Yelich clears air, gives update on back injury

MILWAUKEE -- Christian Yelich would like to clear a few things up.

“Next year’s not in jeopardy. My career is not in jeopardy,” Yelich said before the Brewers’ 6-2 loss to the Braves at American Family Field. “There’s a lot of wild [stuff] out there.”

Yelich landed back on the injured list on July 24 with low back inflammation, a nagging issue that goes back to his mid-20s with the Marlins. His comments on Wednesday, before another quiet game for Milwaukee’s offense capped an 11-13 month of July, represented his first public update since seeing a back specialist to discuss options that ranged from rest and rehab in an attempt to play again this season, all the way to season-ending surgery.

Yelich chose the former route, and has been getting treatment throughout the past week. He felt that initial reports gave the impression he was seeing a new doctor -- in fact, he’d seen that specialist before, liked him, and had previously gone over all of the various options, so last week’s visit offered no surprises. Yelich also felt that reports overstated the likelihood he’ll need surgery, which he conceded is possible, but “not 100 percent.”

When he talked at Wrigley Field about “getting on the other side of this when all is said and done,” Yelich said he was feeling highly frustrated after trying for days to hold off a shutdown for as long as he could.

“Sometimes things pop up and you have to deal with them,” Yelich said. “[Bad] timing, obviously. We’ll try to figure out a way to get back out there this season, because I like playing with these guys, obviously.

“Right now, I’m not thinking about surgery. I’m trying to figure out, how do we push this as far as we can? We’ll see what happens and see if I can do it. I have hope. That’s a good thing.”

And if he does need surgery eventually?

“I don’t think any part of next year would be jeopardized,” Yelich said. “If that was the case, then it was kind of a different conversation as far as where you want to go.”

And asked what kind of surgery he would require, should he go that route, Yelich said, “I don’t want to say what they would do. They would just fix me, hopefully.”

The Brewers will open the month of August atop the National League Central with a good chance, mathematically speaking, to win a second straight division title and make the postseason for the sixth time in seven seasons since Yelich arrived in 2018. The team added a trio of pitchers in July trades including starters Frankie Montas and Aaron Civale, who are lined up to start the first two games of the Brewers' next series, a three-game set at the Nationals.

The Brewers did not add any bats, meaning they are sticking with a young position player group that has taken a collective step forward this season. The Brewers rank third in the Majors in on-base percentage this season and ninth in runs per game, though their output has slipped more recently. The team is 19th in runs per game since the start of June, and after seeing Wednesday’s game slip away as the Braves’ Matt Olson and Travis d’Arnaud twice hit back-to-back home runs, the Brewers have lost all four of their series at home since the start of July.

“We just have to clear our minds right now,” said Brewers ace Freddy Peralta, who took a no-decision after working six innings of Wednesday’s homestand finale. “We’re still in a very good position. We just have to keep it that way.”

Said Brewers manager Pat Murphy: “We’re a young team that’s going through it. You can call it ‘tired’ or whatever you want to call it from the outside, but there [are] so many factors involved. You have to reach down and reassess where you are personally. … You’re running a marathon. You’ve trained 20 miles, but you’ve never trained 26. What do you do for the last six? You finish it.”

Yelich was once in the same position as the Brewers’ first- and second-year hitters, who include infielders Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz and outfielders Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell and one of the Brewers’ hottest hitters over the last two months, 20-year-old Jackson Chourio.

What does he foresee from that group in the next two months?

“They have to try to be the same guys they’ve been all year,” Yelich said. “Just because you’re in a race and have expectations, you still have to play the games and play well. The biggest thing is, don’t change just because we’re about to be in August and you’re going to look up and still be in first place when nobody thought in March that we would be there. You go from being expected to finish last in the division to being in first. So keep being the guys who were expected to finish last. Play with that freedom and give it hell.”

He’ll try his best to help.

“We’re running out of time,” Yelich said. “So the sooner you can get back, the better. We’ll deal with everything else after the season and figure it out.”