MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers are opening their NL Central title defense without outfielder Jackson Chourio after he fractured his left hand during the preseason.
Chourio was placed on the 10-day injured list Thursday, retroactive to Wednesday. In the move announced hours before Milwaukee's season opener with the Chicago White Sox, the Brewers estimated Chourio will miss two to four weeks.
“It’s rough, for sure,” Chourio said through interpreter
Daniel de Mondesert. “You want to be out there with them. ... I’ll be out here supporting them as I always am. It’s a long season. I’m looking forward to being back soon with them and getting to play a big part of it.”
Chourio's absence represents a major blow for Milwaukee's lineup as the Brewers chase their fourth straight division championship. The 22-year-old recorded at least 20 homers and 20 steals in each of his first two major league seasons.
The injury first arose March 4 when Chourio got hit by a pitch from Washington's Clayton Beeter while playing for Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic team in an exhibition game with the Nationals at West Palm Beach, Florida.
Chourio missed Venezuela's first two World Baseball Classic games but returned to the lineup and helped his home country win the title. But after Chourio said a check swing this week in exhibition games with the Cincinnati Reds in Milwaukee “felt a little bit bothersome,” an MRI revealed a small hairline fracture at the base of the third metacarpal.
“We got another image on it and it looks like it’s fractured — very slightly — but it’s something we want to be really cautious with because of how much he means to our team,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said.
Arnold was asked if there's a possibility the fracture had occurred in that March 4 game.
“It’s unclear," Arnold said. “It could have been. It didn’t show up on any X-rays, so he was trying to play through it and was a little bit sore,” Arnold said. “It could have been one of those things, and it just gets a little aggravated against the Reds and showed up on that image.”
Arnold also was asked whether he would have preferred to shut Chourio down after the March 4 incident rather than allowing him to play the World Baseball Classic.
“Any time you have guys in those types of situations, you always worry about it when they go play for somebody else,” Arnold said. “It's certainly a possibility that a guy gets hurt. But it's also a great event for the league. I really enjoyed obviously at the end of the series there with Venezuela and the United States. We were watching the game obviously with our scouting group — Venezuelan guys in the room and Dominican guys. It was a really fun event. I think it's a great event for Major League Baseball.”
Chourio is coming off a 2025 season in which he batted .270 with a .308 on-base percentage, 21 homers, 78 RBIs and 21 steals in 131 games. The Brewers signed Chourio in December 2023 to an eight-year, $82 million contract, which represented the most money guaranteed to a player with no major league experience.
He has batted .341 with a 1.044 OPS, four homers and 11 RBIs in 12 career postseason games.
“Things are going to happen,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You’ve got to be able to just not flinch. I’m disappointed for the kid because he was excited about this season, coming off the WBC the way he did.”
Outfielder Blake Perkins, who had been expected to start the season in the minors, will fill Chourio's spot on the roster. Perkins, 29, hit .226 with a .298 on-base percentage, three homers, 19 RBIs and seven steals in 54 games with Milwaukee last season.
“I'm just grateful for the opportunity,” Perkins said. “Obviously things can change really quickly. I'm not happy obviously with why I'm here, but like in the past, I'll do the best I can to fill my role and be a good teammate and be a winning ballplayer.”
Jake Bauers filled Chourio's usual spot in left field for Tuesday's game. Bauers, who also can play first base, hit .235 with a .353 on-base percentage, seven homers, 28 RBIs and eight steals in 85 games last season.
The 30-year-old Bauers is coming off a preseason in which he went 18 of 39 with seven homers.
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