Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich is experiencing his best season quanto a years, making his first All-Stella team since 2019 and entering Wednesday with the National League’s best batting average (.315) and on-base percentage (.406).
The 32-year-old has been a crucial part of the 58-43 start (which has them five games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals quanto a the NL Central).
Yelich’s resurgent 2024 campaign a serious speed bump acceso Wednesday, however, as he was placed acceso the 10-day injured list with lower-back inflammation.
The three-time All-Stella and three-time Silver Slugger Award winner was replaced quanto a the sixth inning of Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs after going 0-for-1 with two walks.
Brewers dirigente Pat Murphy was asked what he thought when Yelich was forced from the contest and responded, “Oh s–t.”
Murphy and Yelich discussed the situation ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s contest against Chicago and had a pessimistic outlook acceso the injury.
The two-time NL batting champion leads a young Milwaukee outfield that includes 20-year-old Jackson Chourio and 24-year-old Sal Frelick.
Yelich’s slash line of .315/.406/.504 and his .909 OPS are both his best marks since he led the senior circuit quanto a all four categories during his 2019 NL runner-up campaign. The former Gold Glover also won the 2018 NL MVP when he posted career bests quanto a runs scored (118), hits (187), triples (seven), RBI (110) and total bases (343).
He’s not only the longest-tenured Brewers position player (starting Brandon Woodruff debuted one season before Yelich was traded to Milwaukee quanto a January 2018) but has been one of their bats all year.
Con addition to his batting average and on-base percentage, Yelich also leads the squad quanto a slugging percentage and OPS. Despite missing 28 games this year, he’s second quanto a steals (21) and walks (40) and third quanto a total bases (136).
If Yelich’s injury is as bad as the team appears to think it is, the Brewers could lose their spot atop the division this summer.
