Atlanta Braves need Austin Riley now more than ever

With recent injuries that have decimated the bench of the Atlanta Braves, they really need Austin Riley to pick up the slack.

It’s hard to think about the baseball side of things with how scary it looked for Charlie Culberson, but the reality of the situation is that the Atlanta Braves bench has been torn apart in recent weeks.

First it was Johan Camargo fouling a ball off his shin. The Atlanta Braves are still hopeful that he can return, but I wouldn’t count on it right now.

And then there was the horrible situation with Charlie Culberson on Saturday night. While it certainly isn’t important at the moment, Charlie obviously is out for the rest of the season and our prayers are with him and his family.

It sounds like Charlie avoided anything major, but that’s easy for us to say.

And with Matt Joyce basically being our starting right fielder at the moment, that takes away our three most valuable bench pieces as we head into the postseason.

One of the biggest concerns for the Atlanta Braves going into the postseason last year was the lack of depth in our lineup.

We faced a Los Angeles Dodgers team that was completely stacked with talent from top-to-bottom and could run out multiple lineups every night.

With Johan, Charlie, and Joyce on our bench the Atlanta Braves have had that luxury for most of the season.

But with two of those players gone to injury and the other essentially a starter, the Atlanta Braves will need others to step up.

The great thing is that Alex Anthopoulos brought in a lot of veterans in August that can help fill in.

Plus, if Ender Inciarte comes back healthy before the end of the season he would be a big addition to either the starting lineup or bench — especially if he’s hitting like he was before going down again.

To me, this means Adeiny Hechavarria is almost a lock for the postseason roster as he can back-up just about every infield position.

But the one player who has to step up for the Atlanta Braves the most is Austin Riley.

Riley almost has to make the postseason roster at this point because of his ‘ability’ to play first base.

It’s really not fair that Riley has had to play out of position all year, but the Atlanta Braves are going to need him to make the adjustment again.

Charlie was our only back-up for Freddie Freeman at first base, and while it would take something catastrophic for Freeman not to be in the postseason lineup, the Atlanta Braves have to prepare for that to happen.

Adam Duvall has played some first base in his career as well, but when Freddie left the game on Sunday it was Riley who replaced him at first. That could be because Duvall had already been used in that game, but I still think Riley is the best option.

Riley’s at-bats have looked better lately outside of that 0-4 with 3 strikeout game against the Phillies.

Expect Riley to get a lot more starts down the stretch, and possibly even a few at first base after the Atlanta Braves clinch.

The story for Austin Riley has changed with these recent injuries from being a player on the bubble of making the postseason roster to one who the Atlanta Braves are counting on.