HUGE BLOW: Braves’ five starting position players are sidelined for the rest of the season due to serious injuries.
The Atlanta injury wave is more akin to a tsunami. Not only has the squad lost five starting position players for at least two months apiece, but it is now compelled to replace one injured player with another.
Spencer Strider, the team’s greatest pitcher and 20-game winner, started two games before requiring an internal bracing treatment on his pitching elbow. A month later, defending National League MVP Ronald Acuna, Jr. tore his ACL, joining Spencer on the season-ending injury list.
Sean Murphy, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, and Michael Harris II have all been sidelined for at least two months due to injury.
Braves baseball operations chief Alex Anthopoulos worked harder than the Dutch boy with his finger in the dike to add outfielders Ramon Laureano, Eddie Rosario, and Jorge Soler, third baseman Gio Urshela, multi-position infielders Whit Merrifield and Cavan Biggio, and relief pitchers Luke Jackson and John Brebbia.
Most were released by other clubs due to poor performance, high pay, advanced athletic age, or a combination of the aforementioned.
For months, the squad appeared to be under the control of an invisible, malignant power. Those that can play appear to be going through the motions, unable to hit, run, or field – an unusual occurrence for a team that led the majors with 104 victories last year, tied a record with 307 home runs, and slugged.501 was the first time a club achieved a composite slugging average of at least.500.
The most recent disaster involves Merrifield, who battled with a lack of use in Philadelphia before being hurried into service by the Braves to replace the little but powerful Albies.
Before he ever got into an Atlanta box score, Merrifield hurt his finger during infield practice. Then he missed more time when he was hit in the head by an errant pitch. The day he returned, he fouled a ball off his left leg, causing a fracture, though doctors said he could return within a week because the break was so small.
With much to gain, he can stand the pain. Or so the theory goes.
Not all of Atlanta’s replacements panned out.
Rosario never regained the form that propelled him to the National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player award in 2021. Adam Duvall, another hero from that world championship season, tanked after signing as a free agent in spring training.
Similarly, Soler, the 2021 World Series MVP, appears to have vanished into cyberspace with his power stroke.
He left not only his heart in San Francisco, but also his swing.
Laureano, who was dismissed by Cleveland, showed some life after coming to Truist Park, but Jackson, acquired in the last-minute Soler trade with the Giants, pitched so poorly that he was used sparingly.
The Braves had anticipated that Jackson and Brebbia, who were signed after being released by the struggling Chicago White Sox, would embrace the opportunity to throw in significant games.
With just weeks left in the schedule, Atlanta lost its grasp on the first of three wild-card berths, falling one game behind the suddenly-torrid New York Mets. It was a development predicted months ago by Chris (Mad Dog) Russo on his MLB Network show High Heat.
Even with a team-record payroll of $233 million, ranked sixth in the majors by Roster Resource, the Braves struggled after starting the season with 19 wins in their first 26 games.
Impending free agent Max Fried, a 30-year-old left-hander determined to raise his asking price with a strong second half, was also bitten by the injury big. He was one of three Atlanta starters on the National League All-Star team but suffered left forearm neuritis that cost him several weeks thereafter.
Fellow All-Star Reynaldo Lopez, who inked a three-year, $30 million contract to leave the struggling Chicago White Sox, also spent time on the IL this season.
Only two players survived the second burning of Atlanta.
Chris Sale, a veteran southpaw acquired from the Boston Red Sox in the best trade of the offseason, has regained his prior form to become a viable candidate for the Cy Young Award, which he has never won.
And designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, who was almost dropped after hitting.085 in the first month a year ago, made a valiant bid for the Triple Crown, which has not been won by a National Leaguer since 1937.
Recently, however, the team’s downturn has depleted Ozuna’s power, with his 37th and most recent home run coming on August 20.
Atlanta has struggled to score this summer, thanks in large part to Matt Olson’s unexplained power vacuum.
The Braves were shut out only twice last year, but have been blanked nine times this season.
Never mind that Olson led the majors with 54 home runs and 139 RBIs last year.
Albies and Riley, who are both rehabilitating from hand injuries, are expected to return in time for the playoffs, assuming Atlanta can make it there.
The Braves have won the National League East division title six years in a row, the longest active stretch in the majors, but will have to settle for a wild card spot after losing three of four games in Philadelphia last weekend.
With players falling like dominoes, the squad must keep those left standing from toppling in the last weeks.
The Braves, Diamondbacks, Padres, and Mets are the four clubs competing for three wild card slots. Only New York, the hottest of the four, did not make the playoffs last year.
