Atlanta Braves News: Cole Hamels experiences shoulder discomfort during workout
As Atlanta Braves pitchers and catcher report for spring training, one of their veteran arms could miss time with an injury.
News broke early Wednesday morning that Atlanta Braves pitcher Cole Hamels aggravated his shoulder while doing a medicine ball workout.
The team is hoping it’s nothing serious and they will re-evaluate him in three weeks.
Another report from 680 The Fan said that Hamels hadn’t reported to Braves camp yet, so this happened before he headed to spring training.
This is certainly not the kind of news you’re hoping for to kick off spring training, but it is early and Hamels has plenty of time to get better and prepare for the season.
But this is also the risk you take when signing a 36-year-old veteran pitcher who dealt with an injury the previous season.
Hamels missed all of July last year with an oblique injury and he was not particularly great when he returned from that injury.
The Braves are paying him $18 million this season to be the veteran anchor atop the rotation and someone who eats a lot of innings.
In June last year just before the injury, Hamels was on a roll going seven or more innings in five straight starts allowing 1 earned run or less in four of those starts.
We know that’s what the lefty is capable of when healthy, I just hope this isn’t the start of an injury-filled season for Hamels.
Atlanta certainly has the depth at starting pitching to replace Hamels if he does have to miss some time, but they really need Hamels’ veteran leadership in the rotation — especially if the Braves get to the postseason.
In three weeks we’ll be into March and over a week into spring training games.
My best guess is that if everything looks good once he’s re-evaluated, then the best case scenario is he makes his first spring training start around March 8, which would give him four starts before the regular season started.
If that’s the case, then there is a chance he is ready to go for that opening series in Arizona.
But if he gets pushed back any further than that, we could see him start the season on the injured list, which opens up another spot in the rotation to at least start the season.