May 2: The Braves moved d’Arnaud to the 60-day injured list after it was revealed that he has a torn thumb ligament which will require surgery, tweets the Athletic’s David O’Brien. The Braves hope to get d’Arnaud back late in the season, but that’s far from a guarantee, especially with the injury on his catching hand.
May 1: Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud is headed to the injured list after suffering a left thumb injury in tonight’s game with the Blue Jays, manager Brian Snitker told David O’Brien of The Athletic and other reporters. More will be known about d’Arnaud’s injury after he undergoes tests, though Snitker bluntly described the situation as “not good.” D’Arnaud isn’t staying with the team on the road, as he is heading back to Atlanta to visit team doctors on Sunday.
D’Arnaud suffered the injury on a play at the plate in the sixth inning. The catcher tagged out Randal Grichuk on Grichuk’s attempt to score from first on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. double, but d’Arnaud immediately indicated he was hurt, and was replaced in the game by Alex Jackson.
William Contreras will be called up prior to tomorrow’s game to take d’Arnaud’s spot on the active roster. Contreras made his MLB debut with four games for Atlanta last season, and it is perhaps little surprising that the Braves are going with the inexperienced Contreras over 14-year veteran Jeff Mathis, who signed a minor league deal just prior to Opening Day.
Atlanta does have a full 40-man roster, however, and would have to open up a spot in order to officially select Mathis’ contract. Contreras is also a noteworthy prospect (ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves’ sixth-best minor leaguer), and it could be that the team wants to give Contreras some seasoning in advance of a potentially larger role for 2022 and beyond.
D’Arnaud was off to a slow start this season, hitting .220/.253/.341 through his first 87 PA. Though d’Arnaud has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, he was able to stay mostly healthy in 2019-20 and was very productive, including a .321/.386/.533 performance over 184 PA in 2020 that won him a Silver Slugger Award. It was a strong early return on the two-year, $16MM free agent deal the Braves made with d’Arnaud in the 2019-20 offseason.
6 weeks min of it isn’t totally torn. Surgery and it’s a 2 month min. The hitting isn’t what’s killing the Barves it’s their pitching. They’ve scored more runs than most everybody.
BP is atrocious
It’s hard to see much positive right now with the Braves. The one thing that is standing out to me is Riley is hitting well. Hopefully guys start coming back from injuries and contributing. It hurts to lose d’Arnaud but Contreras and journeyman Mathis should fill in nicely. It will be a travesty if the Braves don’t retain Freeman past this year.
Call him up and let him PLAY. Bury Alex Jackson on the bench right next to Sal Fasano until d’Arnaud is ready to come back. Contreras will be the starter in 22 anyway.
Join the Jason Nottingham pool.
Jacob
Sorry to the people that like him, But Luke Jackson needs to go, All he does is adds to the braves losses, How many runs did he let cross the plate, is there a stat for that. He cant throw a strike. Time to leave
He was fortunate on the double play. That last pitch by Jackson was smoked.
Yes, runs allowed is a stat lol…
The team is unbearable right now.
I don’t think they were ever over .500 all season.
No pitching, no hitting, terrible GM.
They really need to get Acuna out of the leadoff spot. You can’t have your best hitter (Yes, I said it) hitting solo homeruns. They need to shuffle the lineup around. I never liked him in the leadoff spot and never will.
He should move no further back than 2nd and if that’s the case, you have to put Freddie in front of him as he’s the only one who gets on base consistent enough for Acuna to dive in runs. Him in the leadoff spot is sound logic and has paid off. For whatever reason, he’s just hits better in that spot. But you give our best hitter more AB’s in a game. I’d argue, that you should shuffle the back end of the lineup to move the pitcher up to 7th or 8th so you have someone like Ozzie, Pache, or Swanson batting 9th in an effort to get more people on base in front of Acuna while also giving him more AB’s per game. That makes more sense than taking the bat out of his hands
With Acuña taking more pitches and drastically reducing his chase-rate (early stats had him even better than Soto before Soto went down), it’s becoming more essential that he’s leadoff, leading into Freeman, Ozuna (who has been heating up). As much as I like Albies at #2, they needed to do something to get him going, especially with his OBP not being where it needed to be, and sliding him to #4 has worked, for now. I can’t see that playing out long-term, especially with #5 slot needing someone new now that d’Arnaud will be out a period of time. Swanson, time to start hitting.
Step down from the ledge. We are one month into a six-month season, and yr team has had plenty of injuries.
Wasn’t that long ago that Braves fans were touting their rotation as the best in the league, predicting a an nl east cakewalk. That’s why they play the games!
I never understood why Acuna is batting leadoff! He needs to be right there around Freeman and hit between him and Ozuna.
for some crazy reason the dude is bad ass on lead off
You’d prefer Acuna receive fewer atbats over the course of the season?
Acuna, Freeman, Ozuna is the right 1-2-3.
Precisely. It’s not just about the first trip through the order. More at bats = more production.
You are absolutely correct , But if any other player gets a great on base percentage stick them in at #2 after Acuna and before Freeman and Ozuna
He hits better leadoff, but the logic of having him bat first is sound and produces more results than if he were further in the lineup. Give you best players more AB’s. Who else would you bat first? Ozzie? Kid doesn’t get on base near as much. Acuna gets on all the time, Freeman gets on all the time. Let people like Ozuna drive them in. It’s actually been pretty productive and if the entire team was hitting to their norm, this model of a lineup wouldn’t be fair. Now the real question is, why don’t we move the pitcher up to 7th or 8th spot in an effort to get someone with a higher likelihood of getting on base batting before Acuna. That’s a better and more logical debate
The starting C goes down with what looks like a pretty serious injury and no significant backup — and you’re talking about one of the year’s hottest players in the wrong spot in the order…?? There are many things wrong with this season and he’s perhaps one of the few rights.
@ RunDMC;
As Royals GM Dayton Moore said this offseason, there are fewer quality Catchers in MLB than there are quality QB’s in the NFL.
Teams that have decent back-up Catchers aren’t trading them, as FO’s are finally realizing that the Catcher is the most important position player – even if he can’t hit.
As with pitching, teams have to grow their own.
Nah, if catchers were the most important position players, then Realmuto would have gotten a much bigger contract.
He got a record-setting contract (per AAV), and market was highly-volatile following massive losses the previous years. I wouldn’t let that factor much in how the market sees the position. Many teams are going the way of having 2 catchers anyway, but there weren’t enough available catchers to meet the demand – not unlike the trend in NFL of having 2 RBs. The fact ATL did absolutely nothing to address the backup position outside of A-Jax, if not possibly promoting Contreras, is the biggest misstep imho.
Record setting…for that position. Not close to record setting overall, which I think is the OP’s point. If catcher was the most important position, you would think we’d see them getting closer to other position players, especially on AAV. Due to aging, I could see overall contract value being an issue to match, even if they were paid like the most important position.
Offensive linemen in football are what makes an offense go. Every HC knows it. They open holes for RB’s to run through, give the QB time to throw passes and WR’s time to get open. But the fans don’t pay to see OL play, and the broadcasters seldom talk about it unless an OL is flagged for holding. So the visible glamour boys get the big bucks. No one is going to pay to see Roberto Perez run and catch a baseball game – most people here don’t even know who he is – but he’s been a key to the Indians having dominating pitching the past 5 years.
Pay is commiserate to the fans a player can pull in. Hot dogs / showoffs are currently in style. Within 4 years the decade long contracts they’ve been given (and will be given) are going to hamstring the teams that agreed to them. Affected fans will be complaining here and on other chatroom boards. But FO’s realize the game is all about pitching, and nowadays teams generally use 3-6 per game. The one constant is the Catcher working with them. FO people have become aware of how important they are to their teams winning….or not.
My point is that you can’t equate pay with player/positional importance. There’s a reason that more catchers than any other position (including pitchers) later become managers/coaches, by far. One of the most under-appreciated stats in MLB is catcher ERA (pitcher ERA while throwing to that catcher), with pitch framing taking front-seat. Last season, and as a result, this past offseason was such an anomaly that thinking Realmuto ONLY getting what he did doesn’t adequately speak to how most teams value the position or Realmuto. The fact that he got as much as he did from PHI is a mini-miracle in itself.
Pitch Framing is nonsense. The most ridiculous stat I’ve seen in any sport.
1. They count how many balls were call strikes, and credit that to the Catcher.
2. They don’t count how many strikes were called balls and take that away from the Catcher.
3. They don’t look at how may pitches a Catcher receives, and subsequently come up with a percentage of how many pitches were called incorrectly…..including the strikes that were called balls.
4. It’s very seldom I’ve seen a bad call of a pitch turn an inning or a game. I’ve seen that done quite a bit on bad calls on the bases and via bad judgement calls.
5. Speculation is that balls and strikes will be called by computers starting in 2022.
6. How a Catcher works with a staff and calls games is important. THAT’s where a Catcher makes a difference. Today Higashioka caught Kluber. Although it was against the Tigers, Kluber threw 8 shutout innings on 2 hits.
There is no other position player whose defense is more important. Period. Guys don’t get paid for defense–gm’s make splashes to keep uneducated fan bases happy. But I will be sure to let Dayton Moore he is not as smart as you.
Wait, who are you again?
@ Sideline Redwine;
If you’re bad rappng me, you got the wrong guy.
I’ve long felt that Dayton Moore is the best GM in MLB. And I was laughing reading all the comments knocking him for giving Salvy a big extension. Salvy and Yadi have had more impact on their teams’ winning than any other players over the past 20 years….and that includes Trout and Betts. Catchers are in on every pitch of a game.
Agreed on pitch framing. Way overrated..
Take the subjective umpire out of play and a consistent strike zone will allow the best of pitchers and hitters to come out, free of the distraction of wondering what the strike zone’s going to be, even from pitch to pitch..
While there are many good umps, relatively speaking, some of these guys clearly got to be MLB umpires due to the agenda of MLB, or other unknown reasons certainly NOT their ability.
Some players are just better in certain spots in the batting order. Mookie Betts is at his best leading off. The Red Sox tried him hitting second and even cleanup and he couldn’t produce. Acuna excells in the leadoff spot and who wouldn’t like the chance to start a game 1-0 after the first hitter?
Anyway, nonsense above aside. I know Ynoa has had great success with Jackson catching but so long as someone back there can catch the ball, he’d have been doing just as well. He has 2, sometimes 3 pitches. Baseball people believe too much in superstition!
I say you obviously call up Contreras here & if he plays OK you keep him up. Playing 2-3x per week in the majors is still better experience than horsing around at the alternate site, which he’s been doing for a year now. The team is being badly hurt by Jackson’s performance.
Either that or you have to bring in someone – gauge Flowers, or make a trade. You just can’t have the #8 hitter hitting .025 & the pitcher behind him considerably more reliable. If there are no other holes in the lineup you can get by like that, but there’s enough struggles elsewhere in the lineup that it’s just not tenable.
I’m with you Yeti, but I assume Contreras will go to Gwinnett if he doesn’t stick with the big club after d’Arnaud’s return. I hope he does stick with big club. I think Braves could go with more a tag-team catcher situation with d’Arnaud and Contreras like they have done in the past with Flowers and move Jackson to Gwinnett.
Contreras better play every day expect when ynoa pitches right now. Simple as that. Don’t waste that talent sitting the bench when you can give him meaningful big league at bats. I think Jackson is a good pitch caller behind the plate, much better than Travis honestly. But his hitting is a pure liability and outweighs any good he does behind the dish. Contreras is the future, let him take over this opportunity
His hitting used to be his calling card and his defense has gotten better, but not the band-aid over contact issues. He is why AAA exists.
I would be shocked if Contreras isn’t getting most of the starts in d’Arnaud’s absence, shocked to the point of guaranteeing Contreras will be starting. I look at this as an opportunity for Contreras to make himself a fixture on the big club. If he performs well, I think/hope Contreras will share time equally with d’Arnaud upon his return.
It would be almost comical that they thought enough of Contreras to add him to the playoff roster in a pinch yet not turn to him now with A-Jax still not hitting (in a small sample size of 28 PA: .258 OPS, striking out 46% of the time).
RunDMC, those stats for Alex Jackson (albeit a small sample size) are so bad it’s hard not to laugh and little and roll your eyes in disbelief
d’Arnaud hits well for a Catcher.
However, he’s a poor defensive Catcher – I often see him turn his glove sideways as an infielder would do to catch a pitch as opposed to bringing the ball into his body to assure that the ball will not get by him if he misses it. Most importantly, he doesn’t call the best games or seemingly work well with some individual pitchers.
It’ll be interesting to see if Braves pitchers performances get worse or improve with him out for a bit. There is an issue with the pitching, this will be one area to test as being a part of the problem.
I agree. And this year, he actually isn’t hitting well for a catcher although recent that’s not the norm. To prove your point, look at how well Ynoa has been with Alex Jackson behind the plate. I don’t think we have to wait long to see the difference between Travis pitch calling and others, we have kinda already been seeing it already
Bring back Floeers.
d’Arnaud signed a 2 year deal, so unless I’m missing something in his contract, this will be his last season. He hit very well last year, so I find no fault in the decision to sign him. I think his defense is OK. He doesn’t have a cannon arm but it’s better than some of the arms Braves have had in recent years IMO.
People who follow the Braves, like most here, know that Braves have not 1, but 2 quality catcher prospects: Contreras and Langeliers. Many clubs don’t even have 1 catcher prospect on the level of those 2. Contreras is more advanced in the minors than Langeliers but not by a lot because Langeliers has college experience. Both guys have hit pretty well in spring ball for the Braves, and Contreras hit pretty darned well in limited action last regular season.
With his contract and success last season, d’Arnaud was obviously going to be the starting catcher this season. Thus, the backup catcher wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time. This is why Contreras and Langeliers are not backing up d’Arnaud. I think the plan was to play Contreras at AAA Gwinnett and Langeliers (maybe) at AA Mississippi where they could get regular playing time and advance their development. As such, Alex Jackson is backing up d’Arnaud. Alex was a mainstay at Gwinnett and actually hit a bunch of HRs in 2019, suggesting he may be figuring out how to hit. I think his defense has been excellent with the big club, but the guy just hasn’t figured out how to hit ML pitching. And it’s not just bad, it’s historically bad over a couple years of limited ML ABs.
Now that d’Arnaud is out with injury and Contreras has been called up, it’s decision time for the Braves. I think Contreras will get most of the starts with Jackson backing him up. I think that’s the easy decision actually. The harder decision will come when d’Arnaud returns from injury if Contreras has performed as well as I think he will in d’Arnaud’s absence. The choices are:
1 Send Contreras to Gwinnett
2. Send Jackson to Gwinnett and use Contreras as backup
3. Tag team d’Arnaud and Contreras (my pick IF Contreras performs well in d’Arnaud’s absence)
Good catchers are rare in MLB, but sometimes it feels like every team has two or three promising catching prospects. They don’t develop at nearly the rate of outfielders or even pitchers.
MLB pipeline has Langeliers the 63 ranked prospect in MLB (top 100). There are only 5 catcher prospects ranked ahead of Langeliers.
I don’t know why Contreras isn’t ranked in top 100. He is currently the 4th best Braves prospect and has batted well at every level he appeared in the minors. He is not considered as strong defensively as Langeliers, who has a canon arm and outstanding pop time. Contreras is known for offense as is his older brother, Wilson Contreras who is starting catcher for the Cubs.
Contreras had 10 plate appearances last season for the big club with 4 hits. In spring ball this year, Contreras’ line was .350/.500/.650 in 26 plate appearances.
I take issue with your claim that most clubs have 2 or 3 prospects as good as these. I’d argue that many clubs don’t have 1 catcher prospect as good as these two. I do agree that we don’t know how long it will take for these prospects to become good ML catchers or even if they will become good ML catchers. We are talking about prospects after all.
Anyone see him listed on the 60 Day IL?
Just read an article where d’Arnaud was put on 60 day IL and surprisingly Alex Jackson on 10 day IL.
Welcome Jeff Mathis…lol! No, seriously. He’ll most likely be the backup to Contreras in the interim (I hope).
Braves will want to give Contreras lots of ABs. With d’Arnaud’s contract up this year and good prospects knocking on the door, Braves need to see how Contreras holds up offensively and defensively on the big club.
So, yea, Contreras will certainly start for the time being, and Mathis, when he plays, will hit better than Jackson, which is not saying a lot.
I don’t know what the Braves are going to do with Jackson, but it would be in Jackson’s best interest if they trade him to another club.
No O’Day, no Greene, no Melancon, Martin injured,=bullpen was always never going to be as good and solid and experienced as 2020-facts matter. Our weak and lack of depth bullpen is costing games, and Smyly is not making anyone smile at this stage.
Smyly signing was laughable at the time, but many Braves fans justified it.
Still laughable.
It’s still early, but my god Drew Smyly has been awful. What a waste of a signing.
Smyly
$11m
Melancon, O’Day, Duvall
$8.75m
Which would you guys prefer?
It was a damn good staff on paper, going into the season.
That paper got shredded.
Trade for Story/big bat guaranteed!
There is no no no way this team will just go out there and stick with the guns. No way!
Well actually, this is AA we are talking about.
Last season was the best Braves team probably this century. A lineup that went 7-8 deep and was clutch as can be along with one of the deepest bullpens I’ve ever seen in baseball. All we needed was to reinforce the starting rotation which had *ONE* capable, healthy starter.
AA’s response was to “spend weeks” trying to acquire Tommy Milone. He made three starts, pitched nine total innings, and gave up 16 runs. Then his first move to shore up that rotation was to give Drew Smyly, who was the first free agent to sign in baseball, $11 million.
Mark Melancon is pitching for the Padres for $3 million. Adam Duvall is playing for the Marlins for $5 million. Darren O’Day signed for $1.75 million. Shane Greene is still on the couch.
Good thing we don’t have bullpen or outfield issues. Oh wait.
Last season should have zero barings on anything for this season because it was a significantly reduced season. Who knows how the team would have done with another 81 games played. They played the Reds and Marlins for argument’s sake to finally make it to the NLCS.
Oh, I agree on all your points (especially the easy path to the NLCS). I’m just talking more to your point that AA is more likely to sit on his laurels than try to improve the team. He’s made some good moves and some terrible moves, but it’s the inaction of what could’ve been that will always be my biggest gripe. It’s easy and obviously to blame a GM for the moves they make. He inherited a loaded team and farm, and honestly hasn’t done much to improve on what was already in place.
Have you seen Trevor Story’s road stats? Colorado is going to value him like an All-Star because in Colorado he’s an All-Star. On the road, he’s average. In 2019, the last full season we have to work off of, he hit .260ish with 11 HRs on the road.