The Braves have already experienced a critical blow to their rotation with the likelihood that Kris Medlen will have to undergo Tommy John surgery for a second time. Now, the biceps tightness that right-hander Brandon Beachy felt in his most recent Spring Training outing may lead to a worst-case scenario outcome as well; MLB.com's Mark Bowman reports that Beachy could also be in line for his second Tommy John surgery. According to Bowman, Beachy was apparently told that the injury was confined to his biceps earlier in the week, which is why he conveyed such confidence to the media on Monday when asked about his ailing arm (Twitter links). Bowman quotes him as saying, "Now it looks like it might be something else."
Bowman tweets that both Medlen and Beachy will meet with Dr. James Andrews on Monday, with Medlen likely receiving a final opinion after having already met with Andrews earlier in the week. The loss of both Medlen and Beachy would be crushing to the Braves, although it would be somewhat offset by the team's recent one-year signing of Ervin Santana. Still, even with Santana in the mix, the club would go from a projected rotation of Medlen, Beachy, Julio Teheran, Mike Minor and Alex Wood/Gavin Floyd to Teheran, Minor, Santana, Wood and a combination of Floyd, Freddy Garcia and David Hale. And of course, Minor is expected to miss the first two weeks of the season as well.
Beachy first underwent Tommy John surgery midway through a breakout 2012 campaign in which he posted an even 2.00 ERA over his first 81 innings. He rehabbed from the surgery and made a respectable return effort in 2013, posting a 4.50 ERA over 30 innings. Medlen's previous Tommy John surgery was performed back in August of 2010.
I don’t think God likes your team, Braves fans. You have my sympathies. It’s shaping up to be a rough year. At least you were able to get Santana.
God’s clearly a Mets fan.
ha!
No, God is a Cubs fan
so you’re saying god is a loser? that’s pretty bold of you.
Well he’s certainly not a Yankees fan after he sent a plague of midges after them in 2008
Nah, the Mets are just Satan with the way all these terrible injuries occur vs the Mets. Hudson, Heyward, it goes on.
Woah, no way. God is clearly a NATS fan. Mets lose Harvey and Hefner and at least 2 players every year since 2008.
then you haven’t been watching the Mets
When it rains it pours … As a fan of a team that has been decimated by injuries as well, I empathize.
You’re welcome, Nats fans
Uh, thanks…I guess? Nobody likes to see anybody get hurt man. Unless the person getting hurt is Bryce Harper. Lots of folks seem to be cool with that.
Just adding a bit of levity to a disastrous situation
Or Yasiel Puig.
Don’t forget A-rod
Nobody liked to see Bruce Harper get hurt, either. Good player and a good dude. He’s still Fireman Ed’s favorite.
Nah there were plenty of people who liked seeing him get hurt. Of course that might be because the gif of him running into that wall is hilarious.
Wow, so BOTH Beachy and Medlen would be undergoing their 2nd TJ surgery?! That’s rough!
Personally, I hate to see injuries and I hope they can both bounce back.
Braves’ rotation does take quite a hit. I guess the silver lining is it happened in the Spring so they have time to adjust their plan for the season.
Braves tend to stick to a hard budget. Santana deal went something like 10 million over that budget according to Frank Wren on busters podcast yesterday. If Beachy is out the only way to improve is through trade. And we know other teams will leverage the Braves for talent if it comes to that.
Do you think this increases Braves odds of making a play for Shark from the Cubs?
The door for the Marlins to finish 2nd keeps opening wider and wider.
Heh heh. No.
Why not? They have young pitching with tons of upside. Its not like the Mets and Philles are any good.
Marlins are going to be awful. They have a lot of good young arms but they’re a year or two away. In 2014 they should finish last again, easily.
Marlins always have talent. Loria is the ultimate team killer.
They’ll have to unlock that cellar door first
Seems like Dr. Andrews has been a little subpar with his surgeries lately. He must want the repeat business.
He is 72. I hear after 70, surgeon’s “stuff” starts to decline.
Unless the surgeon is on PEDs!
I doubt Dr. Andrews is performing the surgeries now. He has a huge team.
Fire the trainer now.
I blame Dan Uggla.
The Floyd signing is looking a hell of a lot better right about now
Who’s to say Floyd won’t need a 2nd TJ? Or won’t have “minor” (major) set backs?
Takes a couple years before the 2nd TJ kicks in. Seriously, there has always been a significant danger of having 2nd surgeries for TJ cases. We’ve gotten used to thinking once it’s done it’s done. But that’s not true and never has been.
Took about 5 starts for Beachy.
A lot like Daniel Hudson, sadly. Both have so much potential but have been derailed by injuries.
We’ll see when the time comes?
Does Dr. Andrews offer BOGO?
Looks like the cubs are gona be expecting a phone call….”heyyy Theo…im ready to over pay for shark…”
Except that what the Braves mostly have to trade is young pitchers, which is exactly what they WON’T want to trade right now.
Desperate times. You let go what you have most of and cubs want pitching. An braves got it. But I agree with u
So they are inferring that Beacy needs surgery because he’s seeing Dr. Andrews? Am I missing something here?
TJ surgery is always assumed to be imminent if Dr. Andrews’ name is mentioned.
Dr. Andrews is like the grim reaper of a baseball season.
Time to call up Ben Cherington
Try to look on the bright side I guess. Freddy Garcia, Alex Wood and David Hale are serviceable pitchers and Mike Minor will be back soon. Plus I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of Beachy anyway. Let’s not jump to conclusions and immediately consider the season lost.
I might be in the minority, but I am not really worried about the current projected rotation. What worries me is the absolute lack of depth should Floyd experience a setback and/or any other of these guys gets injured (which is bound to happen). We basically have zero players with big league experience past Hale in the farm.
De Nile is a river in Egypt is it not?
Your report card…
Geography-A+
Psychology-F
Time for Rick Vaughn to come out of retirement
The Indians still own his rights.
And the Braves are still all but guaranteed a top-2 finish in their division. The rotation without Medlen is a lot more questionable, and the lack of depth without Beachy leaves them with something like Minor, Tehran, Santana, Wood, Hale. But that’s a serviceable enough rotation given their talented young lineup to contend. The playoffs would be where the loss of Medlen would really sting.
Pssssh. I’m a Braves fan. They’d lose in the 1st round with Medlen. haha.
A top 2 finish is quite possible in that division with 77 wins. But playoffs? That’s a different story.
Sounds like the braves need to send their training/medical staff down to the minors.
They have a -2.3 WART (wins above replacement trainer) by my calculations.
Do the Braves have room to sign Jeff Karstens or Jeff Niemann and stash them somewhere while they recover from surgery? Would that even help? Projection systems like Karstens, if he can come back. Not sure how his prognosis is. And even if he can come back, the Braves may not have room, given that they’re already doing something similar with Gavin Floyd.
There really aren’t a lot of good options right now for more starting pitching depth.
Forgot about Niemann. He’s not terrible.
I knew it. If it was just Medlen they wouldn’t have gone over budget with Santana. They were bluffing on the seriousness of Beachy’s arm issues.
I wouldn’t be so sure about this, I think they brought in Floyd as a contingency plan for Beachy because they were “not hopeful” that he could contribute well after last year. It was supposed to be Minor, Medlen, and Teheran that were the main contributors to the rotation (as it was last year) with some help from Wood and Beachy.
Two tj’s two braves players, one week.
Very odd
And Jonny Venters coming back from one now. Take a look at the list and it’s not promising after the 2nd one, even coming from the words of Dr. Andrews. That’s not to say that Medlen/Beachy/Venters couldn’t be the firsts.
But from the human side of it, I can’t imagine the disappointment, anxiety and patience needed to get through this. I guess it’s good that they each other to lean on during the rehab – if that’s a silver lining.
That’s still not a bad rotation to be left with. I liked what I saw of Minor and especially Wood. And it’s also a good balance of lefties and righties. Tribe has no LHP in their rotation. Now, any more injuries to your pitching could really be trouble. But what I always tell my Mom, a Braves fan, is that you guys seem to produce pitching non-stop. Wish my Indians could do as well as you. Go Braves! Go Tribe!
Maybe the Braves will get a bulk discount on TJ surgeries this spring?
It’s the curse of Jobe dying…. (May he RIP).
Johnny Hellweg for Seth Loman?
Wonder if this might embolden the Mets to go ahead and pull the trigger on Drew, Franklin, or Didi/Owings?
The Braves can claim Volquez when he gets DFA’d. (Wishfull thinking from a Pirates fan)
May as well do a preventative TJ surgery on Teheran and punt the season. Seriously though, I am guessing this is the first time that teammates have undergone a second Tommy John surgery in the same calendar year.
Maybe it’s just me because I’m a Braves fan, but it sure seems than an inordinate amount of Braves pitchers are having to have TJ surgery.
not that many, just the same ones.
2014 (Likely but not confirmed) – Brandon Beachy, Kris Medlen
2013 – Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters (2nd)
2012 – Brandon Beachy, Arodys Vizcaino
2010 – Kris Medlen
2008 – Tim Hudson
Two per year for the past 3 years….Maybe just a coincidence but that seems like a lot to me.
After watching Harvey go down last year, I feel for Braves fans right now. Off to a rough start and the season hasn’t even begun yet.
I’m sure another of their young pitchers will step up at some point in the year and make a contribution, like they always seem to.
no, god just has a sense of humor.
The Marlins have some exciting young players, so I can see where a person could get caught up. But they’re also planning on fielding underperforming retread vets at three of the four infield positions. And behind those kids in the outfield and rotation, they have little to no upper minors depth, just NRI types.
Look at the ZIPS projections, for instance. Their only players who project as above average in their lineup or rotation are Stanton and Fernandez. Only Yelich, Alvarez, and the catching tandem project as average. Everyone else is in the 0-1 WAR range. That’s brutal.
The Marlins have some great young talents on the way. But even if all of those panned out right away (and what are the odds of that?) they still have multiple positions that will likely be at or below replacement level. And they have zero positional depth.
Yes, ZIPS prohections are fun. But tell me, what were those projections for the Pirates and Indians last year?
They had the Indians as having seven above average players and three average ones. They had the Pirates as having six above average players and three average ones.
No one is saying those are exact and I certainly wouldn’t want to forecast wins based on that. But it is valuable as a starting point for talking about a club’s talent level. Two above average players and three average ones? That’s brutal. That’s a club with serious depth issues. not a contender.
No idea. With Blue Jays missing out on Santana and Ubaldo they need another starter to compete in al east. Might make a hard play for him.
Hey. How can you back up a statement about not being worried with the exact reasons to be worried?
tl;dr because you don’t understand the concerns most braves fans have. i.e. from above comment of a fellow braves fan who belongs to the majority “I don’t know but if the braves really want to win this year they got to do something to replace beachy we need another picture I will not rely on woods ,hale or Garcia.”
Being concerned about a rotation 1-5 is not the same as being concerned about the depth past the 5 spot. For example, if your rotation is Kershaw, Verlander, Wainwright, no name, no name with a bunch of players not ready to face major league batters as your depth in the minors you are probably not concerned with your rotation, you might be concerned with your depth though.
Most people are majorly concerned that we are figuring to slot in a guy with 2 big league starts as our number 5 and that he doesn’t even have to compete for the job because there is no other candidate. Or they are concerned that we are depending on a over the hill, scrap yard pitcher on a minor league contract to give us 200+ innings for the first time in like 8 years. Most Braves fans think our chances of getting to the playoffs with a rotation of santana, teheran, minor, hale, and garcia are very slim.Those people, to quote the original comment of this thread are “jump [ing] to conclusions and immediately consider[ing] the season lost.” Those are not my concerns and that is not my conclusion.
My concerns are related to what is going on past the #5 spot (hence, not in the rotaton) because a depth consisting of a currently rehabbing pitcher (with a poor track record) and a bunch of zero-experience young guns is a concern. Are the Braves going to end up rushing the development of those players just to field a team? Are they going to have to trade away talent to acquire below average pitching depth later in the season? Etc…. those are my concerns. I, maybe naively, believe the Braves season is not lost only that their future is in jeopardy because of these injuries.
The exact reason Disqus should have kept the downvote.
Whatever. I should know better for trying to answer a question on the internet. Guess you aren’t a Braves fan or know many Braves fans or you would understand.
I don’t know but if the braves really want to win this year they got to do something to replace beachy we need another picture I will not rely on woods ,hale or Garcia.
The Twins have a surplus of borderline #5 starters that can be traded for on the cheap. For example, Scott Diamond and/or Samuel Deduno. Perhaps the Braves can tread water with these guys. I think they’d fare a little better in the NL.
Barry Zito is still available.
I do think the Braves pick up a waiver-wire guy, maybe one of the guys the Twins or D-backs let go. Wouldn’t mind getting Scott Diamond back.
Jeffery !!!!!!
The cynic in me says it’s the law of averages catching up for a franchise that had Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz for all those years.
With the amount of Tommy John’s the Braves go through, do they have a card every 10th one free? In all seriousness, I hope Medlen and Beachy both a speedy recovery.
If both Medlen and Beachy go down, with another TJ surgery, it wouldnt surprise me if the Braves check in on David Price.
Braves might want to reconsider who their team physicians are.
There are quite a number of young pitchers getting serious injuries….Im wondering if their team physician is Dusty Baker
Let’s back away from the ledge, Braves’ fans; a rotation of Teheran, Minor, Santana, Alex Wood (who I think should’ve been eyed as a starter all along, anyhow) and either Gavin Floyd or Freddy Garcia isn’t baseball’s version of “chopped liver.”
Teheran and Minor have “ace” stuff, and Santana’s never been far from it, himself. In fact, I think pitching half his games in a pitcher-friendly park should allow for some improvement from his yearly averages, statistically speaking.
The bullpen is still stellar and IF B.J. Upton and/or Dan Uggla (or Ramiro Pena) carry their load in the lineup, the Braves will still do no worse than 2nd-best in the N.L. East and be in the hunt for a playoff spot.
I wouldn’t say anyone in that rotation has ace potential. I think they are full of 3 starters, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the regular season. Maybe occasionally they can out pitch an ace, but against great pitching they will rely on defense and offense. Which isn’t necessarily bad. But against the middle and back of opposing rotations, I feel they can excel, as long as their offense holds together. In the regular season, they could very well pitch well enough for first place.
But then there is the postseason. I cannot see this staff dominating the way you need an postseason rotation to dominate. They will rely too much on offense, which practically never works in the postseason. Their post season dreams may be done before the season even begins, but that doesn’t mean they cannot have a strong regular season.
Brandon Beachy = Daniel Hudson