Manny Banuelos is a great prospect who, unfortunately, has had injury problems derail his development up to this point in his career. It appears the injury bug has struck him once again, as the team has opted to place him on the 15-Day Disabled List retroactive to July 25th due to elbow inflammation in his throwing arm. Banuelos has been great since arriving in Atlanta and had a phenomenal season in Gwinnett, but has an innings limit for 2015 of around 150 innings. He is at a little over 100 at this point. We hope this injury is not serious. We all know that injuries that are first reported as elbow inflammation can be much more severe than initially thought. The team maintains they think the injury is just inflammation, however, and he is headed back to Atlanta to undergo MRIs.
The team has called up David Carpenter to add another arm for now, and Fredi Gonzalez says he will announce tomorrow’s starter after tonight’s game.
It looks like Williams Perez is set to rejoin the rotation, but he pitched on Sunday. Mike Foltynewicz was supposed to start tonight for Gwinnett, but has been pulled from his start. It’s clear that he is the likely starter for tomorrow night’s contest. It appears this may just be a spot start for Folty for now. Perez was the Braves’ biggest surprise in the first half of the season, and hopes to build upon his campaign following his return.
It will be interesting to see how Folty performs in his first start since being sent back down to AAA. Manny Banuelos is very likely to see himself in a bullpen role upon his return due to the inflammation and his innings limit.