Brewers lose Christian Yelich right as he was rounding into MVP form

Christian Yelich was arguably the best player in baseball from 2018 to 2019. He won the NL MVP Award in 2018, and was the runner-up in 2019. Those two absurd seasons helped him earn a seven-year extension worth $188 million to remain with the Milwaukee Brewers. It made all the sense in the world for Milwaukee to retain its face of the franchise, but Yelich had not been the same player since inking the extension.

From 2020-2023, Yelich slashed .254/.362/.407 averaging 14 home runs and 52 RBI in 118 games. He wasn't a bad player by any means, but was a shell of his MVP self, and also dealt with some back issues.

Last season wasn't too bad as Yelich hit 19 home runs and was a solid lead-off hitter for them, but again, he was nowhere near the player he was at his best.

In the first 11 games of this season, he looked like a completely different player. He had 13 hits in his first 39 at-bats (.333 BA) with five home runs and 11 RBI. He even chipped in a pair of stolen bases. It looked like he was healthy and was finally recapturing that MVP swing before suffering a back injury.

The 32-year-old played in just two innings of Friday's game and had not been seen since. He was just placed on the IL with a lower back strain. Not what anyone wanted to see.

Brewers lose Christian Yelich right as he was rounding back into MVP form

The sample size was small, but Yelich was performing at an elite level in the first couple of weeks of the season. He had already hit more than a third of the long balls he hit in 2022. Yelich hit 14 that season in 154 games played.

The Brewers have been one of the more surprising teams in the league this season, winning 10 of their first 15 games thanks in large part to Yelich. Now, Milwaukee will have to find a way to tread water without him.

Perhaps the fact that Milwaukee waited a couple of days before placing him onto the IL gives hope that this will be a short stint for Yelich and he'll be back very soon. We know that the Brewers desperately need him.