ATLANTA — At all levels of sports, there’s a mantra that everyone falls back on when the inevitable injuries strike: Next man up.
Only one problem for the Atlanta Braves.
“We’re having a hard time finding the next man up,” manager Brian Snitker moaned.
An unrelenting series of breaks, tears and strains have sent player after player to the injured list this season, leaving the six-time reigning National League East Division champions scrambling to cobble together a lineup — and putting their hopes of making it back to the postseason in serious jeopardy.
“We’re just going through a really weird time right now,” 30-year-old right-handed pitcher Reynaldo López, a first-time MLB All-Star this year in his first season with the Braves, said through a translator.
“It just feels like as soon as someone comes off the IL, someone goes on it. Then someone else comes off, and someone else goes on. It’s just really strange, but there’s nothing we can do.”
Third baseman Austin Riley joined the list of banged-up Braves this week, his year in jeopardy after getting plunked with a 97 mph fastball during Sunday’s matchup with the Los Angeles Angels to wrap up Atlanta’s 10-game road trip. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound slugger is expected to need six to eight weeks to recover from a fractured right hand, which knocks him out for at least the rest of the regular season with less than six weeks remaining.
He’s hardly the first player on Atlanta’s 2024 roster to suffer such a fate.
— Right fielder and leadoff batter Ronald Acuña Jr., the 2023 NL MVP, sustained a season-ending knee injury in late May. Although off to a slow start to this season, last year Acuña became the first player in MLB history with at least 40 home runs and at least 70 stolen bases in a single season, totaling 41 and 73 while batting .337.
— Ace right-hander Spencer Strider, coming off a franchise record for strikeouts in 2023, made it through only two starts this season before a torn elbow ligament led to season-ending surgery.
— Second baseman Ozzie Albies has been sidelined since July 21 after breaking his left wrist while catching a throw on a stolen base. If his recovery goes well, he might be able to return for the final days of the regular season.
— Center fielder Michael Harris II missed two months with a left hamstring injury, returning just last week.
— Key reliever A.J. Minter is done for the season after undergoing surgery for a lingering hip ailment.
— Catcher Sean Murphy, an MLB All-Star in 2023, was sidelined for nearly two months after a swing on opening day left him with a strained left oblique muscle.
— Left-hander Max Fried, another key member of the rotation, spent more than three weeks on the injured list with an inflamed nerve in his pitching forearm.
— Jorge Soler, acquired just ahead of MLB’s trade deadline in late July to help counter all the injuries in the outfield, hasn’t started in the past week as he deals with a sore hamstring.
And now the Braves have added Riley to the list.
“The guys that we’re losing, you can’t just go out and replace them,” Snitker said. “You’ve got to hope you can keep fighting and keep your head above water until you get them back. Unfortunately, a lot of these guys, we’re not getting back.”
AP photo by Ryan Sun / Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley gets checked out after a pitch hit his right hand during Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif. Riley has a fracture and will miss at least the remainder of what has become an injury-plagued 2024 regular season for the Braves.On Tuesday night, for the opener of a crucial three-game series against the NL East’s first-place Philadelphia Phillies, the Braves sent out a lineup that included three players who have been cut by other teams this season.
Ramón Laureano, let go by the Cleveland Guardians in May, held down right field. Whit Merrifield, released by the Phillies in July, started at second base. At third base, Gio Urshela got the nod — a mere two days after he was cast aside by the Detroit Tigers.
All three contributed to a 3-1 victory, undoubtedly using their rejections as motivation. Merrifield tripled, doubled and scored Atlanta’s first run. Urshela walked with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to drive in an insurance run. Laureano made two sliding catches in the ninth to seal the victory.
“You just play the best you can every night, and a lot of times it’s not your night,” Merrifield said. “But to contribute and play well against a team that told you that you weren’t good enough to play for them, it feels good. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”
In a twist on the injury storyline, López threw five strong innings with 10 strikeouts Tuesday night in his first mound appearance in more than three weeks. He had been on the injured list with a strained right forearm.
The Braves will continue to need contributions from stalwarts such as López and unlikely sources such as Merrifield if they’re to have any chance of making the playoffs — they entered Wednesday in the third and final spot in the NL’s wild-card race — much less pulling off the improbable goal of chasing down the Phillies for a seventh straight division title. Philadelphia’s advantage of second-place Atlanta in the NL East was six games after the series opener.
“That would be unbelievable,” relief pitcher Pierce Johnson said. “If we can pull that off, it’s going to be a true testament of the character in this room. Even if we don’t, everybody’s battled all year, and I’m proud of each and every one of these guys for showing up every single day. But look, we’re going for it. There’s no letting up.”
Thankfully for the Braves, designated hitter Marcell Ozuna has been their lineup’s one constant in a season of such uncertainty.
An MLB All-Star this season for the third time in his career, the 33-year-old entered Wednesday leading the National League in both batting average (.309) and RBIs (94), while ranking second with 37 home runs. He was two behind Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving Ozuna a very real shot at becoming the first NL player since Joe Medwick in 1937 to accomplish the hallowed Triple Crown.
“He’s been an absolute godsend to have on the team,” López said, before remembering what this team has been through.
The pitcher knocked several times on the table in front of him.
“I mean, knock on wood that he can stay healthy and continue to do what he does,” López said. “He’s just been so huge for us.”