Milwaukee Brewers star outfielder Christian Yelich is out the the season after announcing on Wednesday that he would undergo back surgery. Back injuries are always tricky, so there was some concern about Yelich missing time next season as well.
Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold addressed a potential timeline to when they could get Yelich back before their 3-5 loss to the Guardians on Friday, per the Associated Press.
“By doing this sooner, it does allow him to hopefully be ready for Opening Day next year,” Arnold said.
Arnold was then asked about whether or not Yelich would be available at the start of spring training.
‘That's my understanding, but you never know with a back and how that's going to respond with the surgery he had,” Arnold said. “We're optimistic about him being ready for opening day.”
According to Arnold, Yelich underwent a diskectomy, a surgery that removes a damaged part of a disc from the spine. The surgery was performed on Friday by Dr. Brandon Rebholz in Milwaukee.
While it is of course a significant blow to be without Yelich for the rest of this season, it is great news that Arnold is expecting him to be ready for spring training and the start of the 2025 season.
What the Brewers are missing with Christian Yelich out for the season
Yelich was having an incredible bounce-back 2024 season and looking like one of the best hitters in baseball before going down with the back injury on July 23. An All-Star, Yelich was hitting .315/.406/.504. Since winning the National League MVP in 2018 and coming in second in NL MVP voting in 2019, Yelich struggled, and many thought he could never return to the MVP-level player he once was before his All-Star season this year.
With Yelich leading the way for most of the season, the Brewers have quietly been one of the best teams in baseball. They currently have a 70-52 record and are 10 games up on the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central and are looking like locks to make the postseason.
In Yelich's absence, the Brewers will have to rely more on some of their young outfielders, like 20-year-old rookie Jackson Chourio, 24-year-old Sal Frelick and 25-year-old Garrett Mitchell.
The big question going forward with Yelich now will be whether or not he can ever get back to the player he was when he was a perennial MVP candidate, or even the All-Star type of player he was this season.
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