Atlanta Braves Catcher Tyler Flowers Out Until At Least July 15th

Catcher Tyler Flowers Exits Game With Hand Strain

Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers left Saturday’s game against the Chicago White Sox in the bottom of the 2nd inning after Todd Frazier hit his two-run homer and Brett Lawrie hit a single.  Flowers seemed to have aggravated his hand when he had a check swing in the top of the 2nd inning.  He then grounding out, but remained in the game until the Lawrie single.

The injury is listed on the team’s site as a strained left hand.

If you remember last weekend, Marlins closer A.J. Ramos hit Flowers on this hand.  Flowers hit a game-tying homer against Ramos on Friday night, but then on the next two pitches, Ramos hit Flowers on the hand and then the shoulder.

Flowers may have been playing with some sort of hand injury this past week after this hit-by-pitch or he could have just injured it on the check swing.

“It’s kind of a day-to-day thing, but he probably won’t play tomorrow,” Braves Manager Brian Snitker said.  “It was on the check swing more than anything (on Saturday), it’s the same place he got hit by the pitch last week when we played the Marlins.  Something may have tweaked there or something, but it’s day-to-day right now.”

The Braves signed Flowers this past offseason to a two-year contract that guarantees him $5.3MM.  In 2016, Flowers will earn $2MM and in 2017 he’s make $3MM in 2017.  On this contact, there is also a third year option of which the Braves would pay $4MM or they will have a  $300K buyout.  He can earn $1.5MM of incentives in each of the seasons based on games caught (each year maxes out at 120 games).

In the 53 games he’s appeared in, the 30-year-old has hit .253/.343/.425 in 2016.  Most importantly, it seems as though he’s been a huge benefit to our pitching staff.  He’s also been known for a defensive catcher so having a decent stat line helps tremendously.

“At the current moment, it feels terrible,” Flowers said after the game.  “So, I wouldn’t expect me to get out there tomorrow.  It was just real uncomfortable and painful right there after, so I was just seeing if I could at least catch another inning or two, but the impact at that moment, with it being freshly aggravated, it wasn’t very comfortable.”

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A.J. Pierzynski came into the game when Flowers left and the White Sox fans gave him a great applause.  Pierzynski was always a fan favorite in Chicago as he spent eight years there.

In case of emergency on Sunday, Brandon Snyder could catch for the Braves.