Milwaukee Brewers Star Christian Yelich Hits Injured List With Lower Back Strain
Christian Yelich was enjoying a hot start at the plate in 2024, but now he will miss at least the next week of action for the first-place Milwaukee Brewers.
The Milwaukee Brewers have placed outfielder Christian Yelich on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain, the team announced Tuesday afternoon.
The move was made retroactive to April 13, as the ailment had already kept Yelich out of the lineup for the past three contests. He suffered the injury Friday against the Baltimore Orioles, leaving the game in the second inning with lower back discomfort.
Infielder/outfielder Owen Miller has been recalled from Triple-A Nashville to take Yelich's spot on the roster.
Yelich was off to a hot start to 2024 before going down with this back injury, batting .333 with five home runs, 11 RBI, an 1.166 OPS and a 0.8 WAR in just 11 games. He had reached base safely 19 times – at least once in every one of his appearances.
Last year, Yelich enjoyed a somewhat resurgent campaign at the plate. After batting .243 with a .745 OPS from 2020 to 2022, Yelich hit .278 with an .818 OPS. From May 4 on, he hit .291 with an .855 OPS.
While his production was far from the levels it reached in the late 2010s, the veteran slugger certainly took a step in the right direction.
Yelich won NL MVP in 2018, then finished runner-up in 2019. He won the NL Batting Title and a Silver Slugger in both seasons, as well as leading the NL in OPS and making the only two All-Star Games of his career. He did, however, win a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger in his early days with the Miami Marlins.
The 32-year-old Yelich can return to the Brewers' roster as soon as April 23, midway through their road series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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