NORTH PORT, Fla. — At least it wasn’t the shoulder, or the elbow, or the Achilles tendon. That was my thought when I heard the Braves shut down Mike Soroka soon after he showed up for spring training. A tight hamstring is nothing in comparison with all the other ailments that have prevented Soroka from pitching in the big leagues since 2020.
Still, it is something.
“It’s a kick in the groin,” Soroka said Tuesday at Braves camp.
As painful as that sounds, that probably would be preferable to yet another injury setback for Soroka.
Elbow soreness cut short Soroka’s Triple-A season in 2022. The one potential bright side was a longer offseason to get ready for spring camp. But the dark clouds of bad injury luck gathered over Soroka again on the night before he drove from Atlanta to Florida.