christian yelich injury thread

[djoctagone]

yelich to the 10-day injured list. not sure how far they can backdate it.

[pacopete4]

I too do not believe christian yelich deserves capital letters for his name right now.

[adambr2]

I think the Yelich contract definitely has the potential to be a long-term concern. It isn't right now, but it could become one.

 

To me, you could make a very convincing argument that the Brewers as a matter of general organizational philosophy should never pay any player more than 100 million or so in their career. Don't get too attached to your guys, always look ahead, always reload, try to sell at high points even if the decision is unpopular.

 

Basically, the Rays model.

[djoctagone]

yelich to the 10-day injured list. not sure how far they can backdate it.

i thought the most you could backdate was three days and that's the case. yelich to the injured list, retroactive to 14 april.

[adambr2]

Must be fairly concerning with this move since it assures he now still won't be available for another entire week.

[Simba2020]

I think the Yelich contract definitely has the potential to be a long-term concern. It isn't right now, but it could become one.

 

To me, you could make a very convincing argument that the Brewers as a matter of general organizational philosophy should never pay any player more than 100 million or so in their career. Don't get too attached to your guys, always look ahead, always reload, try to sell at high points even if the decision is unpopular.

 

Basically, the Rays model.

Unfortunately, you are probably right. You can try to lock up guys early by buying out their arbitration years, which we don't seem to do, but doing contracts like this just might be too much for us. His contract might preclude us from any ability to lock up Woodruff or Burnes. Of course that was always going to be unlikely.

 

I think his contract is extremely likely to become an albatross. I believe his back is going to be a chronic thing.

[SeaBass]

I think the Yelich contract definitely has the potential to be a long-term concern. It isn't right now, but it could become one.

 

To me, you could make a very convincing argument that the Brewers as a matter of general organizational philosophy should never pay any player more than 100 million or so in their career. Don't get too attached to your guys, always look ahead, always reload, try to sell at high points even if the decision is unpopular.

 

Basically, the Rays model.

Unfortunately, you are probably right. You can try to lock up guys early by buying out their arbitration years, which we don't seem to do, but doing contracts like this just might be too much for us. His contract might preclude us from any ability to lock up Woodruff or Burnes. Of course that was always going to be unlikely.

 

I think his contract is extremely likely to become an albatross. I believe his back is going to be a chronic thing.

Braun had regular back issues too I wouldn't classify his as a disastrous issue and I'm not ready to dub Yelich's as worse. It'll just be a thing that happens from time to time. They reported he was going through baseball activities yesterday, he may not have responded well to that. It's always better to play it conservative and give extra rest than to try to push through it and make it worse.

[rickh150]

Counsel has been extremely conservative with players this April, whether starting pitching and length of outings or throwing relievers in consecutive games. I would gather it is the same for position players, especially regulars like Yelich, Cain, and Wong.

[wildcat2237]

Yelich was not good last year. Now more injury issues.

 

Not good at all.

 

The Brewers are paying Yelich to be their franchise player. If he's not, this team is going to be in trouble for years.

[JohnBriggs12]

Yelich was not good last year. Now more injury issues.

 

Not good at all.

 

The Brewers are paying Yelich to be their franchise player. If he's not, this team is going to be in trouble for years.

 

That doomsday scenario is still affecting the Orioles because of their Chris Davis contract. Have to wonder if Brewers did their due diligence in medically examining Yelich before signing him to that deal. Hopefully they insured his contract. Healthy athletes don't get back flare ups every few weeks unless there's underlying issues at play.

[MrTPlush]

Reality was they could have:

 

A) Let Yelich walk for a comp pick at arguably the height of competitive baseball in franchise history. (I don’t think there was any chance of them trading him while competitive...much like Fielder)

 

or

 

B) Sign him to this big deal.

 

 

Much like the Braun deal I think they saw a rare opportunity to make a guy a career Brewer and (at the time it seemed like) have a player enter the HOF as a Brewer. The Yount generation is quickly aging and the younger generations don’t have that all-time great to cling to. Braun probably would have been that if not for his PED fallout. Now we have Yelich who may not be elite anymore, may be injury prone, or both.

 

Too early to predict what will happen with Yelich, but I really hope it isn’t imploding in our face before 30 years old. If he turns out to be a disaster of a contract we should probably stop handing out massive contracts that start going downhill before the ink can even dry.

[pacopete4]

C) trade him

 

But other than that, your points stand.

[sveumrules]

In 2018 Yelich missed 12 games from April 5th to 18th with an oblique injury. Then missed three games the rest of the year.

 

In 2019 Yelich missed 6 games from April 29th until May 3rd & 4 games from August 6th to 10th before missing the last 18 games after fouling a ball off his kneecap.

 

In 2020 Yelich played 58 of 60 games.

 

Add it all up & Yelich ranks 30th in games played from 2018 through today.

 

If we're in trouble with Yelich playing "only" 500 games since 2018 & 8/205 left on his contract then the Angels must really be sweating because Trout's only played 454 games since 2018 & he has 10/350 left on his contract.

[adambr2]

Not to take away from the injury comparison but the other difference between the two is that Trout makes Yelich look like Jace Peterson. That's not a knock on Yelich, Trout makes everyone look that way. Yelich has two seasons that even compare to what Trout has done for 9, Trout doesn't have down years. He is probably the best baseball talent that any of us will see in our lifetimes.

[TURBO]

In 2018 Yelich missed 12 games from April 5th to 18th with an oblique injury. Then missed three games the rest of the year.

 

In 2019 Yelich missed 6 games from April 29th until May 3rd & 4 games from August 6th to 10th before missing the last 18 games after fouling a ball off his kneecap.

 

In 2020 Yelich played 58 of 60 games.

 

Add it all up & Yelich ranks 30th in games played from 2018 through today.

 

If we're in trouble with Yelich playing "only" 500 games since 2018 & 8/205 left on his contract then the Angels must really be sweating because Trout's only played 454 games since 2018 & he has 10/350 left on his contract.

 

So in your mind, you have no concerns about his health?

 

I realize your thing is to refute every post with stats and such, but you never really take a stand on anything other than devil's advocate.

 

So my question to you is as I stated above, do you have concerns with Yelich's health and contract moving forward?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

In 2018 Yelich missed 12 games from April 5th to 18th with an oblique injury. Then missed three games the rest of the year.

 

In 2019 Yelich missed 6 games from April 29th until May 3rd & 4 games from August 6th to 10th before missing the last 18 games after fouling a ball off his kneecap.

 

In 2020 Yelich played 58 of 60 games.

 

Add it all up & Yelich ranks 30th in games played from 2018 through today.

 

If we're in trouble with Yelich playing "only" 500 games since 2018 & 8/205 left on his contract then the Angels must really be sweating because Trout's only played 454 games since 2018 & he has 10/350 left on his contract.

 

So in your mind, you have no concerns about his health?

 

I realize your thing is to refute every post with stats and such, but you never really take a stand on anything other than devil's advocate.

 

So my question to you is as I stated above, do you have concerns with Yelich's health and contract moving forward?

 

Is it possible to have concern, and also hope/not think it's going to be a major concern? It would seem that by reading this thread that a few posters have already decided that Yelich is suddenly injury-prone, will be lucky to play 100 games/season the rest of his Brewers career, and his contract is going to be an enormous albatross for the team moving forward. I think that is the thought process that sveumrules is attempting to refute.

 

I'm not going to lie and say those thoughts haven't crossed my mind as well, but I sure as heck aren't ready to will them into reality yet. Because those thoughts are extremely depressing.

[clancyphile]

So in your mind, you have no concerns about his health?

 

I realize your thing is to refute every post with stats and such, but you never really take a stand on anything other than devil's advocate.

 

So my question to you is as I stated above, do you have concerns with Yelich's health and contract moving forward?

 

Is it possible to have concern, and also hope/not think it's going to be a major concern? It would seem that by reading this thread that a few posters have already decided that Yelich is suddenly injury-prone, will be lucky to play 100 games/season the rest of his Brewers career, and his contract is going to be an enormous albatross for the team moving forward. I think that is the thought process that sveumrules is attempting to refute.

 

I'm not going to lie and say those thoughts haven't crossed my mind as well, but I sure as heck aren't ready to will them into reality yet. Because those thoughts are extremely depressing.

 

I have some minor concerns, mostly about the management needed. Yelich will probably, by the end of the deal, move to first base or be the designated hitter. He may need days off, there maybe there will be a need for a DL stint or two a season.

[sveumrules]

Not to take away from the injury comparison but the other difference between the two is that Trout makes Yelich look like Jace Peterson. That's not a knock on Yelich, Trout makes everyone look that way. Yelich has two seasons that even compare to what Trout has done for 9, Trout doesn't have down years. He is probably the best baseball talent that any of us will see in our lifetimes.

 

No doubt, Trout is an inner circle all time great. We're almost literally witnessing a right handed Mickey Mantle with two good legs...

 

Mick 51-59 | 5410 PAs | 311/425/569 (173 OPS+) | 98/25 CS | 67.9 WAR

Mike 11-20 | 5514 PAs | 304/418/582 (175 OPS+) | 201/37 SB/CS | 74.1 WAR

 

That Yelich was even able to perform at that level for two seasons (170 wRC+, 15.4 WAR from 2018-19) is pretty impressive & puts him in some elite recent company.

 

From 2002 (first season with UZR for defense & base running value encompassing more than just SB/CS) through 2019 (last full season), there were 17 different two year stretches with a total of 2,229 individual qualifying batter stretches.

 

Of those 2,229 qualifying two year stretches only 15 (less than 1%) cleared both both a 170 wRC+ & 15 WAR. Six by Trout, four by Pujols, two by Bonds & one each by Yelich, Cabrera & A-Rod.

 

When Christian signed his extension, ZiPS projected him for 622 PAs | 148 OPS+ | 5.7 WAR in 2021 & about 30 WAR total from 2021-2028, which would be less than seven million per WAR. A pretty good deal.

 

Following 2020, that 2021 ZiPS dropped to 618 PAs | 135 OPS+ | 4.3 WAR. That extrapolates out to about 20 WAR from 2021-28, which would be closer to ten million per WAR. Not as good of a deal, but hardly a franchise crippling disaster.

 

The missed time early in 2018 didn't negatively impact him the rest of his season, he only missed two short stretches in 2019 before fouling a ball off his knee & he only missed two games in a shortened 2020 season.

 

I guess I'm not concerned because I never expected Yelich to play more than 145 games anyway & I still believe he will perform in the neighborhood of his projections over the course of the season.

[roadcrew3]

So in your mind, you have no concerns about his health?

 

I realize your thing is to refute every post with stats and such, but you never really take a stand on anything other than devil's advocate.

 

So my question to you is as I stated above, do you have concerns with Yelich's health and contract moving forward?

 

Is it possible to have concern, and also hope/not think it's going to be a major concern? It would seem that by reading this thread that a few posters have already decided that Yelich is suddenly injury-prone, will be lucky to play 100 games/season the rest of his Brewers career, and his contract is going to be an enormous albatross for the team moving forward. I think that is the thought process that sveumrules is attempting to refute.

 

I'm not going to lie and say those thoughts haven't crossed my mind as well, but I sure as heck aren't ready to will them into reality yet. Because those thoughts are extremely depressing.

 

I have some minor concerns, mostly about the management needed. Yelich will probably, by the end of the deal, move to first base or be the designated hitter. He may need days off, there maybe there will be a need for a DL stint or two a season.

 

I think this is a good take here. Back issues unfortunately don’t get better as you age so management will likely be needed. The DH coming to the NL should be able to help out with this.

 

Posters suggesting Yelich’s contract could turn into a franchise crippling mistake though I think need to take a deep breath. Throwing out 7 seasons of constant improvement from him because of 250 at bats last year, in what was the most unusual MLB season of all time, is a dramatic jump. It’s fair to think that he won’t continue his MVP level play but he is still an all-star level hitter and his floor those last few years will probably be much closer (likely above) to Braun...who I think majority would happily take as DH this season.

[TURBO]

I haven't seen anyone say that they 100% think Yelich will be a bust moving forward, but I have seen those that think it's a possibility.

 

That is all I am saying, we need to prepare for the off-chance that he will not be the 2018-2019 player we all fell in love with, and that if that is the case, we might be in some deep trouble finance wise in the future.

[liveforoctober]

Do Dodgers fans have a thread concerning Bellinger? Last year was bad, this year hurt.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I think it's a concern anytime a team with the Brewers finances sign a guy for 5 years or more. You're really rolling the dice with that person's health. I think it's fair to be concerned with yelich's long-term health and also be hopeful that he can continue to live up to, or come close to the expectations that he has in a given season for himself.

[liveforoctober]

I get it and I know snark isn't necessary ... but I just am not sure what there is to discuss? If Yelich is injury prone moving forward and doesn't perform to his contract's standards, could it hinder us -> yep. Is it something to watch moving forward -> yep. I guess there is not much more to add to the discussion unless you want to talk about contract strategies by a small market team, which is a different topic, imo.

[SeaBass]

From MJS

Yelich said saying he had a setback was "too strong." He said his back just didn't come around as quickly as originally hoped.

 

"I mean, you've got a certain amount of days that you've got to play by (to avoid the IL), so you've got to go for it and see if you can make it," he said. "You know, obviously, I wasn't really in a spot where I was ready to go. So, when that happens you've got to take a trip to the IL and get things squared away."

 

Asked if this back episode felt any different from those that sidelined him for short periods in previous seasons, Yelich said, "Not really. Pretty much similar stuff. Things that unfortunately I've seen a pop up for me for the last once or twice a year. Pretty frustrating, to say the least."

 

As for what happened when he left the game in St. Louis, Yelich said, "It just didn't feel good enough during the game. I didn't feel like I could keep going. There was no, like, one thing that happened. It's unfortunate. Hopefully you deal with it, put it behind us and get back out there."

 

 

None of this sounds like anything more than a mild flare up. It's usually something that lasts a few days, in this case it's taking a bit longer.

 

Likely treatment may or may not include some physical therapy and/or chiropractic treatments, massages, heat/ice, yoga/stretching exercises and simple rest.

 

Honestly just the fact he's in the dugout right now watching the game says volumes about how he's feeling. Believe me if he was feeling heightened discomfort he wouldn't be there.

[MrTPlush]

I think the concern people have with the injuries is it’s just another problem he is having since he signed that deal. Until he really starts mashing at an MVP level again I think every little negative is going to raise people’s eyebrows.

 

His utter lack of power is probably the most concerning thing because it was what took him from fringe All Star to MVP. He was hitting like pre-Milwaukee days last year and this year he has as much pop as Eric Sogard. If he doesn’t get his power back this deal will be a total disaster even if he plays 162 games a year because he probably just won’t have the .900+ OPS we banked on for over a half a decade minimum.