How Christian Yelich’s back flare-up could impact the Brewers’ lineup going forward

Christian Yelich has continued to roll the clocks back this year, following up his brilliant resurgence in 2024 with his best full-season wRC+ (127) since 2019. He's been a fixture in the middle of the Milwaukee Brewers' lineup all year long, and his .814 OPS leads all qualified hitters on the team.

Unfortunately, he recently sustained yet another back injury, which has kept him out of the lineup over the last few games.

Luckily, it appears his return is imminent, as he'll avoid a trip to the injured list. That's all well and good for the state of the lineup, but it will have a serious impact on Pat Murphy's defensive rotations over the last month of the season.

Christian Yelich likely to become full-time DH, could cause playing time logjams in Milwaukee

Yelich's history of back issues — including a microdiscectomy procedure that prematurely ended his 2024 campaign — is certainly concerning. He's arguably the team's most important hitter, and not having him at full health (or somewhere near it) for the playoffs could prove fatal to the team's chances.

Thus, expect Yelich to be relegated to full-time designated hitter duties from here on out. That's not a huge change from where things have been recently — he last played the field on Aug. 27, and has only done so 19 times this year — but it will have an impact on the playing time some of the Brewers' other regulars were set to get in September.

The primary fallout from this will be a logjam at DH and first base, where all of Yelich, Andrew Vaughn, Jake Bauers, and, once healthy, Rhys Hoskins will factor in. That's obviously four guys for two spots, and while Bauers and Vaughn have amicably split time at the cold corner over the past few weeks, the re-addition of Hoskins to the mix could muddle up the picture.

Elsewhere on the roster, Yelich's departure from moonlighting in the outfield all but guarantees more playing time for Isaac Collins and Blake Perkins, both of whom effectively split the third outfield spot after Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick figure out where they're playing on a given day.

This could also open up a path for Brandon Lockridge to return to Milwaukee, though the expected return of Hoskins already crowds out the 28-man roster.

Regardless of how this all plays out, keeping Yelich healthy is the prime directive here. He's having one of the best seasons of his career and is a huge reason for the Brewers' surge to the best record in MLB. Keeping him (and his -3 Outs Above Average) out of the outfield is the right decision, even if it comes at the cost of some reps for other members of the team.