Biggest takeaway from Brewers' spring might be what Christian Yelich had to say about his back
PHOENIX – It didn’t show up in the box score, but Christian Yelich checked the final empty box of his post-surgery spring to-do list Saturday afternoon.
Standing on second base with a runner behind him at first, Yelich danced off the bag, capturing the attention of Oakland Athletics hurler Jeffrey Springs. The lefty spun and threw back to second once, causing Yelich to scamper back, but before the next pitch was thrown, Yelich timed up the pitch perfectly and broke for third. He would have easily been safe had the pitch not been fouled back.
“I felt good. I thought it was a good camp and got into the rhythm of playing,” the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder said. “Everything felt pretty normal.”
While the hope was that Yelich would be back at full health this spring after undergoing a season-ending discectomy last August, it’s easy to forget that wasn’t necessarily guaranteed. Just because it was a ho-hum spring for Yelich doesn’t mean it wasn’t newsworthy.
“Playing the outfield, playing back-to-backs, diving, sliding, swinging -- literally everything you have to do I was able to do,” Yelich said.
Spring training stats carry as much weight as the thin, dry Arizona air where they are accumulated, but Yelich’s paint an optimistic picture of a player still capable of doing damage: .344 average, 1.101 OPS, three home runs, a double and a triple. By the time he bolted for third Saturday and then turned on the jets for a triple one day later Sunday, there were no signs left for Yelich to show he’s healthy.
“I was pretty rusty at first which is completely expected of me,” Yelich said. “I didn’t really have any surprises there. I hadn’t played in a long time. Getting back out there and getting into the swing of things was nice, knocking some of the rust off, getting back into a playing routine.”
And where does Yelich’s back feel after six weeks of the spring training grind compared to years past?
“I feel good,” he said. “Staying on top of it. I feel healthy right now.”
There aren’t any concrete plans for managing Yelich’s workload in place – at least not yet – though it’s a safe bet that manager Pat Murphy will be giving him semi-regular maintenance days. The Brewers’ outfield depth will allow Yelich to spend a fair amount of time at designated hitter but he’s made it clear that he still sees himself as a regular outfielder, too. Chances are Yelich will get to play the field more often early in the season while Blake Perkins continues a slow climb back from his fractured shin; the centerfielder indicated Sunday he’s only up to running at 30% of his body weight.
“I’d like to be out there as much as possible,” Yelich said. “Whatever that looks like, whether it’s playing the field, whether it’s DHing. I don’t really think I’ll have any restrictions, or at least we haven’t talked about that.”
With spring training behind him, the next hurdle for Yelich will be managing the wear and tear of playing every day (or thereabouts) during the regular season. This has been the frustrating challenge for Yelich in past years, when he would feel healthy and the regular treatment he was receiving seemed to be working only for the back to flare up again.
After spending months on the injured list the past four years due to the back – and just as much playing through pain that nobody ever knew about – Yelich hopes the surgery will allow him to move past those day-to-day difficulties.
“I think some of the day-to-day stuff will be a little bit easier,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll have to manage some things but overall It’ll be in a better place more consistently than it has been in the past. That would be ideal. You don’t know until you get into it.
“If spring is any indication, then we should be in a lot better position than I’ve been in the past few years. That’d be ideal. That’d be really nice to play a season and just worry about playing.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' Christian Yelich feeling healthy after having back surgery
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