PHOENIX -- With back surgery in the rearview mirror, Brewers star Christian Yelich left no question about his outlook as he reported for the start of his eighth season with the team.
¡°I don't see any reason why I won't be ready for Opening Day,¡± Yelich said Saturday at American Family Fields of Phoenix in the first interview about his health since the end of last season. ¡°I saw before I came out here that I might be a question mark for Opening Day, and I'm not sure where that came from. Unless something crazy happens here, I don't see why I wouldn't be ready.¡±
That¡¯s good news for the Brewers, who will try to replace Willy Adames¡¯ departed run production with a successful comeback for Yelich. Milwaukee will also look to get more of the same from two-time club MVP William Contreras in addition to the continued development from the club¡¯s young core, which includes budding star Jackson Chourio and others like Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz.
Last season was shaping up to be a renaissance campaign for Yelich, who was leading the National League in batting average (.315) and on-base percentage (.406) -- while earning a start in the All-Star Game -- before he was sidelined by a flare-up of his long-troublesome back in mid-July.
He tried a non-surgical rehabilitation in an effort to rejoin the Brewers for what became their sixth postseason berth in the past seven seasons, but by Aug. 15, that effort had failed. The only choice, Yelich¡¯s doctors told him, was to undergo a season-ending discectomy and dive headlong into recovery. He resumed hitting in mid-January, right on schedule.
¡°Once we got in there and did the operation and found the problem, it was like, 'This is probably not very good,'¡± Yelich said. ¡°So, yeah, it's kind of nice to be on the other side of it, and hopefully there are a lot less problems going forward.¡±
He added, ¡°I put the work in there and I feel good.¡±
Yelich indicated he would like to continue playing left field, and Brewers manager Pat Murphy seemed to agree, stating that Yelich "is still our left fielder." Early in the season, the designated hitter will offer opportunities to get Yelich off his feet, but Murphy plans to spread those at-bats around to others, including Contreras and Rhys Hoskins.
¡°We certainly lost a lot of pieces on the coaching side and on the player side, and that definitely shouldn't be understated, because we lost a lot,¡± Yelich said. ¡°But we've faced challenges every year it seems on this team. It's going to take somebody stepping up in here because they didn't really go outside of the organization to fill those voids. It's going to have to come internally. Somebody's going to have to step up.
¡°You're not necessarily going to replace a Willy or a Devin, so you don't have to look at it that way. We just have to come together as a group and find a way to overcome the challenges and obstacles you face in any season and see where we land.¡±
Yelich¡¯s offseason offered reminders that there are challenges much bigger than baseball. Twice in the span of a month, he was forced to evacuate his home because of the wildfires which have charred Southern California.
Yelich was spared, but he was devastated to see others lose everything.
¡°In that situation, it's a pretty helpless feeling, because when those fires get going like that, there's really not much you can do to stop it,¡± Yelich said. ¡°You're really just hoping to get lucky. That's the worst part of it. You're just helpless and hoping for the best. Some people get lucky, some don't, and if you don't, it's really sad. It happens quick. You wake up in the morning, everything's fine; but by nighttime, you don't have anything left. It's a really tough situation for people.¡±
Yelich helped rally support for families impacted by the wildfires via California Strong, the charitable organization he helped form with former Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun and Mike Attanasio, the son of Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio. The week before camps opened across baseball, Attanasio and Braun helped distribute baseball equipment from Easton and Rawlings to young baseball players who lost everything in the fires.
¡°They were pretty scary times, but all things considered, I'd say I was fairly fortunate compared to a lot of people,¡± Yelich said. ¡°It was an eventful offseason, to say the least. There was a lot going on, but we made it here and I feel good.¡±