MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said the back surgery that Christian Yelich underwent Friday should enable the 2018 NL MVP to be ready for the start of the 2025 season.
“By doing this sooner, it does allow him to hopefully be ready for opening day next year,” Arnold said before the Brewers faced the Cleveland Guardians.
Arnold was asked about the possibility the three-time All-Star could be available for the beginning of spring training.
“That’s my understanding, but you never know with a back and how that’s going to respond with the surgery he had,” Arnold said. “We’re optimistic about him being ready for opening day.”
The 32-year-old Yelich was leading the NL in batting (.315) and on-base percentage (.406) in his 12th major league season when he went on the injured list in late July.
He hasn’t played since getting removed from a game at the Chicago Cubs on July 23. Yelich has been dealing with back issues for several years.
Arnold described Yelich’s procedure as “a diskectomy of some kind” without going into specifics. A diskectomy is done to remove the damaged part of a disk in the spine.
Yelich said Thursday in a video posted on social media that surgery “was just the best option that we really had left.” Dr. Brandon Rebholz performed the operation in Milwaukee.
“There’s really no other way to put it other than it sucks,” Yelich said. “It’s terrible. But it’s part of sports. These things happen. You get hurt, you get fixed and you get back out there. Try to stay as positive as possible about it.”
The Brewers believe the surgery will have long-term benefits.
“He needed to do this,” manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s got a lot left in his career, and I think this is going to really clear some things up. It’s been obvious he’s had a back issue for a long time. It was inevitable that, a swing like that, with that much torque, the biomechanics people could tell you, that frame, with his ability to rotate and his flexibility in that area, it’s amazing it lasted 12 years.”
Yelich was having his best season since his first two years with Milwaukee, when he won the NL MVP in 2018 and finished second in the 2019 MVP balloting. He earned his third All-Star selection this season and had 11 homers, 42 RBIs and 21 steals in 73 games.
“I can tell you he was in a lot of pain,” Arnold said. “He had shooting pains through his leg and his back, and he was trying like crazy to come back. He’s worked incredibly hard. Unfortunately that process just wasn’t working for him, so he opted to have the procedure.”
Yelich is a career .287 hitter with 204 homers in 12 seasons for Miami and Milwaukee.
Murphy said Yelich can continue helping the Brewers the rest of this season with his locker room presence. Murphy has praised Yelich throughout the year for his leadership as the Brewers endured numerous injuries to build the biggest division lead of any major league team.
The Brewers entered Friday leading Cincinnati and St. Louis by nine games in the NL Central.
“He’s connected to so many players in there because they respect his work and the way he goes about his business,” Murphy said. “He doesn’t force anything. It’s very genuine. It’s very authentic. He carries out what he believes, but he has a real interest in young players. He has a real interest in playing the game the right way.”
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