Atlanta Braves won’t get Ozzie Albies back until Thursday

This injury news today is a bit of a mixed blessing – but overall it’s good news for Atlanta.

In a general media scrum this afternoon prior to tonight’s game with the Marlins (in progress as of this writing), Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker updated the assembled media on the injury progress of multiple players, including All-Star Ozzie Albies.

While he will obviously be missed from this lineup, the news is close to the best-case scenario for the Braves’ keystone man.  If this schedule holds, Albies will have missed just over 3½ games: the finale against the Nationals and both games of this current Marlins series.  Even so, the Braves seem to be characterizing this as being overly cautious.

Days off on Saturday (rain) and Wednesday (as scheduled) will certainly help as well, allowing Atlanta to be at more-or-less full strength when the Dodgers come a-calling back home on Thursday.

Mike Soroka

The news isn’t as good for the rookie Canadian hurler:

Multiple reports (all sourced to Snitker) indicate that Soroka is at least 2 weeks – and probably more – from even resuming a throwing program.  This is in deference to his ailing shoulder.

If you’re a consistent reader of TomahawkTake.com, you’ll note that our Fred Owens has often written about pitchers and shoulder injuries… and they are tricky things.  So while the Braves may be exercising caution with Albies, it’s very likely that they are going well above and beyond even that with Soroka – particularly because of his youth, for the Braves are certainly hoping for big things in his career.

Still, this schedule makes it more likely than not that Soroka will end up on the shelf for the rest of the regular season.

The Braves will probably be okay with the loss of his services over that period of time, but it does raise the idea of needing an additional starting pitcher for the stretch run – noting that…

Brandon McCarthy

…is also still on the mend:

Admittedly, when McCarthy was first put on the Disabled List, I was wondering just how ‘real’ this injury was.  I guess there’s little question at this point:  it’s real and still not nearly good enough to allow him to throw normally (though ‘normally’ means different things for pitchers).

Given that report, it’s reasonable to suggest that McCarthy would not be available to the Braves again at least through August.

We’ll take about possible pitching acquisitions later.

Arodys Vizcaino

Even without this injury, the Braves were almost certainly looking at the need for another bullpen arm down the stretch… but Vizcaino is also looking like he could be looking at an extended outing:

Yes – it’s another shoulder.  Yes – he’s on roughly the same schedule as Soroka.  You’d have to guess as well that he might also be at risk for finishing the season on the disabled list.

That’s not really good news… it does mean that the Braves should probably consider other options… and though we are getting only slight hints here and there, they may be happening.

Next: A decade anniversary of note

More on that in another report to come.