Brewers’ Yelich believes his back surgery should have long-term benefits for his baseball career

AP Sports Writer

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich said his back issues had started bothering him off the field as well as on it by the time he opted to undergo season-ending surgery.

The 2018 NL MVP spoke to reporters Tuesday for the first time since having surgery Aug. 16. The Brewers have expressed optimism Yelich will be ready for the start of the 2025 season.

“Once I got surgery, once that decision was made, it was to the point where daily living sucked,” Yelich said. “I was really uncomfortable. There was a lot of pain.”

Yelich underwent a diskectomy to remove the damaged part of a disk in the spine. Dr. Brandon Rebholz performed the operation in Milwaukee.

“I don’t know how deep I want to get into it, but really it was just like cleaning some stuff out that needed to go and was causing some problems,” Yelich said. “I attempted to see if I could put it off until the end of the season and be able to finish, but it was kind of a long shot, and I think I knew that ultimately, (surgery) was my destination at some point.

“I was trying to see if it could be an offseason type of deal, but it just really didn’t respond the way that it needed to in order for that to happen.”

Yelich, 32, has been dealing with back issues for several years. He still was playing well enough this season to earn his third All-Star selection.

He was leading the NL in batting (.315) and on-base percentage (.406) when he went on the injured list in late July.

Yelich says he feels encouraged by how his body has responded to the surgery thus far.

“I feel great right now, and after talking with the doctor afterwards, it was something that needed to happen,” Yelich said. “I should have a pretty good recovery and feel really good going forward, so that’s exciting. It’s almost two weeks out, I’m walking around pretty normal, so everything on that end is pretty good.”

Yelich believes having surgery during the season should increase the likelihood that he’s ready for the start of 2025. He’s hoping the procedure also will help him finally get to play pain-free, without having to worry about when his back might start bothering him again.

“It’s more mentally freeing going forward just playing-wise in the future,” Yelich said. “I think people see back surgery and think, well, that’s the end of your career. But honestly, in my mind, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. I think that it’s going to help me tremendously, and I think I’ll probably feel better than I have in the last few years going forward.

“So in that sense, it’s cool. It’s a really nice thing.”

Of course, it also means Yelich won’t be able to participate in the postseason as the Brewers chase their first World Series title.

The Brewers entered Tuesday’s action leading the NL Central by 10 games over the Chicago Cubs. Their division lead has doubled since July 23, when Yelich played his last game of the season. The Brewers have missed the postseason just once since Yelich joined the team in 2018.

“The only thing that’s not really great about this is the timing aspect of it all and not being able to finish the season and take part in another postseason run,” Yelich said. “That’s unfortunate because this is a really fun team to be a part of and these guys have done an amazing job this year and you never know how many of those you get. So in that sense, it’s a bummer. But (for the) long-term outlook of my career and hopefully playing for the next four years or however long I’d like to continue doing this, this should be a really good thing.”

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