 2022 season, the first in which the National League adopted the DH.

This season, Yelich has only played one of his 11 games at DH, instead returning to left field while getting off to one of the best starts of his career.

Yelich has kicked off the 2024 season mostly replicating his stats from his MVP season in 2018 and MVP runner-up campaign in 2019. Through 11 games, Yelich is batting .333 AVG / .422 OBP / .744 SLG /  1.166 OPS, with 5 home runs and 11 RBIs. Despite barely playing in the last game, he ranks in the top 10 in the NL in WAR, OBP, SLG, OPS, and home runs.

The Brewers, who are 9-3 to start the season and have won their last three, are set to play the second of their three-game series against Baltimore today at 4:05 p.m. ET. The series finale will be tomorrow at 1:35 p.m. before the Brewers fly back to Milwaukee to begin a three-game series with the San Diego Padres on Monday. We will likely learn shortly whether Yelich will play today’s game in Baltimore.