Brewers' Jackson Chourio is opening the season on the injured list because of a fractured left hand

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.

“He’s got a slight fracture in there, a hairline fracture,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “If you don’t address it, it could lead to something really serious, especially with the constant swinging and things like that.”

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.

“He said he felt fine (after the March 4 incident), they scanned it there, and no fracture,” Murphy said. “He came back here, scanned it in Arizona and (it showed) no fracture. Then it kept giving him problems, they went in there and did an MRI and they could see things, I guess, that the scans can’t see.”

Brewers president of baseball operations Matt 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.

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.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Venezuela Jackson Chourio reacts to a pop fly during the third inning of a World Baseball Classic semifinal game against Italy, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Venezuela Jackson Chourio hits a single during the seventh inning of a World Baseball Classic semifinal game against Italy, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Venezuela Jackson Chourio (1) scores during the seventh inning of a World Baseball Classic semifinal game against Italy, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

FILE - Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio gestures during a spring training baseball workout, Feb. 18, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

MILAN (AP) — Italian authorities have impounded 20 million euros ($23 million) worth of property, artworks and financial assets in and around Florence that were allegedly purchased with money stolen from original Bond girl Ursula Andress, Italy’s financial police said in a statement on Thursday.

The seizures were the result of an investigation launched after Andress reported to Swiss authorities that she had been swindled out of assets by financial advisers.

The 90-year-old former Bond girl told Swiss newspaper Blick in January that she had been defrauded out of 18 million Swiss francs, approximately 20 million euros, by her longtime financial adviser over an eight-year period. The newspaper said the adviser had died in the meantime.

“I am still in shock,’’ Andress was quoted as saying. “I was deliberately chosen as a victim. For eight years, I was courted and wooed. They lied to me shamelessly and exploited my goodwill in a perfidious, indeed criminal, way in order to take everything from me. They took advantage of my age.’’

The stolen funds were invested in foreign companies, used to buy assets and then channeled through transactions designed to conceal their source, Italian authorities said.

They were traced to the purchase of 11 real estate properties, 14 plots of land cultivated as vineyards and olive groves, along with artworks and financial assets in Florence and the neighboring Tuscan countryside.

Authorities did not say if any arrests were made.

Swiss-born Andress is best known as the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in 1962’s “Dr. No,” which featured her memorable entrance emerging from the sea in a white bikini. She went on to work with Elvis Presley in “Fun in Acapulco” and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in “Four for Texas.” She later transitioned to a European cinema and television career, before retiring in the early 2000s.

FILE - Ursula Andress arrives for the screening of "Biutiful", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)