Yelich will try for non-surgical comeback from back injury (source)

MILWAUKEE -- The first-place Brewers are facing the prospect of playing a long stretch without the National League’s leading hitter after placing outfielder Christian Yelich on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with low back inflammation.

It’s an all-to-familiar diagnosis for the 32-year-old All-Star Game starter, who already missed a month from mid-April into May following an earlier flare-up. Yelich saw a back specialist on Thursday to discuss his options, which run the gamut from rest and treatment to season-ending surgery, and he opted to try a non-surgical comeback first, according to a source.

There’s optimism, the source said, that this IL stint will be shorter than the one earlier this season. But back injuries offer no guarantees, and offseason surgery remains a possibility.

“Everybody plays through stuff, but sometimes you just can’t,” Yelich said Wednesday at Wrigley Field. “That’s kind of where we’re at at this point. Your body won’t cooperate with you. For me, aside from when I broke my knee, this has been the one thing that I’ve had to deal with. … I’ve been able to play at a high level, but it’s one of those things that’s held me back a little, so that’s where it’s frustrating.

“What are you going to do? But also, though, there’s a potential that I can finally get on the other side of this when all is said and done. We’ll see. It remains to be seen, I guess.”

Yelich still topped NL batting title qualifiers with a .315 average and a .406 on-base percentage as of Wednesday, and his 156 wRC+ was flirting with his peak in 2018 (167 wRC+), when he won the NL MVP Award, and 2019 (174 wRC+) when he finished runner-up. He’s already been worth 3.1 wins above replacement this year, per FanGraphs, closing in on his 3.8 fWAR from 2023 in twice as many games played.

But his performance deteriorated during a 1-for-20 stretch over his past seven games -- all as Milwaukee’s designated hitter. It’s a 1-for-22 stretch if you include the All-Star Game, in which Yelich played the first five innings in right field for the NL.

For the past several days, it became increasingly evident that an IL stint was coming. After Yelich trotted gingerly to first base on a comebacker in his final at-bat during Tuesday’s 1-0 Brewers win over the Cubs, he was replaced by pinch-hitter Rhys Hoskins in the eighth inning.

A day later, the Brewers placed Yelich on the IL while activating backup catcher Gary Sánchez from his own IL stint for a calf injury.

Asked whether the development could impact Milwaukee’s strategy ahead of the July 30 Trade Deadline, Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, “What do you suggest we do, go get Vlad [Guerrero] Jr.? I mean, for what Yeli does for this lineup and this clubhouse, I don’t know [that] there’s too many players who can replace him. I mean that. He’s got a special niche here with us.

“It’s a huge loss, and we’ve had some huge losses this year. I can name their names if you would like me to repeat the list. But this is huge, no matter how serious. Whatever number of games we lose him for, it’s serious.”

The potentially available hitters on MLB.com’s list of top Trade Deadline targets with left field on their résumé include Randy Arozarena of the Rays, Brent Rooker and Miguel Andujar of the A’s, Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker of the Nationals and Taylor Ward of the Angels. White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. is also a top trade target.

But defensively, the Brewers have coverage thanks to their deep stable of young outfielders, including Jackson Chourio, who started in left field on Wednesday, plus Sal Frelick. Triple-A Nashville’s Joey Wiemer has also made multiple Brewers starts this season in left field.

But Yelich won’t be an option for a while. He declined to get into specifics of how this flare is different from previous ones, but made clear that the news is “not great, for sure.”

“I was doing nobody any good out there, so I kind of just decided there were big at-bats late in the game and I was definitely not the right person to do that,” Yelich said. “Being stubborn and going out there wasn’t going to do anyone any good.”