Brewers News: Sal Frelick's timeline to return for playoffs after scary collision

In franchise history, the Milwaukee Brewers have routinely had to deal with injuries to significant players right around the time of the postseason. Starting with Rollie Fingers in 1982 and going all the way to the loss of Brandon Woodruff ahead of last year's playoffs.

This year, it appeared the major injury was going to be Christian Yelich, who underwent back surgery in August. The Brewers were managing without Yelich in their outfield, but then Friday night, another injury happened.

Sal Frelick crashed into the wall in right field, colliding with the corner of a window that the grounds crew uses to see the field. As of Friday night, all the Brewers knew was that it was a hip injury and the X-rays were inconclusive.

Sal Frelick is day to day with hip injury, playoffs not ruled out

Manager Pat Murphy told reporters that no one has ruled Sal Frelick out for the playoffs, but that "the fact he can't walk on his own makes it less likely".

Despite all of that, Murphy did say that this is the best possible outcome for Frelick considering the situation and that "it doesn't look like there's anything that's going to require anything long term".

There was certainly a lot of concern that this was going to be something long term for Frelick. The good news for the Brewers is that it's not.

Frelick met with reporters prior to Saturday's game, walking in using a crutch. He detailed the injury, saying "There's a muscle that protects the pelvis...and that's what kind of took the full brunt of it, which is good because it did it's job, but it's completely crushed, so it's a pretty bad contusion to it and that's kind of what's not allowing me to walk right now, just that's the muscle that's activated for holding yourself up. So it's kind of just how fast can we get that muscle back working and activated."

Structurally, everything is intact for Frelick which is exactly what he and the team were hoping for. Frelick's been a Gold Glove caliber defender for the Brewers in right field and their most experienced right fielder. In his absence, Garrett Mitchell is likely to play more in right field rather than his usual spot in center.

As for the timeframe for Frelick's return, he added, "It's good news, like this isn't bad news, that they said it could have been way worse, but it's just kind of like the unknown of a timeframe. It's just going to be day by day. It's how my body responds and I think everyone kind of understands that."

The Brewers have Tyler Black in the clubhouse, but he has not yet been activated. Milwaukee opted not to make a roster move, just in case he starts feeling better soon. If he was placed on the IL, Frelick would not be eligible to return until the NLCS.

There's a chance the Brewers could see Frelick healthy enough to play for the Wild Card series, but he's going to need that muscle to recover from that contusion very quickly to be ready to go for Tuesday.