The injury bug hit the Braves early and often during Spring Training. Luckily, nothing new has come of late, but the updates from those injuries have not been as promising.
Folty won't be ready for Opening Day
Minter might throw on "Saturday or so"
O'Day has forearm tightness
Soroka shut down "indefinitely"
No word on Gohara since March 6th
Gausman has pitched 2 innings.
The season starts in less than 2 weeks
Save us Touki, Fried and Wright
— (Prospects Braves) (@ProspectsBraves) March 15, 2019
Mike Foltynewicz will not be ready for Opening Day, and as this saga continues, it doesn’t appear he is going to be ready for the first week of the season either. This is an elbow injury that Folty has felt before in the past, and the Braves are going to continue to be cautious with their Ace pitcher. It might not be until May when we see Folty on the mound for a regular season game, providing nothing more severe takes place between now and then.
Mike Soroka has been shut-down “indefinitely”, which is a discomforting sign considering he was shut down for the majority of last season after suffering similar shoulder soreness. Like Folty, the Braves are going to take the cautious approach with their top pitching prospect. The scary part is the organization initially thought this would not be a serious issue. Now, Soroka doesn’t even have a timeline to return.
Kevin Gausman has appeared in two games this spring training and pitched a total of two innings because of shoulder stiffness he was experiencing. There has been no word of anything worsening as far as his injury goes, but his 27.00 ERA isn’t promising when realizing he could be the Ace of the staff for the first month or so of the season.
Mum has been the word regarding Luiz Gohara. It’s highly unlikely he is on the major league roster anytime soon.
A.J Minter exited his last spring training game with shoulder tightness which he said was caused by a car accident. Hopefully, that is the case, as Minter is supposed to resume throwing this weekend. Reliever, Darren O’Day, also reported forearm tightness but believes he will be ready to go for Opening Day.
All of these injuries did not seem too worrisome a couple of weeks ago. Now things feel a little different with Opening Day less than two weeks away. The Braves won’t have close to their full alignment of arms, but the main focus should be on preventing any of these pitchers from suffering something more severe.