Atlanta Braves Freddie Freeman To Have MRI On Right Wrist

The Atlanta Braves have been without their star first baseman, Freddie Freeman, for four games because of a sprained right wrist and he could be missing even more time.

Freeman left last Wednesday’s game against the Boston Red Sox in the 7th inning for a reason unknown to anyone except for the folks in the dugout.  After the game, Fredi Gonzalez explained to the media why he was removed from the game.

“We took him out of the game because of a right wrist sprain,” Fredi Gonzalez said.  “We’re calling it day-to-day.  He saw a specialist here because he’s been battling it since the Mets series.  We’ve been monitoring it and he’s not taking BP, just getting loose, but today it bothered him.”

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The injury happened on Saturday June 13th on the swing where he fouled off a pitch.  This was right before his single in the 9th inning to put the game into extras.

“Yeah, it happened on Saturday when I got the base hit to tie the game,” Freeman said.  “It was the swing right before that.  It was a funky, weird swing just trying to foul it off.  I felt it right there and just tried to play through it and gut it out until Sunday, but I just couldn’t make it.”

On last Wednesday night, Freeman had an injection of cortisone followed by treatment from the training staff.  He originally thought he would return for the Mets series over the weekend, but as days passed, there was no Freddie Freeman in the lineup.

Now, Freeman is set to have an MRI (magneticon his sore right wrist, reports MLB.com.

“[My wrist] is not worse, it’s just not getting better,” Freeman said to MLB.com.  “I really don’t have an answer until I can maybe get an X-ray or an MRI.  I just want to know what is wrong.”

Wrist sprains are a common injury for all sorts of athletes.  This strain is the ligaments that connect the wrist and hand bones that result in ing tears or even worse, a complete break to the ligament.

Sprains are usually divided into three grades (according to webmd.com):

• Grade I: Pain with minor damage to the ligament
• Grade II: Pain, more severe ligament damage, a feeling of looseness to the joint, and some loss of function
• Grade III: Pain, a completely torn ligament, severe looseness of the joint, and loss of function

The initial thought was that Freeman would return by the Mets series, 48 hours after the injection, but doctors usually recommend players rest for a required 72 hours.  With the rest he’s given to his wrist and treatment in the past weekend, it continues to give him issues.  This kind of suggests that this injury is more than the Grade I wrist sprain.

According to webmd.com, wrist sprains could heal up in a few days or take up to 10 weeks to heal.  Also, surgery could be an option.  Now don’t freak out on me, no one is suggesting surgery and I do not think this injury is that severe.

I do think that it’s very possible the Braves are without Freeman for a few more days and he could land on the disabled list.  Depending on what the MRI says, a 15-day DL assignment could be the best for the Braves and Freeman.  Instead of having a lingering injury all season, he could give it time to heal up and be back to his regular self.  If the Braves do plan this, they could retroact the disabled list back to last Thursday.  So he could already be four days into the 15-days.

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