Brewers News: All Star Christian Yelich done for 2024 season following back surgery

The news the Brewers were hoping to avoid ended up coming true. Christian Yelich will indeed undergo back surgery, ending his 2024 season.

Yelich and the Brewers announced the decision on Twitter on Thursday evening following the Crew's series split against the Dodgers.

"It just got to the point where it wasn't getting better, tried everything I could, ran out of options, and it came time to make a decision." Yelich said in his video announcement.

Surgery is scheduled for Friday.

Yelich aggravated the back injury shortly following the All Star Break and has been on the IL since July 23rd. He was weighing back surgery back then as a way to stem the tide of these recurring back injuries he's faced in recent years. He decided on rest and rehabilitation at the time but it became clear that the path of rest and rehab was not yielding the progress Yelich was hoping for, ultimately leading to his decision to undergo surgery now.

This is a horrendous break for Yelich and the Brewers. The Brewers were hoping to get their veteran leader back for the final run towards the playoffs and into the postseason. Even a less than 100% Yelich is better than a lot of big league players. Yelich was having a tremendous bounce-back season in 2024, hitting .315/.406/.504 with 11 homers, 21 stolen bases, and a 153 wRC+.

Yelich was the NL's batting average leader at the time of his IL stint, and he will finish the season without enough AB's to qualify for the batting title. He answered the multi-year question about if he's going to ever get back to playing at an above-average level, which he hasn't been since 2019 and his knee injury that ended that season. Now, he'll have to answer those questions once again as he attempts to return from his back injury in 2025.

The Brewers will have to rely on the few remaining veterans in this team's lineup, Willy Adames, Rhys Hoskins, and William Contreras, to help shoulder the load of losing Yelich in the middle of the lineup. Young players like Garrett Mitchell, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and Sal Frelick will also need to step up in Yelich's absence, as they've been doing over the last three weeks since Yelich's initial injury.

Yelich has four more years left on his contract extension that he signed in 2020. He's due to make $26MM in each of those seasons.

If the surgery and recovery goes well, Yelich is hoping that these recurring back problems will finally go away for good. Nevertheless, a big money player on the wrong side of 30 undergoing back surgery is very concerning for a team like the Brewers, who can ill afford an albatross contract.