Brewers Superstar Had 'Shooting Pains', 'Emotional Meeting' Before Surgery

Milwaukee is expecting its MVP back in the spring

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The Milwaukee Brewers will be without one of the faces of their franchises for the rest of 2024.

2018 National League MVP Christian Yelich underwent successful back surgery this week, according to a report from MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy.

For Yelich — who up until very recently was still envisioning a return this season — the road to surgery was filled with pain and emotion to a greater extent than anyone realized.

“Dr. Brandon Rebholz performed Yelich’s surgery -- “a discectomy of some kind,” according to GM Matt Arnold, who described an emotional meeting earlier this week with Yelich and Brewers manager Pat Murphy,” McCalvy said. “By having the procedure now, Yelich should be healthy for the start of Spring Training next year.”

“I can tell you he was in a lot of pain,” Arnold said, per McCalvy. “He had shooting pains through his leg and his back, and he was trying like crazy to come back. He’s worked incredibly hard.”

Yelich landed on the injured list on July 24, but he had been battling back problems for a long time before then, making it even more impressive that he was batting .315 this year and was named an All-Star starter.

Yelich is locked in with the Brewers until 2028, but as Milwaukee finds itself leading the division by ten games entering Saturday amid a strong season, it will hurt the Brewers clubhouse to not have Yelich as they legitimately compete for a title.

Milwaukee will have to rely on its other bats to step up, which is exactly what’s happened since the All-Star break.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy sang Yelich’s praises on Friday in the wake of the superstar’s surgery.

“This is the greatest era of Brewers history, and Christian Yelich is right in the thick of it if not the leading point of it,” Murphy said. “His temperament, the way he goes about his business, the way he affects others. … Christian Yelich’s fingerprints are all over this team.”

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