Christian Yelich has not played since Aug. 5 due to back stiffness, but the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder feels he’s getting close to a return.
Yelich was held out of the lineup again Saturday, but could return to the lineup Sunday against Texas or Tuesday against Minnesota.
“I’m not playing, but I’m getting better,” Yelich said, via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.
Manager Craig Counsell admitted the Brewers are unsure the root cause of Yelich’s back issues, but don’t think it’s structural or long-term.
“I’m not concerned about the rest of the season in any way,” Counsell said. “We haven’t been, frankly, able to identify — it’s been caused by weird things, so we haven’t been able to identify exactly what’s causing it. That’s been the nature of it. From our perspective at this point, it’s not anything long term ever. That’s a good feeling. We don’t think it’s anything structural.”
Yelich said earlier in the week he would not play again until the issue was completely behind him, not wanting to aggravate things. He sounds like he’s only a couple days away now, which is definitely good news for Milwaukee.
