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Max Fried To Return Wednesday From Injured List

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Juan Soto was placed on the injured list on April 20, so the Nationals have already been without their superstar hitter beyond the 10-day minimum as Soto works his way back from a strained left shoulder.  However, manager Davey Martinez updated reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com) about Soto’s progress today, noting that Soto has started throwing from 120-foot distances.  The next step is for Soto to throw to particular bases, and Zuckerman suggests that if Soto goes through this drill on Monday’s off-day, the outfielder could potentially be activated in time for Tuesday’s game with the Braves.

  • The Braves plan to activate Max Fried from the IL so the southpaw can start Wednesday’s game against the Nationals, The Athletic’s David O’Brien tweets.  Fried suffered a right hamstring strain while running the bases in an April 13 game against the Marlins that saw Fried allow seven earned runs over four innings of work.  After finishing fifth in NL Cy Young voting last season, Fried has struggled to an 11.45 ERA over his first 11 innings of the 2021 campaign.

Braves Place Travis d’Arnaud On 60-Day Injured List

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May 2: The Braves moved d’Arnaud to the 60-day injured list after it was revealed that he has a torn thumb ligament which will require surgery, tweets the Athletic’s David O’Brien. The Braves hope to get d’Arnaud back late in the season, but that’s far from a guarantee, especially with the injury on his catching hand.

May 1: Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud is headed to the injured list after suffering a left thumb injury in tonight’s game with the Blue Jays, manager Brian Snitker told David O’Brien of The Athletic and other reporters.  More will be known about d’Arnaud’s injury after he undergoes tests, though Snitker bluntly described the situation as “not good.”  D’Arnaud isn’t staying with the team on the road, as he is heading back to Atlanta to visit team doctors on Sunday.

D’Arnaud suffered the injury on a play at the plate in the sixth inning.  The catcher tagged out Randal Grichuk on Grichuk’s attempt to score from first on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. double, but d’Arnaud immediately indicated he was hurt, and was replaced in the game by Alex Jackson.

William Contreras will be called up prior to tomorrow’s game to take d’Arnaud’s spot on the active roster.  Contreras made his MLB debut with four games for Atlanta last season, and it is perhaps little surprising that the Braves are going with the inexperienced Contreras over 14-year veteran Jeff Mathis, who signed a minor league deal just prior to Opening Day.

Atlanta does have a full 40-man roster, however, and would have to open up a spot in order to officially select Mathis’ contract.  Contreras is also a noteworthy prospect (ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves’ sixth-best minor leaguer), and it could be that the team wants to give Contreras some seasoning in advance of a potentially larger role for 2022 and beyond.

D’Arnaud was off to a slow start this season, hitting .220/.253/.341 through his first 87 PA.  Though d’Arnaud has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, he was able to stay mostly healthy in 2019-20 and was very productive, including a .321/.386/.533 performance over 184 PA in 2020 that won him a Silver Slugger Award.  It was a strong early return on the two-year, $16MM free agent deal the Braves made with d’Arnaud in the 2019-20 offseason.

Braves Select Jeff Mathis, Place Alex Jackson On Injured List

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The injury that landed Travis d’Arnaud on the 10-day injured list yesterday appears much worse than originally expected. Per David O’Brien of the Athletic (via Twitter), further testing remains on the docket, but the Braves know enough to move d’Arnaud to the 60-day injured list today, per the team. In addition, Alex Jackson, who replaced d’Arnaud in yesterday’s game, has also landed on the injured list with a strained left hamstring.

Just like that, the Braves have undergone a complete line change at the catching position. Along with William Contreras, the Braves selected the contract of Jeff Mathis. The veteran defensive specialist joined Atlanta on a minor league contract at the end of March. It is not hyperbole to label the 38-year-old Mathis a defensive savant behind the plate. His defensive wizardry has propped up a 16-year career despite a paltry .194/.253/.300 batting line across 3,006 plate appearances.

Interestingly, the Braves also have Tyler Flowers lurking within the organization. Flowers took on a strategic role with the Braves this season helping to integrate analytics into in-game preparation for the Braves’ catchers. While it’s largely assumed that the 35-year-old’s playing career is done, both Flowers and the Braves left open the possibility that he could return to active duty this season. Certainly, the ranks are thinning in Atlanta, and speculatively speaking, they must be considering whether it might be time to give serious consideration to a Flowers return.

For now, however, it seems Contreras will get the bulk of the playing time in Atlanta. The 22-year-old went 4-for-10 in a cup-of-coffee last season. Fangraphs had him as the sixth-ranked prospect in Atlanta’s system prior to this season. He is the younger brother of Cubs’ standout Willson Contreras.

 

Braves Place Guillermo Heredia On Injured List, Recall Cristian Pache

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The Braves announced this morning they’ve placed Guillermo Heredia on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 30, with right hamstring inflammation. Fellow outfielder Cristian Pache has been recalled from the alternate training site in a corresponding move. The team did not provide a timetable for Heredia’s potential return.

Somewhat ironically, Heredia only got his call to the big leagues this season when Pache went on the IL a little less than three weeks ago. The 30-year-old was viewed as something of an emergency stopgap capable of holding down center field, but there wasn’t much expectation he’d produce at the plate. After all, he’d managed only a .231/.311/.354 line for four teams from 2018-20 and had been waived by the Mets in February.

However, Heredia has unexpectedly mashed to begin his Atlanta career. He quickly played himself into the everyday lineup and has hit .300/.429/.575 with a pair of home runs over 49 plate appearances. Pache returned from the IL last week, but the Braves immediately optioned him to the alternate site and continued to play Heredia in center.

Of course, Heredia was likely to take a significant step back offensively at some point. His 74.7% contact rate this season is the lowest of his career, a full eight points below his overall mark. He has always been a patient hitter, but Heredia’s massive 16.3% walk rate is an outlier, likely aided by his frequent work hitting directly in front of the pitcher. And while Heredia’s 87.8 MPH average exit velocity is a new career high, it’s still a bit below the league average of 88.3 MPH.

Even if Heredia were to regress at the plate, he’d probably offer more offense than Pache. The 22-year-old is already regarded as one of the game’s best defenders and is a consensus top prospect, but he’s looked overmatched by MLB pitching so far. In his first 35 plate appearances, Pache has hit just .147/.171/.206 with 13 strikeouts and one walk. Those struggles aren’t particularly surprising for a young player who has never been renowned for his plate discipline and hasn’t had much experience above Double-A. With Heredia joining Ender Inciarte on the IL, though, it seems the Braves are likely to turn to Pache for the time being, where he should at least offer a boost with the glove.

Braves Activate Sean Newcomb, Transfer Mike Soroka To 60-Day IL

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The Braves announced this morning that lefty Sean Newcomb has been reinstated from the Covid-19 injured list. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Mike Soroka was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Atlanta also recalled righty Edgar Santana and optioned both Bryse Wilson and Johan Camargo to their alternate site.

The Soroka portion of the announcement may cause some alarm among fans, but that 60-day term refers to the total number of days he must spend on the injured list — including days already spent there. In other words, it’s 60 days from his initial placement on Opening Day — not 60 days from today. Soroka will be eligible to return at the end of May, but the latest reports out of Atlanta suggest he’s not likely to be ready to return to the roster until mid-June anyhow. It’s a largely procedural move.

Newcomb, 27, got out to a fast start this season but has been sidelined since being placed on the Covid list back on April 17. The starter-turned-reliever has pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed just one run while striking out a whopping 12 of the 22 hitters he’s faced. Granted, he’s also walked four batters and hit another, but the early uptick in strikeout rate, average fastball velocity (95.2 mph, up from 93.6 mph in 2020) and swinging-strike rate (14 percent, up from seven percent in 2020) are intriguing small-sample things for Braves fans to keep an eye on.

The 23-year-old Wilson started last night’s game, so he’ll head down to the alternate site as a means of getting some fresh arms into the ’pen. Santana will be making his club debut when he first gets into a game. The former Pirates righty missed the 2019 season due to an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery. He didn’t make it back to the big leagues in 2020 due to that surgery and an 80-game PED suspension. The Braves picked him up earlier this month in exchange for cash. Prior to surgery, he sat 95 mph with his heater and carried a career 3.31 ERA with a sub-par 21 percent strikeout rate but a 6.8 percent walk rate that was much better than the league average.

Latest On Anibal Sanchez

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April 29: Sanchez is still evaluating his options and will throw a four-inning bullpen on Friday, Rosenthal tweets. He wants to build up to the 100-pitch mark before he signs anywhere.

April 28: Sanchez is planning to sign this week and could settle on a team as early as tomorrow, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link).

April 23: The Yankees, Phillies, Marlins, Tigers, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays were among the teams at Sanchez’s showcase this morning, Heyman tweets.

April 21: Sanchez will throw yet another bullpen session for teams this Friday, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He worked out for clubs in the offseason and reportedly turned down a couple offers, opting instead to see how health-and-safety protocols played out. He then worked out for teams early in the season but suffered the aforementioned finger laceration midway through his bullpen.

April 20: Free-agent righty Anibal Sanchez has been working out for clubs around the league and is drawing interest from several of his former employers, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins have all looked into Sanchez, whose last bullpen session was truncated by a laceration on his middle finger that ought to have healed up by now. There’s interest from a couple of AL clubs as well, per Rosenthal.

Interest from any of the clubs linked to Sanchez this morning makes plenty of sense, given the pitching situations on each of the three. The Braves have recently placed Max Fried and Drew Smyly on the injured list, where they’ve joined Mike Soroka, whose recovery timeline recently hit a setback. None of the injuries is thought to be especially long-term, but the team’s depth has been tested early on.

The Nationals placed Stephen Strasburg on the injured list this week and have watched as left Patrick Corbin has been crushed by opposing lineups (15 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings). Last night’s rough start from Joe Ross only added fuel to the fire, sending the team’s collective rotation ERA to a disastrous 6.24 that ranks last among all big league teams. Currently, Max Scherzer is the only Nats pitcher who has started more than one game and has an ERA south of 5.00.

Meanwhile, Marlins righties Sixto Sanchez and Elieser Hernandez have dealt with injuries early in the 2021 season. They’re also carrying a pair of Rule 5 right-handers, Zach Pop and Paul Campbell, who have been hit hard in their first exposure to big league pitching.

Sanchez, 37, didn’t sign over the winter and is coming off a rough 2020 showing. The veteran right-hander was tagged for a 6.62 ERA in 53 innings with the Nationals last summer, although he’s only a season removed from 166 innings of 3.85 ERA ball during his first season with Washington.

Mike Soroka Cleared To Begin Throwing

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April 29: Soroka has been cleared to begin “simple” throwing exercises, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com, adding that the Braves indeed feel the righty is more than a month away from returning. Manager Brian Snitker indicates that Soroka effectively has to “start over” with his buildup to the season. “We’ve just got to be patient with him,” said Snitker.

April 27: Braves righty Mike Soroka has yet to pitch in 2021 thanks not only to last year’s season-ending Achilles tear but also due to some inflammation that’s popped up in his shoulder. While Soroka’s most recent MRI did not reveal any structural damage, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported today (video link) that it did show some lingering inflammation. Soroka won’t begin throwing until that’s cleared out, and at that point, he’ll effectively need a full, Spring Training-esque buildup before he returns to the big leagues. Morosi suggests he isn’t likely to return until sometime in June, at the earliest.

That’s a tough blow for Braves fans and for a team that was originally hoping to have Soroka back around late April. The Braves are likely proceeding with some extra caution, however, as Soroka was twice placed on the injured list during his rookie season due to shoulder troubles — the second stint proving to be a season-ender

Soroka returned with a flourish in 2019, rattling off 174 2/3 innings of 2.68 ERA ball, a 20.3 percent strikeout rate, a 5.8 percent walk rate and a league-best 0.7 homers per nine innings pitched. He appeared in just three games last season, however, before suffering a torn Achilles tendon when coming off the mound to cover first base on a grounder to the right side of the infield.

It’s been another rocky season for the Atlanta rotation, which added veterans Charlie Morton ($15MM) and Drew Smyly ($11MM) on a pair of relatively high-priced one-year deals this winter. Braves starters have combined for a 5.29 ERA that ranks 29th of 30 teams.

Morton leads the club with five starts and 28 1/3 innings pitched, but he’s struggled to strand runners and is has a 4.76 ERA in the earlygoing (albeit with much better secondary marks). Max Fried has struggled through three starts and is currently alongside on Soroka on the injured list due to a hamstring strain. Smyly has also had an early IL stint, while Ian Anderson hasn’t quite replicated last year’s brilliant rookie showing.

Among the team’s fill-in starters, Huascar Ynoa has impressed, piling up strikeouts in bunches while yielding just six runs through 21 frames. The results haven’t been as sharp for either Bryse Wilson or Kyle Wright, though Wilson has made just two appearances and Wright only one.

For the time being, the Braves will roll with Morton, Anderson, Smyly, Ynoa and Wilson starting games. It’s a solid bunch, but the absence of the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up (Soroka) and the 2020 fifth-place Cy Young finisher (Fried) is rather glaring. A healthy group of Soroka, Fried, Morton, Anderson and Smyly could be one of the most imposing rotations in the Majors, but it doesn’t seem like we’ll see that quintet together in the near future.

Max Fried "Likely" To Return Next Tuesday Or Wednesday

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  • The Braves are “likely” to activate left-hander Max Fried from the 10-day injured list next Tuesday or Wednesday, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. If true, it’ll go down as roughly a three-week stay on the IL for Fried, who suffered a right hamstring strain during his most recent start on April 13. Once he returns, the 2020 NL Cy Young contender will try to rebound from a ghastly three-start, 11-inning stretch in which hitters victimized him for 15 runs (14 earned) on 23 hits and five walks.

Jerry Blevins Announces Retirement

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Veteran reliever Jerry Blevins has retired from baseball, he announced Tuesday on Twitter (click here to read his statement). The left-hander had been with the Mets on a minor league contract.

Now 37 years old, Blevins entered the pros as a 17th-round pick of the Cubs in 2004. He never pitched for the Cubs, however, as they traded him to the Athletics as part of a deal for catcher Jason Kendall in 2007. Blevins debuted in the majors that year, which began a fairly long run in Oakland. He stuck with the A’s through 2013 and notched ERAs ranging from 2.48 to 3.70 in four different seasons as a member of the club.

Despite his solid production in an A’s uniform, they moved on from him heading into 2014, sending Blevins to the Nationals for outfielder Billy Burns. That proved to be the lone season in Washington for Blevins, whom the Nationals traded to the Mets for outfielder Matt den Dekker before the 2015 campaign.

Blevins missed almost all of his first season as a Met because of a fractured pitching arm, but he returned to deliver outstanding results over the next two years. In a 91-inning span from 2016-17, Blevins put up a 2.87 ERA with a 30.6 percent strikeout rate and a 9.9 percent walk rate. However, Blevins couldn’t replicate that success in 2018 – his last year with the Mets – and then reunited with the A’s on a minor league deal in the ensuing offseason. Oakland wound up trading Blevins to Atlanta before the 2019 season, which will go down as his final year in the majors. Although Blevins threw 32 1/3 frames of 3.90 ERA ball that season, he couldn’t make it back to the bigs on a minors deal with the Giants in 2020 or with the Mets this season.

In all, Blevins appeared in parts of 13 MLB seasons and posted a 3.54 ERA with 508 strikeouts in 495 1/3 innings. Blevins was especially tough on lefties, whom he held to a weak .213/.270/.313 line. MLBTR congratulates Blevins on a very solid career and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.

Latest On Mike Soroka

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  • Braves right-hander Mike Soroka’s injured pitching shoulder is “structurally sound,” per David O’Brien of The Athletic. However, Soroka still has not returned to throwing almost three weeks since the Braves shut him down with inflammation on April 7, so it remains unclear when he could make his season debut. The last year-plus has been unfortunate on the health front for Soroka, who missed most of 2020 with a torn right Achilles before his current issue cropped up. As a result of his injuries, Soroka hasn’t really gotten a chance to follow up on an All-Star 2019 in which he recorded a 2.68 ERA in 174 2/3 innings.
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