The Braves announced that they have recalled right-hander Bryce Elder, who will start tomorrow’s game, per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on X. To open a spot for Elder, righty Reynaldo López was placed on the 15-day injured list with right forearm inflammation, retroactive to August 2.
López last took the mound on July 28 but left after three innings and the club later announced he was dealing with right forearm tightness. He was sent for an MRI that thankfully revealed no structural damage and the club was initially hoping the righty could avoid the IL. However, he still hasn’t thrown a bullpen since that start, per David O’Brien of The Athletic on X. It seems the soreness and/or inflammation aren’t receding as quickly as hoped and so the club put him on the shelf. Though he hasn’t pitched in almost a week now, IL stints can only be backdated a maximum of three days.
While it’s good that López isn’t facing some kind of season-ending surgery, it is still a notable challenge for the rotation. After working as a reliever in recent years, López moved into a starting role with Atlanta and was having great success with a 2.06 earned run average through 19 starts. His 86.1% strand rate has undoubtedly played a role in lowering his ERA but even his 3.18 FIP and his 4.05 SIERA suggest he’s been a serviceable starter this year.
The club still has Chris Sale, Charlie Morton, Max Fried and Spencer Schwellenbach but subbing in Elder or one of the club’s other depth starters for López is going to be a downgrade. Subtracting a pitcher with a 2.06 ERA would be less than ideal for any club but Elder has a 5.67 ERA on the year. That’s only nine starts and there’s a bit of bad luck in there from his .352 batting average on balls in play and 66.6% strand rate, but even his 4.23 FIP and 4.18 SIERA are a downgrade from López.
Even if one considers the drop from López to Elder manageable, it thins out the overall depth. AJ Smith-Shawver is having a poor year with a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A while Hurston Waldrep has been hurt and just allowed four earned runs over 2 2/3 innings in his most recent Triple-A start after coming off the IL. Ian Anderson is coming back from Tommy John surgery but has a 6.23 through three Triple-A starts so far.
Atlanta came into the season as the division favorites and started the season strong but they have fallen back this summer. They were 19-9 at the end of April but have gone 41-42 since then, leaving them at 60-51. That’s still good enough for the top Wild Card spot in the National League but there are three teams within two games and then another five clubs within seven games, making the grip on a playoff berth fairly tenuous at the moment.
Ideally, López will see be able to recover fairly quickly and make this a temporary issue, but the rotation will feel on the flimsy side until then. Sale is having a great year but missed most of the past four years due to injury and is now 35 years old, while Morton is well past his 40th birthday. Schwellenbach has been doing very well but still has just 11 major league starts under his belt. Fried just returned from an IL stint due to forearm neuritis but his first start back resulted in five walks and five earned runs allowed in 3 1/3 innings despite facing a hollowed-out Marlins lineup. The fans in the Atlanta area will undoubtedly be hoping for López to make a speedy recovery and return some time in the middle of the month.
I think his season is done
Mike Dunne
Done and Dunner
Guy guys, it’s ok….We traded for Luke Jackson at the deadline to shore up our starting rotation. AA is a genius remember?
Philly lost 6 in a row. Few teams with long losing streaks advance in the playoffs. Season over.
I’m not understanding why Bryce Elder is always the one that gets the call when a pitcher is put on the IL. Shawver is sitting at Gwinnett collecting dust who has been off the IL for weeks. Looks like this injury to Lopez might be something more serious
AJSS pitched yesterday. Atl needs someone to start tomorrow
Skyrider: That’s what I was thinking, too, that Lopez’ forearm injury might be more serious. The pitching gods definitely aren’t smiling on the Braves this year.
Avenger – that’s the cost of having Sale healthy
Joemo I appreciated your comment hahaha!…Yes it’s like Black Magic, you have can this one wish but three other things in your life will parish lol
I don’t know what the Braves were expecting with Lopez, pushing him like that when he has only been accustomed to being a reliever. He’s no spring chicken either. So it wasn’t the baseball gods frowning on the Braves, the Braves did this to themselves by trying to push their luck with Lopez as a starter. Sale and Morton will likely be next to break down. (Also AA not procuring any starting pitching depth at the deadline shows he’s hoisted the white flag on this season.)
You realize they have skipped and used a 6 month rotation a lot? Anything at the deadline was very expensive and probably hurt the future of the Braves.
He’s getting raked in AAA. Why would they call him up?
@Mets6986: Can’t always take mil stats as the gospel. Basing an opinion on a pitcher’s mil ERA isn’t the most reliable way to judge their worth. Pretty stat lines and winning minor league games are secondary to development. The Braves in particular are well known for eliminating their young developing pitchers best pitch from their repertoire in order to force development of other pitches. AJSS has been working on breaking ball shape while throwing less fb’s. He could be a top back of the pen option right now, but the Braves are being patient w/his development to keep him as a rotation option.
I think that’s kind of my point. He’s 21 years old and highly regarded. He’s not tearing up AAA. Why ruining his development to rush him to the majors hoping for him to be what you expect him to be in a couple years?
I don’t know anything firsthand about the Braves training methods in developing their young pitching but the idea of taking their best pitch out of their repertoire in order to “force” development of other pitches is counter productive. I really don’t think you’d want to force development in the first place. What if a kid has a 100 mph 4 seamer that moves are the Braves really gonna say don’t throw that anymore,you really need to learn a cutter? I can understand encouraging pitchers to learn new grips for more depth on a breaking ball or discouraging the use of certain pitches. For years teams were adverse to the splitter before it’s made the comeback it has in recent years. I really find that interesting that Atlanta a system that has produced some really good pitching, develops pitching like that.
Elder is a pitcher who has streaks. He’s been pitching much better the last start and a half (strikeout machine after poor 1 1/3 innings 2 starts ago). Seeing as it lines up with his next start why wouldn’t they? I think we need to look at the difficulty involved of being called last minute and shuttled back and forth, as well. Brewers just faced him so maybe they’ll get on him better this time. I’ve been unimpressed at times with AJ S-S personally. He has the arm tho. No doubt.
I think with groundball pitchers when they are good (1st half of 2023) we chalk it up to luck but when they are bad we do not say it’s bad luck (but the inevitable haulting of good luck). That’s a bit bias. GB pitchers are constantly gonna fluctuate between the two. But there are also times when they are just bad or good in a more general way (less luck involved). We need to look deeper into the performance and see what’s happening currently. This is one reason why they are not relied on. There is so much going on it can be hard to put any faith in recent performance. But we often throw out that good luck is as inevitable as the bad with these guys
Come on braves who said 2021 can only happen once
Why do people repeat ad nauseum “Flags Fly Forever drrrrr Flags Fly Forever drrrrr” idiotic and meaningless dial-a-cliche.
Because it is a high that can take several years to come down from.
Can’t imagine why they didn’t just IL him immediately. Guy needs his innings limited anyway, and he has forearm issues. Were they seriously considering bringing him back without rehab?
It doesn’t matter when you place them on the IL, placements can be “retroactive” up to a week iirc.
3 days is the limit for retroactive placements. So they wasted a few days with Lopez, which probably means they thought there was a chance he could avoid the IL completely.
Just read it is actually three days. I also thought it was longer.
Welp. We’ll get em next year Barves fans.
Did you mean to type Braves but had Barf on your mind so mashup
Disappointed, but not surprised,
Read somewhere that 19% of forearm injury recipients need TJ within a year
Uh oh spaghetti oh maybe should have kept him in the pen, eh? Sox discovered he had terrific stuff but wasn’t a workhorse so managed his workload as a terrific multi inning reliever- similar to what they did with Kopech. Wonder if more teams will do that, high leverage outs from the 6th-9th a la Hader
Sox didn’t know he had a vision problem that’s been corrected though, did they. Not sure I’d use anything the Sox have done as a “how to” guide.
Are you referring to the vision problem that the Sox diagnosed in 2021 and had corrected with Lasix surgery? Or your lack of vision in posting without “looking” into this? Would that make you what Andy Dufrain might refer to as, what’s the word, obtuse?
Troll on Theo.
Lopez has zero structural damage in his arm so no Tommy John surgery is in store for him
…and Fried has had 2 forearm injuries in last 12 months…
Bravos have a lot of consonants in their rotation
He did thus to keep his Tango and Cash compadre Luca Gio company on the DL
On the bright side….OK there is no bright side
SP Wells with Os disappeared down in to AA with a non structural injury/fatigue issue in July last year and resurfaced late season as an effective bullpen piece. Why not Lopez this year?!
Braves needed starters this year after jetonising the injured pitchers who didn’t come back from 60 day Il several times. Elder has major league experience. Id prefer hunscar Noah at some point
Ynoa has looked rusty. Anything but Winans.
Chappell Roan is a Braves fan. Bring back the tomahawk
Braves still have hopes of winning the division with the Phillies stinking the joint up.
I think the Braves are in real trouble. Of all the current wild card teams they are the one right now with the best chance of being the team that misses the playoffs.
I could see a battle to the very end between the Mets, Braves and perhaps the giants for the final spot.
My pure guess is that Lopez comes back on 8/22 against the Phillies, or he doesn’t come back at all.