Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers is dealing with groin soreness

Braves Flowers dealing with untimely injury as we near Opening Day

This morning when I saw the Atlanta Braves lineup for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Tigers, I noticed once again that catcher Tyler Flowers was missing from it. I started to think back to the past four weeks and remembering Flowers not being in the lineup often. This made me start thinking and digging for information.

Flowers has played in only nine games this spring and has had only 19 at-bats (24 plate appearances) during the 2018 Spring Training. He hasn’t played in a MLB Spring Training game since March 19th.

In his previous six years during Spring Training, he’s had no less than 40 at-bats.

2017 – 40 at-bats
2016 – 42 at-bats
2015 – 49 at-bats
2014 – 42 at-bats
2013 – 46 at-bats
2012 – 56 at-bats

Are these 19 at-bats enough for our primary catcher? I’m not sure, but it sounds like he’s been working on the back fields getting his AB’s in. He also caught Mike Foltynewicz’s minor league game on Wednesday.

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So I raised the question on Twitter this morning about Flowers. I simply asked…”Why hasn’t Tyler Flowers played since March 19th?”

I received many responses about this, mostly folks concerned like I, but I saw one that got me thinking even more about this — Flowers had a few surgeries over the offseason and missed two months of his lifting regimen.

Hmm, was Flowers behind even before Spring Training started? Now only getting these limited amounts of AB’s and PT, is he even ready for the regular season?

Of course no-one is going to come out and say it right now, but it’s possible. It’s also possible I’m looking extremely too far into this.

Something seems up with the 32-year-old catcher.

We got an answer from DOB!

After a morning and afternoon of questioning, AJC’s David O’Brien gave us a little of an update with our catcher. He tweeted out that the catcher has been dealing with groin soreness, but he’ll be ready to play.

#Braves catcher Flowers had groin soreness earlier, has been working lot in batting cage and getting at-bats on backfields. He'll be ready to play, they were just being cautious for a while with him.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) March 25, 2018

Okay, I can definitely get behind the Braves being cautious with Flowers. He’s a veteran and knows what he needs to get ready for the season.

Braves have been using Kurt Suzuki and Chris Stewart at the catcher position a lot lately. I’ve heard the Braves may decide to carry three catchers on the opening day roster. This could still be the case.

The Braves have now left Florida and the Wide World of Sports complex, and are heading home to Atlanta. They will play the Yankees tomorrow night at 7:35pm at SunTrust Park. Then on Tuesday, it’s a match-up between the Braves and the Braves future stars at SunTrust. Following that is a day off and then the regular season starts on Thursday.

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If Flowers isn’t in the lineup tomorrow night, we may have an issue.

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