The Braves announced that left-hander A.J. Minter has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation. The placement is backdated to July 12, and right-hander Dereck Rodriguez was called up from Triple-A to take Minter’s spot on the active roster.
Minter left last Saturday’s game due to what was described by the team as left pectoral tightness, though the southpaw said he was feeling better just a day later. It isn’t yet known if this shoulder problem was related to the pectoral tightness, or if this is a new injury altogether. Regardless, the Braves will now be without one of their top bullpen arms for at least another 12 days.
The bottom-line numbers don’t really reflect Minter’s overall quality, as he has a 4.91 ERA over 40 1/3 innings this season. Of his 22 earned runs allowed, 11 of them came over a disastrous stretch of 4 2/3 innings over five appearances in April. Minter has a 3.04 ERA over 26 2/3 innings since that rough patch, and both his 2.88 SIERA and his largely above-average Statcast numbers indicate that he has been a lot more effective than his 4.91 ERA would suggest.
There isn’t yet any suggestion that Minter could miss a lot of time or that his shoulder problem is anything serious, though inflammation is something of a tricky injury to gauge. Fellow Atlanta southpaw Dylan Lee has been out of action since mid-May with his own case of shoulder inflammation, and has been throwing some bullpen sessions as he works his way back from the 60-day injured list.
The league-leading Braves don’t have many overt weaknesses, but Minter’s absence could give the club something to address heading into the trade deadline. With Lee sidelined, Minter and Lucas Luetge were the only left-handers in Atlanta’s bullpen, so southpaw depth was perhaps a need for the Braves even before Minter’s injury. Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is typically aggressive at the deadline, and left-handed relief figures to be high on his list of targets as he looks to put the final touches on what looks like a World Series contender.
Not the way we want the 2nd half to start!
I wish it was the 60 day IL. He’s a damn bum
Dude… his underlying #’s are excellent and in line with last year, where he was excellent. Just because he has a high era does not mean he’s pitching poorly. If ur not gonna look at advanced stats, then just look at his whip, k rate, and walk rate. Allllll are better than his career avg and he’s wildly considered one of the better (more consistent) bullpen arms in baseball. Bullpen arms are quite random
> Dude…
Mute it, much easier
You shouldn’t expect much out of someone who wants to make a political statement with their screen name on a baseball site. Him and his buddy probably kick each other in the crotch for a good time.
His FIP, xFIP and SIERA are all saying the same thing as his K9 and BB9. He’s pitching the way he should but he just isn’t getting positive results. This is part of the volatility of relief pitchers because one bad inning effects them much more than a starter.
Did you get that name watching Fox News?
Should he be watching CNN?
I can’t understand why Culberson hasn’t stepped on the field since he has been called up. Snit needs to rest Riley, Albies, and Arcia once a week.
You’re probably right. Even in triple A Culberson has been an automatic out but those guys have been playing every day and Riley does look like he needs some time out to see if some rest will help him turn things around.
@Ma King Liberal Scry,
Everything okay, buddy?
@Bart- Eh..what?
I was just checking up on Ma King Liberal Scry, seeing if he was okay.
Sure thing there Bartvis. =}
I wish they would fix the mute button on this damn phone app.
A foolish comment.
A bullpen arm or two was prob pretty high on the Braves radar, I’d imagine this might add a little more urgency to it. Anderson down, Jesse, Dylan Lee, now minter… heck, our second best bullpen arm might be yates and let’s be honest, he might have been on the chopping block at the beginning of the season. Think we are gonna have to make a move to build up the depth
I think who/how many they trade for depends how serious the injuries are.
Chavez should be back already so his injury is more serious or not healing as expected.
That makes 4 key members of the 2023 bullpen on the IL – Chavez, Lee, Anderson and Minter, plus Matzek from last year’s TJ surgery. Yes, the Brave’s bullpen needs reinforcements. It’s a good thing that the Braves have 3 days off in the coming 2 weeks. Their August schedule will be much tougher.
Aug is tougher? Only +.500 teams currently are: NYY, SF (2 series), LAD (1-game 8/31) with the others that most likely will be sellers at the Deadline and look even worse come those games: NYM (2 series), PIT, COL, CHC, LAA. Imagine LAA without Trout/Ohtani by that time. Braves @ COL…!!! Team is on a HR pace before they hit the Mile High City. Bombs away.
July is def tougher: MIA, CLE, TB, ARZ, MIL (2 series), BOS — really only -.500 team is: CWS.
The Braves have three days off in the next 12 days, plus everyone is well rested after the all-star break. They have only 3 days off the whole month of August, plus one doubleheader. That’s why I said their schedule is tougher in August. Yes, the quality of opponents (after the White Sox) is tougher in July.
The Greek will be bearing bullpen gifts at the deadline.
Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck
spot on DC, AA is the envy of many teams.
Let’s hope if these gifts are in the way of statues, that they are better endowed than most of the Greek statues from the past. Yikes! It’s embarassing… (Romans didn’t fare to well either)
If your going to create a statue, accentuate the positive.
Timmy John McFarland was to the rescue. Cut loose by the Mets. He doesn’t cost anything and offers a change of pace pitcher after the Braves hard throwers.
It would certainly burn the NY Epplers if the Braves got some quality innings out of him.
I hope Snit’s belief that most position players play every inning of every game doesn’t hurt the team come Oct.
The Braves have obvious infield depth issues. That’s why they signed Jesus Aguilar but they need better depth in the middle infield. Grissom has fielding issues and Shewmake has hitting issues. I’m sure Snit is not playing these guys all the time bc he wants to.
The Braves DON’T have infield depth issues, don’t know what team you are watching. My point is, Snit needs to rest Riley, Albies, Arcia, and Olson and Culberson could do that, at least give him the chance. It is a long hot season and I don’t want to hear the excuse in Oct that they were tired. To me, Riley and Arcia, and Albies look tired sometimes. They don’t have to play every inning of every game. At least he has taken Acuna out late in games 1-2 times.
AA is a magician.
With Allard going down and Soroka having to give some innings today, he will likely miss a start. Probably see a call up to help the rotation this week, as we certainly cannot have a bullpen game with all those injuries in the pen.
Braves will be active for pen arms to be certain.
Allard will be sent down or put on IL. We have probably seen the last of him in the majors this year unless we have more injuries. Soroka will pitch Friday or Saturday. If they are going to use a bullpen game next weekend, why not just pitch Freid Friday or Saturday?