Braves former top prospect to have Tommy John surgery

A former top prospect in the Atlanta Braves farm system is set to have Tommy John surgery and will be out for 14-16 months.

Last season the Atlanta Braves traded pitcher Joey Wentz and outfielder Travis Demeritte to the Detroit Tigers for reliever Shane Greene.

Wentz was the highlight prospect of that trade for the Tigers as he was a top 10 prospect in Atlanta and was currently ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the Tiger’s system.

Unfortunately, the 40th overall pick from the 2016 MLB Draft will have Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2020 season (or what there is of it).

After posting a 4.72 ERA in 20 starts at Double-A Mississippi for the Braves in 2019, he went on to have a solid five starts with the Tiger’s Double-A team posting a 2.10 ERA in 25.2 innings with 37 strikeouts.

Went is 22 years old and will turn 23 in October, so he’s still pretty young. Put this is a huge setback in his progression to the big leagues.

Of course, will there not being much of a season this year, it’s not the worst time to have Tommy John surgery.

Demeritte is on the Tiger’s 40-man roster and got 169 at-bats at the big league level last year hitting .225 with 3 home runs.

Atlanta fans haven’t exactly loved what they’ve gotten out of Shane Greene, but it’s looking more-and-more like they definitely won this trade.

But there is still a lot of time left for Wentz and Demeritte to turn that around, and I certainly wish the best for them.

As for Greene, he’s in his last year of arbitration before becoming a free agent, and who knows how much the Braves will actually get out of him in 2020.

We certainly hate to hear the news for Wentz and hope he has a speedy recovery to continue his path towards the big leagues.