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The Atlanta Braves are playing solid baseball despite missing multiple key pieces early in the 2024 season.
Braves manager Brian Snitker on Saturday had an update on All-Star second baseman Ozzie Albies, who fractured his toe after being hit in the foot by a pitch earlier this week, per David O’Brien of The Athletic:
“Snit on Braves‘ Albies walking without limp: ‘Very encouraging, how he’s feeling and everything. I haven’t talked to (trainer) about what the next step is, but it’s good to see he’s not in a boot and all that. He’s walking good. I’m sure he’ll start activity sooner than later.’”
The Braves second baseman finished the game without any noticeable problems, but afterward, he was sore and limping.
Infielder David Fletcher has been selected to take his place on the roster. The Braves had a couple of vacancies on its 40-man roster and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
On the season, Albies is batting .317 with a pair of home runs and 14 RBIs.
Fletcher, who spent his entire six-year career with the Los Angeles Angels prior to this season, hit .324 for the Braves in spring training. With AAA Gwinnett, he hit .280 with seven RBIs in 13 games.
Braves dealing with significant injuries
Despite dealing with significant injuries, the Braves have gotten off to an MLB best 13-5 record behind their elite offense.
Not only is Albies out with the fractured toe, but All-Star catcher Sean Murphy went down on Opening Day with an oblique injury, forcing Travis d’Arnaud to assume the everyday catcher role (which hasn’t been all bad, d’Arnaud his three home runs, including a grand slam on Friday night).
Shortly Murphy suffered his injury, Braves ace Spencer Strider was lost for the season with a UCL issue.
Strider, who has already had one Tommy John surgery, elected to be fitted with a brace to repair the injury.
Strider had a pretty uncharacteristic start for the Braves against the Diamondbacks. In the four innings he pitched, the ace gave up seven hits and five runs. It wasn’t just the stats that showed his struggles, too: his fastball clearly lost a lot of velocity. It was clear that something was wrong with the ace, and his early exit proved exactly that.
Strider discussed his injury and internal-brace surgery. He had a highly unusual injury, not a UCL tear but a bone fragment in the UCL, a fragment that developed at some point since his 2019 Tommy John surgery. Had some discomfort at spring training but nothing severe.
While the Braves are still winning games with their offense, they may need to look to move one of their young pitching prospects in order to obtain an established arm to fill in for Strider this season.
Max Fried has settled down after a brutal first two starts, Chris Sale looks good but has health issues, and Charlie Morton is 40-years-old.
More must-reads:
- Insider shares confusing trade updates on Mets' Pete Alonso
- Announcer describes 'Field of Dreams' moment from Giants-Red Sox game
- The 'Active MLB strikeout leaders' quiz
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