4:12pm: Riley has suffered a partially-torn LCL, manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Riley is set to visit Dr. James Andrews on Monday to determine the full extent of the injury.
TODAY, 12:50pm: The Braves announced that Riley has been placed on the IL with a sprained right knee. No timetable for his return was provided. Right-hander Jeremy Walker is up from Triple-A in his place.
Aug. 7: The Braves will place third baseman/left fielder Austin Riley on the 10-day injured list due to an injured ligament in his right knee, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Riley sustained the injury in the weight room this week but didn’t initially believe it to be serious. His knee stiffened overnight, however, and he’ll undergo some testing to determine the extent of the issue. Atlanta will announce a corresponding move (and perhaps further details on the injury) tomorrow.
Riley, 22, debuted to great fanfare in Atlanta earlier this season and quickly established himself as a serious power threat in the Braves’ lineup. He’s homered 17 times in 255 plate appearances, but his considerable pop has been overshadowed by alarming contact issues of late.
Riley batted .298/.336/.628 with 11 homers in his first 30 big league games (128 plate appearances) but did so with a 32 percent strikeout rate, a .362 average on balls in play and a 29.7 percent homer-to-flyball ratio that’d currently rank fifth in MLB behind Nelson Cruz, Christian Yelich, Pete Alonso and Franmil Reyes if sustained. Suffice it to say, his instant success was impressive but didn’t appear likely to be fully maintained. A drop of this magnitude, however, wasn’t exactly foreseeable itself. Over his past 127 trips to the dish, Riley has batted just .183/.252/.374 with a strikeout rate of nearly 39 percent.
With his injury, the Braves will rely on a primary outfield trio of Adam Duvall in left, Ender Inciarte in center and Ronald Acuna Jr. in right field, with Matt Joyce serving as the fourth outfielder. Charlie Culberson figures to be the primary backup to both Josh Donaldson at third base and Johan Camargo at shortstop. Dansby Swanson is also on the injured list at the moment and is not yet ready to be activated, O’Brien tweets.
Wonder if he will need Tommy Wan surgery for his arm injury
What’s even the joke there…? Tommy Wan surgery… like what?
What’s even the joke there…? Tommy Wan surgery… like what? Also it’s his knee so like the joke just doesn’t make any sense on any level…
It’s actually funny how unfunny it is
it may have worked if you said Tommy Chong surgery for his arm… maybe
Some guy from reddit actually broke this info earlier today. Guy said it was pretty serious. So take that fwiw.
Also said Dansby won’t be back until late August. Be interesting to see how much of the stuff comes true.
Dansby will be back this weekend or early next week. Expected to take a couple games in rehab soon.
As much as I love dansby, Charlie is an animal every place you put him and is a straight up professional baller. Thank God we have him. Dude comes to play every single day with a love for the game.
Certainly a better option than Camargo.
Need Dansby for D – Charlie good but doesnt have close to the range of Dansby
Charlie isn’t even on the same level as Dansby’s shoelaces. He’s a great bench bat.
i would be cautious about relying on reddit for accurate information regarding pretty much anything.
Reddit? Where satan’s children dwell?
Fake injury instead of having to send him down
and, pray tell, why would this be the case?
Do you watch the games son ?
i see the numbers. they could just send him down for a week or let him play it out. dont know what keeping him off the field does that sending him to AAA or keeping him out of the starting lineup doesnt.
Dark side is using the logic here pikey
Don’t wanna use up his options maybe ?
That isnt how options work…
Watch teh gaemzzz!!1!
Yeah, I’m sure teams in a pennant race love to put people on the DL when they’re already short-handed… so stupid
Definitely not a fake injury..The timing wasn’t very beneficial for the Braves either. Snitker wanted to give Inciarte the day off today, and start Riley, but couldn’t start Riley, because of his knee tightening up.
Now, if Dansby was in his 2nd or 3rd rehab game, and then all of a sudden Riley had some knee injury, then that would be much more ideal.
Since Markakis is still out, Duvall has come back down to Earth, and Dansby hasn’t even started his rehab yet, I’m 100% confident that the injury is legit.
Plus, when teams play the “struggling IL stint” game for a player, they typically do it for a pitcher to get him some rest, and they usually don’t go so in depth about the timeline of the player’s injury.
On the outside looking in, I can see why someone might think this, but definitely not the case in this particular instance.
Unfortunately, the knee injury is legit.
I’m waiting for the moment someone realize they’re quoting a guy with a Toupée
Wow, he’s good. A faked “partially torn LCL.”
The fun part is he cant delete this like twitter
Wrong.
This isn’t how that works.. Struggling vets get the injury excuse to go work on their craft until it’s corrected. Not your Austin Rileys of the world lol. He was just fine in his role.
It is ok.
He won’t experience an eventual collapse or first round exit.
BUT,
AAA title and farm system ranking still up!
OK, Negative Nellie.
I like the kid. His debut kinda has a Aaron Judge lite feel. Homers and hard hit balls and lots of strike outs. He def is the Braves future at third
I really think you’ll see AA offer Donaldson a 3 year deal this offseason. Maybe 3 year, $18-20m a year.
Hope at least 2 more and 3 would be nice. Donaldson could finish his career in Atlanta.
Oh yeah, I love me some Donaldson. Ideally, I dreamed of him being a Brave about 4 years ago, but I’ll still gladly take him!!
Donaldson brings solid power, he’s a great teammate, and he brings a confidence and swagger to the team that fuels everyone around him.
Not to mention, JD plays one heck of a 3B!! I always knew he was a pretty good defender, but he’s honestly one of the best defensive third baseman in the NL.
Most importantly, JD provides Freeman with some real backup behind him. Anytime Freeman has had a solid hitter behind him, he’s absolutely flourished!! Donaldson’s protection he gives Freeman is huge for their lineup.
People say you can’t lock up JD, because Riley is their 3Botf..Well, Riley can play LF too, so it’ll all be just fine, and it adds versatility and flexibility to their roster.
Moving forward, the Braves really only have to make room for Pache and Waters. Markakis won’t be a full-time starter anymore, if he is even going to still be a Brave and I’m pretty confident the Braves could work out a rotation beneficial for Riley, Inciarte, Acuña Jr., and one of Pache or Waters.
The real issue will be when both Waters and Pache are going to be ready for full-time ML at-bats. And, that won’t be too far away.
That’s the only reason why the Braves might not lock-up JD to a 2-3 year deal. I could definitely see them signing him for another season, but I’m not so sure he will be willing to do that.
Come 2021 the Braves will have every position locked up for the foreseeavle future except at Catcher.
1B- Freeman
2B- Albies
SS- Swanson
3B- Riley
LF- Waters
CF- Pache
RF- Acuña Jr.
Then at C, it’s going to be a pretty big toss up between in-house options like William Contreras & Shane Langeliers. Langeliers will likely be ready defensively, but it’s uncertain how his bat is going to translate, and the same goes for Contreras. Either way, with all the young talent in their line-up, it’s likely the Braves continue to find veteran catchers to fill in for a year or two at a time until either rookie is fully ready…
Either way, the Braves have a great problem on their hands, and you can never really have too much talent on one team. Look no further than the Dodgers ridiculously stacked 40-man..I doubt they ever complain about how deep their team and roster has become..
Agreed
18-20m won’t be enough. More like 3/75. I can’t see him taking a pay cut. Too many teams will be attracted to his service.
20 mil will be the top dollar for Josh because of age, his slow start, and the market just doesn’t lead to big money for players his age.
JoDo will want to finish it off as a brave, book it. He loves it here and loves his teammates. 2 year deal with a 3rd year buyout. He’s got AA on his side and has won over Braves country. Well done sir!
I think he’d take a pay cut for a few years of security. I don’t think he’s going to go over the $23m
It’s possible he’d take a 2-year deal with a 3rd year option/buyout for the AAV of the qualifying offer. 2/$38MM or 3/$57MM with a $2MM buyout in third season, maybe?
He won’t. If he got 1 for 23 hes looking at 3 for 60-70 and reality is a 4 year compact with at least 20 annual. AA blew his was on a one year deal and Donaldson has no reason to give a hometown discount or even a gentlemen agreement.
I don’t know if it is the same knee that he was bothered with last season in AAA. hopefully it’s not too serious. and if I’m wrong about is me last season that I blame it on my ADD
Good thing is we have Duda waiting in the wings.
Big fan of Riley, Camargo, Duvall & Donaldson!….but man Culberson is a beast! We need to do whatever it takes to keep him lineup daily now and years to come hopefully. ‘Clutch Culberson’ is simply and everyday player no matter the position…
Culberson excels in his current role, complacency is not in his dictionary. Hes fine with not starting every day but ready to step in at any position at any time. He’s an epitome of the jack of all trades on the diamond.
Hes that guy you hate to know is in that opposing dugout as a competitor, especially in the postseason.
2 years $37 million with a $18 million option for a 3rd year snd a $3 million buyout for said option for Donaldson.
I’m Guessing it will take 2 years 48 Million w an option for year 3 for 23 Million with a 2 million buy out. Gives him a 50 million guarantee.
At his age with his injury history from last year ????
I hope it’s not $50 million guaranteed
Forget it for that kinda money
3 years $50m wouldn’t be bad. 2 years, for sure. He went plant=based diet this year and supposedly it’s helping him a lot with his injuries. He hasn’t shown any issues this year, so not sure you can keep that crutch from 2017-2018.
He is also on a 1 year deal after an injury plagued year so how much of that plant based diet will be there once the security comes
I don’t know if he did what he had to do in order to get a secure payday and then it all falls apart or was last year an anomaly
I’m guessing the Braves will bring up a reliever, but who?
I bet Dansbae is the real corresponding move
I don’t think he’s ready yet. They’ll bring someone else up in the meantime.
Probably a pretty optionable arm till he’s ready.
0% chance…Dansbae isn’t ready yet. It’s already been said he is going to need at least a couple of rehab games before he comes back, and he hasn’t even been running bases yet…
It’s more likely the Braves will call up an extra arm for the pen..Because their only other 40 man position player they have available is Alex Jackson. Unless, they want to give both Flo & Mac a day or two off each, I doubt A-Jax is the call..
Webb will be ready soon too – wonder who he replaces.
They’ll live. Right now, at this moment, the Braves need people to produce and he wasn’t.
FYI – DOB isn’t with the AJC. He’s now with The Athletic.
Won two from the Twinkies, but the bullpen still is giving up runs like free candy. Ain’t gonna outscore teams 12-7 and 11-7 very often. That porous bullpen is the Braves Achilles heal that is gonna prove to be their undoing.
Losing Markakis was a big punch to the gut similar to what happened to the Phillies when McCutchen was lost. You just can’t replace that type of steady offense and veteran leadership with an Adam Duval or Matt Joyce.
Hate to say it Brave fans, but the Nats and Mets are gonna catch you. Getting Folty back could be huge if he’s the Folty of 2018. Snitker never should have let him pitch the sixth inning the other night. He looked gassed in the fifth. But with a leaky bullpen, I guess the skipper decided Folty at 50% might be better than anyone he could bring out of the pen.
lol, lord. The Mets def aren’t catching anyone.
The Mets are going to catch us? That is absolutely hilarious. Have you seen who they’ve played lately? Pitt twice, the White Sox and the Marlins. Lets watch them unravel in true Mets fashion this month when they play teams with winning records.
Keep dreaming buddy. If you haven’t noticed teams are winning with less than ideal options on their teams… Who said Folty is 50%? Might be time to step out of your parents basement once in a while.
so losing the weakest hitter in the Braves line up, other than possibly Inciarte, is devastating to the Braves ?? Devastating when they have Charlie Culberson batting .333 with a .923 OPS? Adam Duvall with a 1.013 OPS ? and with regular ABs even Johan Camargo and Matt Joyce ? I’m certain they could beat out Markakis with time.. Not saying I don’t like Markakis but on this team, the Braves have MANY options. He just happens to be the weakest hitter and that’s saying a lot since the Braves have notoriously had a terrible bench. Anyone remember those .182 hitters from the Bobby Cox era ? This is easily the best bench I’ve seen in 35 years.
The only reason the Mets would take over is if the Braves falter which is likely. Zero pitching..BUT
AAA title/top 3 far ranking > MLB rankings.
Nice for the Mets to have a GM who cares about winning.
Oh well. One less disappointment to see down the stretch.
AAA title/Farm system top 3 > MLB champsionships!
Not sure this is a blow to the Braves chances. Riley has hit .180 the past month.