The Braves announced this morning they’ve placed Guillermo Heredia on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 30, with right hamstring inflammation. Fellow outfielder Cristian Pache has been recalled from the alternate training site in a corresponding move. The team did not provide a timetable for Heredia’s potential return.
Somewhat ironically, Heredia only got his call to the big leagues this season when Pache went on the IL a little less than three weeks ago. The 30-year-old was viewed as something of an emergency stopgap capable of holding down center field, but there wasn’t much expectation he’d produce at the plate. After all, he’d managed only a .231/.311/.354 line for four teams from 2018-20 and had been waived by the Mets in February.
However, Heredia has unexpectedly mashed to begin his Atlanta career. He quickly played himself into the everyday lineup and has hit .300/.429/.575 with a pair of home runs over 49 plate appearances. Pache returned from the IL last week, but the Braves immediately optioned him to the alternate site and continued to play Heredia in center.
Of course, Heredia was likely to take a significant step back offensively at some point. His 74.7% contact rate this season is the lowest of his career, a full eight points below his overall mark. He has always been a patient hitter, but Heredia’s massive 16.3% walk rate is an outlier, likely aided by his frequent work hitting directly in front of the pitcher. And while Heredia’s 87.8 MPH average exit velocity is a new career high, it’s still a bit below the league average of 88.3 MPH.
Even if Heredia were to regress at the plate, he’d probably offer more offense than Pache. The 22-year-old is already regarded as one of the game’s best defenders and is a consensus top prospect, but he’s looked overmatched by MLB pitching so far. In his first 35 plate appearances, Pache has hit just .147/.171/.206 with 13 strikeouts and one walk. Those struggles aren’t particularly surprising for a young player who has never been renowned for his plate discipline and hasn’t had much experience above Double-A. With Heredia joining Ender Inciarte on the IL, though, it seems the Braves are likely to turn to Pache for the time being, where he should at least offer a boost with the glove.
Ugh. Too many injuries year to year. I understand it’s early. But the Braves are not looking great.
It seems like someone lands on the IL every single day. I know there are a lot of factors involved, and I’m not a doctor, but I would look at a team like CLE who has had VERY few injuries so far this year and ask, “What are they doing differently?”
Living in Cleveland will toughen you up.
After Smyly’s performance yesterday, I foresee another IL stint coming
He was cheap after all, only 11 million for however he does this year. Total waste !
Unfortunately so far, this is appearing to be true. AA isn’t exactly hitting gold with his 1 year left handed pitching options. DK was ok but certainly very expensive. Hamels was 100% a pure waste of every penny we gave him, which no matter what we paid him makes him expensive. And smyly is appearing to be expensive also, especially since the entire team is struggling
The inverse (which is reality) is that the Braves are 1 game out of first place & winning the division is all that matters. The team is likely/hoping to be far better by the time the playoffs come around, if they’re lucky enough to make it. Winning the division by 1 game vs 10 games really doesn’t matter.
The team is without its 2 best starters & its best reliever. 2 are nearing a return.
Now for the optimistic, subjective take: that so much of the team has underperformed so badly, bodes well for their upside following a regression to the mean.
I agree with you on the 1 game vs. 10 idea except for the 10 game lead offering you the chance to rest players and set up your rotation for the playoffs, but generally, a true sentiment.
Good post. Braves are lucky that nobody is running away with division. So there’s a bit more time for Pache to develop at the plate before a decision is made on a more permanent basis. Same can be said for Smyly and Wilson. As long as Braves stay in the hunt, their performance later in the stretch drive is what matters.
Still time to figure things out, get Fried and/or Soroka back in rotation, and for guys like Freeman and Ozuna to hit up to their standards.
Painful the amount of injuries we have had. Never good when our 3rd CF option is our best hitter of the 3 either lol. Hoping Pache has a shot of better offensive after that bench rest. He doesn’t even have to hit that great, I’d just like to see him put up more competitive at bats and walk more. If he can hit .200-.230 with a high obp and great defense, then I’d be happy enough. That’s not really asking for a lot from him. He’s very capable enough to do that.
I expect Pache to be hitting better than that in the bigs. I think 250 is his floor once he adjusts to MLB. If the adjustment period is painfully long, he might spend at least part of the season at Gwinnett once they get ramped up. So these next few games will be decision time.
Pache is not Acuna. Acuna is a natural with a bat in his hand. Pache has to adjust to higher level of play at each step in his development.
Travis Demeritte time baby!
May we stop making excuses for this team?
The core is still there and it is not good.
AA is still a genius though even though he did nothing for this team…ever.
With that being said, knowing the predictability of baseball, Smyly will be the first Brave to pitch a complete game and/or NH this year.
They’re a game out of 1st in a tough division.
For as long as the sky has been falling in your universe, does it ever hit ground?
Your reassurance is cute. I’m glad you still care about the participation awards (division titles), I don’t.
Division titles aren’t participation awards. Takes a lot of work to win one, and last I checked not everyone wins one.
I’m not sure what it is that’d please you here. They have 2 of the most exciting young players in the game, a MVP level 1B, a quality hitting OF in Ozuna and a solid farm. It’s also only May 1st. Lot of season left. The Braves have been smacked by injuries.
Definitely need defense up the middle. Braves would obviously like some type of offense out of CF. The true issue is the pitching all the way around. Smyly signing is a joke. 11M for that crap? You could have stuck with Wright or Wilson and used that 11M on bullpen arms. SMH.
I would not say it the way you did, but I think we saw enough of Anderson, Wright, Wilson, Ynoa last year to figure at least 2 maybe 3 could be decent rotation pieces. So sign Morton and know that Fried and Soroka are proven commodities and I say, Braves didn’t need Smyly. Alex should have used the 11 M on a bench piece or a reliever. Or just save the cash and put it toward that contract for Freeman.
AA appears to be a better judge of offensive players than pitchers.
Never thought AA was a genius. Coppy and John Hart era put the core pieces in place. Starting pitching has been a “plug and play” situation for the past 3 plus years. Hamels last year, Smyly this year. Banking on a “Cy Young” return from Soroka, expecting Fried to be “Tom Glavine” and so on is a pipe dream. I liked the Morton signing because that dude has been there and done that proven SP on good teams in the AL east. Look at Smyly’s entire career it mediocre to really bad. Pitched for 3 teams in 2019 and got rocked at every stop.
Don’t forget resigning Ozuna despite his terrible defense. Now that he got his money, he is more focused on tilting his cap to the side and taking selfies. The money is guaranteed!
AA is genius!
You’re a broken record. I wish you’d choose another topic to discuss.
Hart was GM only 1 year. He didn’t have time to make major additions to the club, but he did sign 2 International free agents, Pache and Contreras to first minor league contracts. Those are major prospects.
Coppy was hired to rebuild the team and he did that. Most of the guys on the team are here because of Coppy. Here are some of the names: Soroka, Fried, Anderson, Ynoa, Wilson, Wright, Riley, Newcomb, Minter and OF prospect Drew Waters.
Frank Wren had 2 major finds in the international market: Acuna and Albies.
Alex has brought in lots of free agents on current team: Ozuna, d’Arnaud, Morton, Smyly, Matzek, Martin, Will Smith, and he was GM when another top prospect was drafted, catcher Langeliers.
Going way back, Schuerholz drafted Freddie Freeman, although that was during last year when he was GM. Freeman’s minor league development occurred during Wren’s tenure.
For all the GMs that Braves have had, you can point to significant successes by all of them.
Even Mark Bowman threw some “shade” at Smyly read the latest article Braves fans.
Needed a right handed bat to protect Freeman. I don’t think the Ozuna signing was bad. Dude has hit in the league and the back of the BB card shows it. His hard hit rate is still there. April was the worst for hitters across all of MLB not just on this Braves squad. Like I said before turn over Smyly’s BB card zero track record of getting it done in the Show.
Why is Waters not getting a shot?
Waters will get his shot. But I suspect he hasn’t yet because Pache hit better than Waters during their brief few weeks at Gwinnett toward end of 2019, and Pache has hit better than Waters in spring ball with the big club. I can’t say how well they have performed at the alternate training site. Waters has been striking out too much at AAA and in spring ball.
But Waters definitely out hit Pache at AA Mississippi. Waters will get his shot (unless traded)
Pache is already on the 40 man, so he doesn’t require any shuffling. Waters has yet to be added, Goose, which is likely why. No point in starting two service clocks and doing the 40 man shuffle is probably what they’re thinking.
Minor league season is about to start. Guess they don’t want to interrupt Waters’s progression, Kinda like what they are doing with Contreras. Contreras hands down could/should be in the Show. Head and shoulders better than Alex Jackson.
Agree, Contreras is way better than Jackson. I think Contreras should be called up and split time more evenly with d’Arnaud, like 50/50 playing time.
I like the way the article keeps implying that Heredia will never have a consistently hot bat. Not saying I disagree, but they seem to belabor the point
Heredia earned his way on the roster and had more quality at bats than Pache. I would not bank on a full season from Heredia hitting like he is though. I still think Pache should get more at bats in Gwinnett and improve the hit tool. He has a ton of expectations on his shoulders and missed a full season at AAA last year. Waters has a chip on his shoulder because all the attention is on Pache. I think that kid is going to surprise a lot of people when he gets to ATL.
It’s so good to see the braves tearing up Tommy Milone. Nice grand slam by Pache.
Sorry to the people that like him, But Luke Jackson needs to go, All he does is adds to the braves losses, He cant throw a strike. Time to leave