Brewers place Christian Yelich on IL due to back strain amid strong start
The Milwaukee Brewers will have to continue their strong start without former MVP Christian Yelich.
The team announced Tuesday that they placed Yelich on the 10-day injured list due to a lower back strain, retroactive to April 13. Utility man Owen Miller was called up from Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move.
OF Christian Yelich placed on the 10-day injured list with a low back strain, retroactive to April 13.
INF/OF Owen Miller recalled from Triple-A Nashville. pic.twitter.com/XNzjTEaE9Q— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) April 16, 2024
The Brewers have started Sal Frelick and Joey Wiemer at left field in the three games since Yelich has been out.
The Brewers' record currently sits at 10-5, good for first in the NL Central. That is thanks in no small part to Yelich, who is hitting .333/.422/.744 with five homers, 11 RBI and two stolen bases in 11 games this season.
Yelich sustained the injury Friday in a game against the Baltimore Orioles and hasn't played since. The retroactive placement means he could return as soon as next Tuesday, but it's unclear for now if he has a timetable. Back injuries are often hard to project.
The 32-year-old Yelich was coming off a bounce-back year in which he hit .278/.370/.447 with 19 homers and 28 steals, his best numbers since he finished second in MVP voting in 2019. The Brewers were hoping for that success to continue this season, especially as the organization figures out its path forward.
This past offseason was the start of a forced transition for the defending NL Central champs, who lost manager Craig Counsell to the Chicago Cubs and president of baseball operations David Stearns to the New York Mets. The biggest move of new general manager Matt Arnold's first offseason running the front office was to trade former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes to the Baltimore Orioles for young players DL Hall and Joey Ortiz, plus a compensatory draft pick.
