Christian

Yelich

Yelich is hitting flips from coaches and off a tee, and has resumed light running as he tries to come back from a groin strain. He has “several weeks” of rehab work ahead, which sounds like he may be on the longer side of that potential recovery timeline.

Yelich’s original injury designation with hamstring tightness, but imaging revealed the strain. The 34-year-old will reportedly be out until the middle of May and possibly longer. Greg Jones has called up to take Yelich’s spot on the roster, and Gary Sanchez should see most of the starts at DH for the time being.

Yelich was unable to continue after the fifth inning due to the injury, and manager Pat Murphy said after the game that there would likely be further bad news here. If Yelich lands on the IL, Jeferson Quero could be called up, allowing the Brewers to use Gary Sánchez at DH fairly regularly.

No word yet on what occurred, but Yelich was lifted for pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez in the fifth inning of a one-run ballgame, which is never a good sign. Expect Brewers’ skipper Pat Murphy to provide an update on Yelich’s status after the game if we don’t hear anything before then.

The Brewers are going righty-heavy Tuesday, which makes sense because they’re facing one of the toughest lefties in baseball in Garrett Crochet. That means that not only Yelich will sit, but Brice Turang will also get his first day of rest of the season as well. Luis Matos will be the designated hitter, and David Hamilton gets the start at second base.

Yelich has only one home run so far this season, and the exit velocities have been down, but he’s still slashing .395/.439/.579, so nobody is mad about that. At 34 years old, some of the power may be fading from Yelich’s game, but it’s too early to call that for sure.

Yelich came through with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, poking a seeing eye-single into right field to put Milwaukee ahead for good in a rare low-scoring affair at American Family Field. He finished 2-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. The 34-year-old veteran is off to a strong start, hitting .381 (8-for-21) with one homer and one steal through six contests this season.

The Brewers entered the home half of the eighth inning on Sunday trailing 7-3. They went to work though as they loaded the bases with one out and then Brice Turang delivered an RBI single to cut into that deficit. That’s when the White Sox called upon their closer, Seranthony Dominguez. He got William Contreras to pop out for the second out, but Luis Rengifo followed with a two-run single and then Yelich pinch-hit for Gary Sánchez and clobbered a 421-foot (111.1 mph EV) three-run shot that gave the Brewers their first lead of the day. He’s off to an outstanding start to the season, hitting .600 (6-for-10) with a homer, five RBI and a stolen base.

Yelich will get a breather for Sunday and also with left-hander Anthony Kay on the bump for Chicago. William Contreras will operate as the designated hitter with Jeferson Quero getting the start behind the plate.

Yelich is 34, mostly serves a DH now and has a history of back troubles, but he still likes stealing bases, having finished with 28, 21 (in 73 games) and 16 the last three years. The Brewers were 7-for-7 stealing as a team tonight. Yelich was actually the lone player with one, while Garrett Mitchell, Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton all swiped two bags apiece against Reese McGuire.