Braves fans got some positive injury news yesterday, as manager Brian Snitker told reporters, including Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutional, that both closer Raisel Iglesias and catcher Travis d’Arnaud are making progress in their rehab processes.
Iglesias, who the Braves acquired from the Angels at last year’s trade deadline, has been on the injured list since the start of the season due to shoulder inflammation. The 33-year-old righty has been among the game’s best closers for several years now, with a 2.75 ERA (160 ERA+) in 448 1/3 innings with a 30.7% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate since the start of the 2016 season. Iglesias started his Braves career in particularly dominant fashion, with a microscopic 0.34 ERA in 26 1/3 innings down the stretch following last summer’s trade.
Per Toscano, Iglesias is scheduled to throw live batting practice on Monday, which could indicate that a rehab assignment is a possibility in the near future. A return to action for Iglesias would be fantastic news for the Braves, who are currently relying on A.J. Minter, Dylan Lee, and Jesse Chavez in late inning situations.
Meanwhile, d’Arnaud has been on the 7-day concussion IL since he was involved in a collision at home plate earlier this month. The 34-year-old catcher, who pairs with Sean Murphy to create perhaps the best catching tandem in the sport for the Braves when healthy, was slashing .333/.333/.424 in eight games prior to going on the IL. He took a step forward in his rehab yesterday, catching a bullpen session in addition to hitting. While d’Arnaud has been on the shelf, Chadwick Tromp has backed up Murphy behind the plate.
More from around the NL East…
- Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara told reporters today, including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald, that he expects to pitch against Atlanta on Wednesday if everything goes well after skipping his last start due to biceps tendinitis. Before he gets to that point, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner will play catch today and throw a bullpen session tomorrow. Alcantara has struggled to open the season with a 5.47 ERA in 24 2/3 innings and a reduced 19.8% strikeout rate, though with only 43.7% of baserunners stranded to this point in the season, it’s easy to see how the 27-year-old ace has been unlucky in the early going this season, as punctuated by his 3.52 FIP being nearly two runs lower than his ERA.
- Sticking with 2022 Cy Young Award winners, Mets manager Buck Showalter tells reporters (including The Athletic’s Will Sammon) that ace Justin Verlander is set to throw a live bullpen session today. Verlander, who has been sidelined with a shoulder strain since the start of the season, signed with the Mets this past offseason on a two-year, $86.66MM deal. The Mets rotation has been decimated in the early going this season, with both Jose Quintana and Carlos Carrasco joining Verlander on the injured list, while fellow ace Max Scherzer serves a 10-game suspension for foreign substance use during which the Mets cannot replace him on the active roster. [UPDATE: as per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, Verlander threw 43 pitches over his three-inning bullpen session. The Mets plan for Verlander to make a minor league rehab start on Friday, with an eye towards Verlander being activated from the IL to pitch during the Mets’ series in Detroit on May 2-4.]
Steve Cohen has around 2.9 billion reasons to relocate the team if the city/state of NY doesn’t build and pay for a new stadium for him soon.
What is your fascination with “so and so has about 2.9billion reason” or “so and so has 275 million reasons” comments?
He’s just an angry, delusional, one-trick-pony troll, Bream. Besides this one-time interaction, I’m inclined to ignore his posts as usual. Be good Sid buddy!
Just an un-clever troll. And another reason why they need to fix the mute button on this app.
He was not hugged enough as a child and he yearns for attention.
LOL what are you actually talking about? The current stadium is new and amazing. You are absolutely clueless.
Lol what?
Citi Field is about as old as you are. 14. If that merits replacement then I’d love to have the talk with your parents’ options.
I hear they have 350 trillion reasons for replacing him.
I mean, neither Turner Field or the Ballpark at Arlington (or whatever it was called last) lasted 30 years but i think it’s too soon to demand a new stadium or threaten to leave town.
The Marlins stadium is even newer than Citi Field and it took hosting the World Baseball Classic for us to see what the stadium looks like with actual fans inside
Rsox – turner field had problems unrelated to its age, mainly being location, and, agreement breaches by what appear by all accounts to be corrupt Fulton County officials.
The areas were never developed as agreements called for and its was not a very safe location to be walking about. -I’d say it would be kinda like if fenway was sitting in Dorchester with crumbling acres and acres of old blacktop surrounding it, and no restaurant or entertainment venues nearby to hang out or walk to.
Plus, they had just built the Falcons a new facility with a Marta station across the street. You had to take a freakin shuttle bus from downtown to get to Turner, or walk the gauntlet of aggressive street sellers and scalpers on the walk from the parking lots, after navigating the closed off or temporarily one-way streets which Google didn’t know about.
Turner Field also needed $17M in upkeep. The city wasn’t willing to work with the Braves, so they left.
you know the famous flat iron building in ny is for sale. build. a stadium on top of it.
Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, Robbie Cano and Carlos Carrasco all gone for next season at a clip of about 54 million if I’m not mistaken. The replacement pieces for those are already in the organization and ready. Shohei can have that 54 million, fixes the Mets problem of pitching since there is none coming up thru the minors and Vogelbach can be traded and replaced with Ohtani as well.
@Cohen, I see almost zero chance of Ohtani leaving west coast. The draw of a large market is in no way a necessity to him. He has massive appeal across Asia regardless of where he signs.
@Tigers3232 you might be right, I’m still hoping. Shohei fixes many problems for many teams, I can only hope he picks the Mets. We’ll find out how much talking money actually does.
I see almost a zero chance he doesn’t go to the Mets. Cohen will pay way more then anyone else.
Dodgers, Angels, Seattle, etc.. all will unload the bank for him as well. Ohtani’s talent is not all that is unique, the international exposure he draws is as well. His contract will pay for itself and then some. There will b no shortage of bidders and the west coast teams seemingly have the edge here.
When you play the Astros, you don’t pitch to Yordan Alvarez; had the Braves known this they’d be going for a sweep today instead of trying to avoid one.
All they had to do was watch the Mets against the Astros last year. Alvarez killed them. It was only four games and 17 PAs, but he hit four homers and slashed .462/.588/1.385/1.973. Pitch around him even if the bases are empty.
I still think Seattle should’ve walked Alvarez to load the bases for Bregman and put the winning run on second base in the playoffs last year (game 2 I think).
Alvarez went 2/20 in the 2021 WS against the braves.
The Braves tandem of Sean Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud, in my opinion, is definitely the top catching duo in all of MLB.
Now, I’m not saying either Murphy or d’Arnaud are necessarily one of the top Catchers in baseball, but they are both comfortably in the top 10.
Is there any other team that has two top 10 catchers at their disposal?? Plus, both catchers are very solid, all-around players with d’Arnaud being the better hitter, and with Murphy being the better defensive catcher.
They compliment eachother seamlessly, and are both excellent leaders for the Braves to have in their clubhouse. Also, with the addition of Murphy, it is quite obvious how much more comfortable Matt Olson has been this season.
Countless baseball fans said the Braves weren’t very smart for acquiring Murphy, but with the new rules being implemented the Braves had to do something about being able to limit their opposition’s running game.
The Braves could not afford to continue giving away free bases with Contreras behind the plate. Sooo [Enter Sean Murphy] one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball.
Plus, this provides a way for them to keep eachother fresh all season, and when everyone is healthy, the Braves won’t have to trot out Ozuna as their DH anymore…Which, that alone, is a major positive..lol
On top of it all, on the plus side, Murphy has been an on base machine this season so far reaching base at a .416 clip, and slugging above. 600…
If there are “countless” baseball fans who said the Braves were dumb for trading for Murphy, find me one example and post it. I don’t believe you.
Replace “Countless baseball fans” with “trolls”, and I’d agree with you.
There weren’t countless fans who said the Braves weren’t very smart for acquiring Murphy. There were some fans who were surprised by the move – they thought the Braves didn’t need him. Turned out to be a great deal for them.
Countless is vague and a cop-out. I remember most people here approving of the deal, other than a few skeptics, curmudgeons and trolls. The ones who were against it were vocal and prolific in their posting. Perhaps their outspokenness made it appear that more people were against it.
You’re right bham. I think those who remember a lot of pushback against the Murphy deal are forgetting that most of the negative comments regarding Murphy came from one poster here—–MJ2. He posted a dozen or so long winded rants about Contreras being a better hitting catcher than Murphy and how Murphy’s excellent defense didn’t matter. Most of his garbage was posted on here when Murphy had about 20 ab’s on the season. Notable that MJ2’s disappeared since then.
The Braves have around 2 billion reasons to relocate if the city/state doesn’t build and pay for a new stadium for them by 2033.
Sorry, Ace, but you have yet to say anything worthwhile. I gave you a long leash, but you’re done. Muting now.
@Ace_: And you’re at around 2 billion reasons (and counting) for us to call you an idiot.
Lol
I’m more concerned about Arcia. Grissom just isn’t getting the job done. I’d even rather have Shewmake playing SS. I don’t care if he ever hits. We need defense.
Jose Iglesias just hit the open market, would be an uograde over Grissom right now and Adrianza when Arcia returns
Yeah Grissom is more suited to to second base still not great defense there either but a little better. They should probably send him back to AAA and put him in left for me a while and see how he does. If Arica comes back as good as he left the infield looks great again
Agreed. He’s more suited to second, but I have doubts about that as well. Outfield is more of a need.
Hurry Iglesias!!
Braves pen is is needing some help.
Astros feasted on the relievers this weekend.
I hope Verlander had a nice throwing session today and comes back soon, I’m still hoping he has a shot at 300 wins, something we probably will never see again.
While it is still early in the season and much could/ probably will change, it is interesting that the two teams with the best records (Rays and Pirates) both have payrolls around $75 million, about half the league average.
That’s the beauty of baseball.
Probably? One will definitely change. While the Pirates have won 7 in a row they would be much of a factor come the All Star break. Whereas the Rays will be fighting for the division or at least a wild card spot come the All Star break,
@lamars, proofread your comments before posting. You stated that both the Pirates and the Rays will be a factor come the AS break. As I don’t know the future, I will have to wait and see what happens. I am reminded of the comment by the great physicist Niels Bohr, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about the future.”
@Skeptical
Thanks, I definitely meant the Pirates wouldn’t be there by the All Star break,
I thought that was Yogi Berra , not Bohr lol !!!
What the heck is biceps tendinitis? Thought tendinitis was a joint condition. IE where muscle meets bone.
I believe it’s an inflammation of the tendon.
Tendon comes after ninedon.
Liked “Tendon comes after ninedon”.
Braves should definitely trade for a closer in the next 2 weeks or month or bring up the aaa closer. can’t win games without a closer.
No team will be trading their closer in April or May.
Iglesias will be back closing within a month.
Carl Yaz’s grandson just put the Mets behind in their quest for NL East supremacy. Helluva game.
New York has a large Asian market. If Mr. Cohen wants to spend the money he will come to New York. If he doesn’t, just a question, would you try to trade for Trout