The Braves announced Friday morning that lefty Drew Smyly is headed to the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his left forearm. They’ve recalled right-hander Kyle Wright from their alternate training site to take his place on the roster and start today’s game. Atlanta also recalled Johan Camargo as a corresponding move after optioning lefty Tucker Davidson following last night’s game.
Manager Brian Snitker tells reporters that the hope is Smyly will only need to miss one start (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz), though his status will obviously be monitored in the coming days. Smyly becomes the second Braves starter this week to land on the injured list, joining fellow southpaw Max Fried, who is currently hobbled by a hamstring strain. Wright will get the first crack at stepping into the rotation, and the Braves have another young righty, Bryse Wilson, at their alternate site and ready to step up once Fried’s rotation spot next comes up.
Atlanta inked the veteran Smyly to a one-year deal worth $11MM over the winter, based largely on a terrific five-start showing in San Francisco last year. It was a sizable bet in a huge jump in the oft-injured Smyly’s swinging-strike rate and his overall strikeout rate, which saw respective jumps from 10.7 percent and 23.3 percent in 2019 to 14.9 percent and 37.8 percent in 2020. Injuries are part of the package with Smyly, who has reached 100 innings just thrice since making his big league debut in 2012 and missed the 2017-18 seasons entirely.
For the time being, the Braves certainly have the depth to withstand some short-term injuries in the rotation. But with Fried and Smyly sidelined in addition to a recent setback for Mike Soroka, the injury situations that bear monitoring are beginning to mount.
Everyone saw this coming….
Frowny face.
Tucker didn’t even get a chance to pitch. I guess at least he had a couple days to be around the big league team.
Lets’s relax, it’s a 10 day IL
Yeah look at the picture next to the headline. His arm looks all bendy
On the bright side the Braves have a pitcher on pace for 20 wins…. Josh Tomlin!
Curious why Wilson isn’t first called up…
It’s Wrights day to throw, Wilson is going to take Frieds next start
Kyle usually breezes through the order once and then walks and gets hammered the second time through. Looks like another year of piecing together a starting rotation. Wright, Ynoa, Wilson against the Cubs.
he got much better as the season progressed last year
Cubs will lose today’s game anyway.
Cubs are due to get more than 5 hits and 3 runs in a game sooner or later and maybe even do it will striking out less than 10 times per game too. (I hope)
Contreras is sure to lean into one, so there’s always that to bank on
Gotta prevent perfect games.
Nice prediction.
$11 million seemed like an overpay at the time and has only looked worse since. The “risky one-year deal starter” market never reached that high and the Braves saw Melancon ($3 million), Greene (TBD), and Duvall ($5 million) walk out the door.
My guess is the payroll figure might’ve changed midwinter from Liberty Media. There’s just no way you forgo your bench and bullpen to have Drew Smyly in the rotation based off five starts.
Without the DH you wanted Duvall over Ozuna….smh? Duvall has a starting COF spot in MIA where he wouldn’t in ATL — and I don’t blame them. He’s an incredibly streaky hitter. All 3 bench spots got a hit yesterday with Panda now at 3 pinch-hit HR and Adrianza one of the team’s best hitters. At the first 2 weeks, their bench looks like a strength carrying them through some prolonged slumps from Riley and, in part, Ozuna.
I’m guessing they wanted Ozuna in LF, Acuna in CF and DuVall in RF.
I didn’t want Duvall over Ozuna. The point was I’d rather have had brought back Melancon and Duvall than sign Smyly. I’m sure he was looking for a guaranteed job, but his bat and glove off the bench would’ve been ideal as a defensive replacement for Ozuna, if Pache struggled against big league pitching, or if injuries happen. Now we’re starting Inciarte and Heredia.
Bench looks good so far, but the goal is to be good over 162 plus October. Hopefully they can keep it up.
I would be surprised if Duvall turned down a shot at starting anywhere else over playing a platoon/bench role in ATL, not unlike Joc Pedersen being given a full-role in CHC. You can’t fault him for wanting to play everyday just like you can’t fault ATL with not wanting to give him an everyday spot with as much trouble vs. RHP as he’s always had.
Literally nobody expected smly to start 30 games this season. I guessing he will be handled in rich hill fashion. He could still be worth more than his contract, it’s two weeks into the season this is nbd.
How many games in until people are allowed to worry about it?
The Dodgers and Yankees can afford to give a player $11 million to not play the whole season. The Braves, especially in a year of payroll deductions, shouldn’t have shelled out $11 million while letting multiple key pieces leave.
Also, Rich Hill has years of evidence saying he’s going to produce when he’s given the ball. Smyly is based off five starts after years of bouncing around the league. Not comparable.
@1984 it’s been 2 starts through the rotation chill.
Brandon-3 I was clearly referring to the white gloves used to make an oft injured rich hill (just like smly). I don’t think anyone expects 7 solid in gings for 32 starts. I’m not comparing hill and smlys career, I’m comparing how they should or could be handled due to a laundry list of injuries.
Does Camargo have anymore options after this? I think he has to clear waivers now in order to be send down again?
You can be optioned countless times in a season and it still only counts as 1. Next year he’ll be out of options I believe.
This is correct. He’s in his final option year but can be shuttled back and forth as much as they want this season.
AA Make a lot of Mistake this off season, this is another one, additional to lost three pitcher of the Pen from last year
Smyly looked great last season albeit small samples. Giants were wise not to overspend on him again. Zaidi got Aaron Sanchez ($4M) and Anthony DeSclafini ($6M) for less than one upside down Smyly.
I forgot to mention the 2 year, $5M deal that Jake McGee signed.
So for just $1.5M over the cost of a sad Smyly the Giants went bargain hunting and appear to have struck early season pay dirt.
Not hating on the Braves but Anthopolus was going to eventually get burned on one of these 1 year deals. The Braves are in their winning window now so one bad signing isn’t the end of the world.
They were eventually going to get burned in one of these one-year deals? They already got burned by the Hamels signing last year. Smyly, while a small sample size to this point, would not be the first time they’ve been burned by that. Also, Chris Martin keeps getting injured way too often. The bullpen needs help desperately.
Keuchel didn’t exactly perform in October for Atlanta either.
@48-team: You have to factor in Donaldson and Ozuna. Overall, AA has done a masterful job with one-year deals. It’s too soon to call Smyly a bust, but even if he is you can’t fault AA’s short-term wisdom since he managed two MVP candidates back-to-back.
Time to make a call to Hammells.
He can’t pitch because he’s seeing double.
Could have used that 11 mil for sone bullpen arms
Hope his arm isn’t feeling soggy.
The situation with the Braves is that the position players have pretty much plateaued with the exception of Acuna; and the young pitching is not coming around.
First they had to buy a bullpen, then they had to sign Morton and Smyly.. In both cases it was because they couldn’t develop their own pitchers in-house.
As for Morton – when any one of the Astros, Indians, or Rays lets go of a pitcher (in FA or trade), it’s because their value no longer justifies their salary. The Astros let Morton (and Keuchel) go, the Rays signed Morton for a lower salary and got a few good years out of him. By now he’s an expensive #4 starter that the Braves are using as a #2. As for Smyly, he’s been poor for years other then the 26 innings he threw in the COVID 2020. Now he’s supposed to be a #3 on a contender.
This is almost as sad as what is happening to the Nationals. But if Acuna hits .420 with 70 HR’s, maybe the team can stay in contention in 2021.
The Braves are like the Nats? What?
You have no idea what you are taking about.
I’m not “Smiling” “Smyly”
Cole Hamels.
Fantastic signing AA! Give the journeyman who only got minor league deals recently 11 million, based on five starts.
The pitching looks like it will derail the Braves this season, they will hit but not enough to overcome the pitching staff.
I feel bad for Smyly in terms of not being able to do the job he loves to do, but the dude has cashed in! A starting pitcher with 35 wins, no more than 9 in any season, and he as collected almost $40 million in his career!
This franchise needs to have higher standards. Win it all within the next three years or make changes at the top.
Almost best a great Dodgers’ team last postseason and winning a World Series is no easy task given the current playoff format.
This is the typical Braves’ fan who won’t even show up for a playoff game and is the reason they have had multiple playoff games not sell out the past decade.
Braves turning into the NL Yankees minus the strikeouts
I don’t know what’s up with this franchise. You’d figure they would luck into a title once a decade with all that talent.
They get out from one bad contract (A-Rod) and then several years later take on an even worse one (Stanton).
Smyly is scheduled to miss a single start and already the Braves’ fans are vocally complaining about what a terrible signing it was. Calm down.
Such a fair-weather and whiny fan base especially given how good that team has been the past 30 years.
Not all of us! Lol. If they had a 4-8 stretch in the middle of June, it’s a non-issue because it gets hidden in the standings. It’s just that time of year. The injuries are tough, but everyone deals with them. I’ll have no panic unless June rolls around and they aren’t at least .500.
Fair-weather fans is right. Atlanta has the most fair-weathered fan base in America.
uhhh pretty much everyone was complaining about the smyly signing from the moment it happened
Speaking of the Braves, Ender Inciarte just left their game in Chicago with an apparent hamstring injury. And the Cubbies are playing dreadful defense.
Oof. Acuna going to be playing CF, I guess.
How many Cubs will Kyle hit today? Already has hit 4.
The conventional wisdom has been that there are no bad one-year contracts. Drew Smyly is proving otherwise. It’s still early, but most of us have known for years he’s a horse you just can’t bet on even once.
This is ridiculous. Nothing is going their way this season other than Acuna.
Braves are 6-8 and no team in the NL East has gotten out to a particularly good start.
Calm down chicken littles.
They should only report on him WHEN he isn’t on the IL.
When I saw the headline, my first thought was that Smyly hurt his feelings after the blown replay call against the Phillies.