Atlanta Braves Dominate Nationals, Face Setback with Reynaldo López Injury | Atlanta Braves Podcast

the Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals 12 nothing last night but got bad news as Ronaldo Lopez left after one inning with right shoulder tightness we'll break down the injury and what it could potentially mean for Atlanta on this episode of Braves today [Music] [Music] yes welcome on in to Braves today your home for news notes and updates on your Atlanta Braves I'm Lindsey Crosby you can follow me on Twitter at Crosby baseball he's Christian Ral you can follow him on Twitter at Christian s r a and you can find all of our written work at bravest today.com the Braves today substack and Christian fantastic game last night against the Washington Nationals exercised a lot of the offensive demons for the Cincinnati Reds shut out but before that I want to talk about what happened with Ronaldo Lopez he pitched one inning about 25 pitches left the game after that inning and did not come back out he hit he hit somebody on his 17th pitch of the game they came out to check on him he stayed in finished the the game or finished the inning did not come back his velocity was significantly down three and a half mile hour or so off of his season average I had all of the stats over there in the Braves today takeaways so again Braves today.com go check that out the hardest fast ball of the 13 he threw was 93.8 Miles hour his season average is 95.5 they removed him they later announced that the early exit was right shoulder tightness he after the game he was in good spirits according to Justin Tuscano of the AJC and through a translator Lopez said that he felt good he was going to an MRI today just to be sure to see exactly what's going on but he wasn't really able to to get force behind the ball like he typically could really couldn't rear back and get what he usually has for his fast ball if Ronaldo Lopez has to go on the injured list how much of a hit is this to the Atlanta Braves how many times are we gonna have this same conversation right if this guy gets hurt is this the final straw for oh by the way the Braves got an injury not sure if he heard this or not before but is that a bad thing that's exactly where we're at right now and it seems exactly what you just said it's like this when is it going to finally be the straw on the back of this Braves team where they finally break and right now having an All-Star pitcher possibly go down to the injured list when you're battling for the final spot in the wild card is quite frankly Lindsay I don't know if you agree with me or not but it's just not quite ideal and I think it's suboptimal I will agreee on that suboptimal I don't think they were in a good spot here I don't think it's good I think it's a huge concern now there's some other pitchers on the roster that are doing absolutely electric and we finally got to see the offense do some good things but this is getting overshadowed by the Lopez injury but obviously it's a huge concern you can't have a guy like Lopez who's been outstanding All Season moving from a lever to the starting pitching rotation this is going to be possibly if he goes on injured list it be his second I of the season and I mentioned that thing the reliever to starter do you think that's one of the reasons why we're starting to see some shoulder injuries here from a guy like Lopez so he it was a forearm last time he was out and then this being the shoulder for me it's hard to say it's because of the extra workload the worst thing you can do as a starting pitcher for your body is pitch like this the art of pitching is not good for you it's it is virtually 100% injury rate I do think that if you lose Lopez to an injury this is not as bad as it could have been and it's not because like he's been great don't get me wrong he has been really good so I am not in any way saying that you can like you can afford to lose him but it feels like believe it or not the rotation is the place best equipped to handle one injury right now when you look at your infield you know you're currently out three starting infielders because Whit marfield became a starter with Aussie Al's injury The Outfield is already down Ronald lunia Jr and you have your mixed to matching out there this is the one place you could afford to lose a guy for two weeks and still make things happen projecting out a little bit his next start would have been the series finale against the Dodgers on September 16th on Monday Max Fred is would be lined up to start the series opener at Cincinnati on Tuesday but with Thursday's off day because Fred goes tonight with fre with Thursday's off day you could move Fred up to Monday and he would be on regular rest that would be the fifth day after his Wednesday start he could start again on Monday so you don't actually have to fill this spot until you leave for the road trip and so it could be worse right like obviously this is all pending the results of the MRI as of time of recording this is it's about 9 9:30 eastern time we do not know the status of ronard Lopez long term is he going to go on the I is he not I did report this morning it may be official by the time the show comes out sources have told me that desel Hernandez the reliever is on his way from Atlanta to Washington to join the team he left Gwynette last night packed his bags headed to the airport we'll break down more of the other the options on that later in the show but I don't know at the end of the day if I hate the idea of Lopez missing two weeks right now he's again he's been really good 203 ER through 24 starts so would be his second injured list stand of the second half but at the same time we've discussed his workload and you know we're concerned about his previous high was what 60 or so Innings as a relay over the last few seasons this year he's already at 128 he's he's pretty much almost doubled those previous workloads if he misses two let say he misses two weeks best case scenario he misses two weeks he is still available if you make the postseason he's still available to pitch maybe they put him in the bullpen maybe that helps them make the decision on which of this rotation goes to the bullpen maybe they say hey we're not going to try to bring you back as a starter and have you pitch five or six or seven Innings we're going to let you go eat for two innings out of the bullpen ramp it up to 99 100 like you were last year maybe this makes the decision for them that's an interesting spot and I will say this we're getting really good at roster triage here and we don't really have any any reason not to that's where we're at but that's a really good point you mentioned what his load out was and what his usage was over the last couple Seasons as a relever he was a starter at one point right I think he had 180 something Innings there during those Seasons yeah his his last full-time year starting was 2019 he his max is 188 and two3 innings in 2018 he had 18 four innings in 2019 partial year in 2020 no nothing Counts from that year didn't exist and then 21 is when he transitioned to the bullpen yeah but that's five years ago so that's obviously not something that he's built up for now he built up to be a starter this year got it yeah but where you're sitting at in his pitch Innings you have to look in the last couple years you can't really look back and I saw that on socials when the injury occurred last night saying you can't really point at the workload being an issue because he's done it before that was five years ago so it's almost like a huge I don't know about you but preo seems like a lifetime ago to me I'm sure it's the same way when you're talking about him pitching as a starter in 2019 Lopez I like the idea actually of him moving to be a either a long reliever or in the bullpen for the postseason you're gonna have to pick three anyways to go and make that happen in the playoffs and you already have S who's a lock you have Fred who's a lock and then if you just choose to have maybe Charlie Morton as your number three then it gives you the to put Lopez in there Atlanta has tried to have four options as they go in like you look at last year and obviously injuries impacted this but we were like for game three are you going to use AJ SMI Sher or Bryce Elder and you could always piggyback one on the other it feels like Morton schellenbach are your co- number threes right you look at the matchup you look at how each guy's feeling to free decide who goes they probably lean to Morton because they like to go with the veterans but yeah workload you have to look at 66 last year 65 in a third and 22 and Atlanta's never been really rigid on workload limits as far as you can't go up more than 40 Innings from last year or 50 Innings or whatever to increase your workload and 50 is an extra 50 Innings feels like it's what the industry as a whole is okay with for a workload jump year to year but different guys have talked about in this Atlanta system whether it's prospects or Major Leaguers that the team is really looking at not just straight Innings counts they're looking at biomechanical markers how you're feeling what your stuff profiles as to look for signs of fatigue maybe even before you realize them and I think we saw last year with Bryce Elder when you don't build in that extra rest and you run these guys into the longest season of their careers how much even if they feel okay when Bryce Elder said he felt okay down the stretch last year but the stuff was different the slider wasn't wasn't sliding as much the Sinker wasn't sinking as much and he got rocked in the second half and I feel like Ronaldo Lopez some of these little bit of soreness and these nagging little injury things that have not been major but I feel like some of that could be related to the Extra Innings again we don't know for sure I feel like with Spencer swellen Bach you've seen a little bit more the command take a half step back right he's always had exceptional command he's been really good at avoiding walk box and you can see even though he's still not walking a ton of guys in his last couple starts some of his misses are more say out over the middle of the plate than they used to be and so it feels like the command is starting to see the impact of the cumulative workload over the course of the season and so I would imagine if I'm Atlanta and the MRI today says there's nothing structurally wrong he could maybe pitch his next time through which again would be next Monday do you go ahead and just put him on the ilil and not worry about it or do you say no we we're gonna wait and let him ride the bench and see and if we'll figure out something on Monday if he can't go well as you mentioned that you can move things around and and not mess with the rest of the rotation on rest wise and you still have a guy like Grant Holmes sitting in the bullpen without making a roster move that you could make a spot start I think the injured list makes sense if you have any kind of concerns whatsoever on the show I tend to be the optimistic one at least try to Lindsay yeah when Lopez was injured and he just he was out for about a month between July 28th August 20th when he came back his numbers were good and that's something to keep in mind he had a 1.59 ra in August in those three starts and in those last two starts he had in September the one inning if you want to consider that a start he only had a 257 ER those numbers still look good for him missing some time so if he's going to miss some time before the postseason assuming the Braves can find a way to make it into to Thea the fight for the playoffs you shouldn't have to worry about him having the build back up or a rebound or having one shaky start before that happens and he should be just fine in the postseason yeah the one I think the one downside here to this if he goes on the iel today which is the 11th then it's 15 days for pitchers there's no 10day I for pitchers um so that puts him coming back first eligible to come back I believe Thurs of the 26th Gwynette schedule their last home game is Sunday the 15th he could make a rehab start if he travels with the team to Jacksonville for their final series of the year so I think that was the difference when he came back from the last injury he did get a rehab start first he did go to Gwynette and throw in Gwinette before he left to come back to Atlanta so that's the only thing that I am concerned about is if you want him to have a rehab start you either he's got to throw to minor Leaguers at one of the team facilities or he has to go with the team to Jacksonville to go start on the road simply because all the minor league like Augusta is already done right Rome is in the playoffs right now they had game one last night and so that's the only downside to putting him on the iil is it's more inconvenient than it was last time to get him a rehab start before he comes back but at the same time if he's going to come back into a bullpen run maybe it doesn't matter if he gets a rehab to or not maybe you can just find you can let him throw a couple bullpens find a couple times that last week of the season to let him come out of the pin in Atlanta and then have him in the PIN for the postseason maybe that's what you do if you're able to do it because again you are tied with the Mets and the SK the schedule actually works out that way you mentioned the away awayi in Jacksonville but that weekend before him being able to return the Braves play in Miami that weekend so the team be down in South Florida so the schedule might actually work quite well that way yeah he can travel with the team and then just leave from Miami fly north to Jacksonville do that game and then join the team to come back home I think for I think the Mets series starts on Tuesday 24th that that makes sense again he couldn't be activated till the 26th that's assuming he goes on the I today but he could be activated in time for that final game of the Met Series yeah yeah in just a minute let's break down last night's victory over the Nationals and then talk about some of these roster moves again we mentioned days about Hernandez and some other stuff we'll do that next right here on Braves today yes welcome back to Braves today I'm lindsy Crosby he's Christian Ral so last night's Victory Atlanta Braves hit four home runs they absolutely took it to the Washington Nationals 12 to nothing and what I love is they really were able to make things happen against McKenzie Gore right they have struggled it it feels like with some of these Washington pitchers Jake Irvin the stter tonight McKenzie Gore was the guy but they score seven runs off of him in three and two3 innings and I'm gonna I'm gonna toot my own horn here real quick I mentioned before the game I tweeted right around time for the game to start that I hated that Atlanta only had two lefties they could put in the lineup against Mackenzie Gore because uh what he does against lefties he ends up going just fast ball slider he cuts out half of his Aral and he's allowed almost a 300 batting average to those lefties this year so Michael Harris and Matt Olsen Michael Harris goes one for three off a Gore with a homer Matt Olsson hits an RBI single RBI double scores a run Atlanta obviously takes it to gore doesn't stop against just Gore what I love here is again four home runs the SEC Michael Orlando Aria had one Shawn Murphy had one the final was in the ninth Michael Harris gets one off of a position player he hits a 30s something mile hour ephus pitch off of Theo Vargas out for a second Homer of the of the game but eight of the nine starters in Atlanta's lineup had a hit and the one that didn't was Gio Rella he goes 0 for five no strikeouts he put all five balls into play three of them over 94 miles an hour the team finishes with 15 hits seven of 13 Runners on scoring position does this in your mind make up for the Cincinnati Reds to hit shut out on Monday make up no because you still lost the game and in these points in time you just can't let that happen right but it gives you a little bit of Hope especially because of the injury happening early to Lopez the offense being able to take off and and do what they did was really impressive we have seen in the past Lindsay to where something happens with a pitcher injury or the pitcher starts off on a rough start and they get down by a couple runs but the offense just decides to not show up and then they just completely blank in the game you had that injury with Lopez early and that did not stop the Braves offense from hitting in this one so I think you got to take it for what it is it was a very impressive outing but can they continue it we've seen where they've had this one Peak and then the valley lasts for three or four games and we obviously can't have that happen moving forward so am I impressed absolutely do I want to see more absolutely let me see more of that you got a another left-hander on the mound coming up uh tonight so that's huge and coming into right Irvin's a left-hander he should be I think almost every National starter is a left-hander I could be wrong he might be the only righty in the no 's a righty Ur a righty yeah he's like the only only ones probability to chance was not in my favor on that one but regardless I want to see more from this Braves from this Braves team and seven for 13 is exactly what you need and runers some scoring position that's a 538 average imagine that because the game before at the Reds they were only 0 for one creating opportunities with running and scoring position gets runs on the board could you imagine that actually happens we actually saw it happen with the Braves last night let's see it happen again with Washington finish this road trip strong so you can get ready for a really tough Series this weekend against the Dodgers yeah scoring 12 runs only the third time this year they've done it only two of the runs off of Gore were earned it was seven runs scored only two of them were earned which was absolutely wild the the the B thing to me outside of the offense finally showing up right like we obviously have to acknowledge that outside of that though I got to give credit to the back of the bullpen you lose your starter after one inning and you had the potential to have to just use overuse your Bullpen to get through this right but you look at the trio of Jesse Chavez John breia and Luke Jackson covered eight Innings Chavez had three breia had three Jackson had two and they did it they struck out eight they only allow they allowed two hits three walks no runs and the fact that those three guys were able to come out there and cover eight Innings without having to eat into that back end of the bullpen you didn't have to throw Joe Jimenez or Pierce Johnson or Dylan Lee or ryel glacius or or Aaron bummer that's your core five high leverage guys right now High to medium leverage guys right now the the fact that you could get through eight Innings and not have to touch those Five Guys means that one if you need them tonight you're not worried about about using them and even if you do have to use them tonight you should have you should be able to throw those five guys probably if you need to up to three times each in that four game uh Dodger series kudos to the bullpen there for doing what they did and I do also feel like we should mention Matt Olen right picks up the two hits there finished three for five got a walk as well there he's now in his last 14 games or 15 days he's batting 302 with an 876 Ops 10 RBI 10 runs and with Marcelo Zuna struggling right now he hasn't hit Homer in last 20 games it's the longest streak of the season for him Matt olssen being hot is absolutely what Atlanta needed they're getting a ton of homers out of Olson right now but bad 302 is more like what we expected him to do and what we need right now if you're trying to still make the postseason if you're hoping to still be in the postseason especially with with Ozuna struggling to hit for power right now yeah I just don't want them to take turns I want them to do it the same time so hopefully we can get them both succeeding at the same time Ozuna is going to come out of this eventually might even happen tonight who knows but I want to go back to that Bullpen argument real fast before um we move on here you talk about how they didn't have to use any of their big high leverage guys and that's a big thing that Snick talks about where he can't use his high leverage guys all the time and and he pushed to that in the last game yesterday and then he also did it with the Cincinnati Reds we saw bummer having that some spots and Grant Holmes had that against the Cincinnati Reds as well they they did well they did great as well in that Cincinnati Reds game so the last two games this Bullpen has been has been amazing and they haven't had to use those High leverage guys I want to point out something and you this was the the article that you had as the first article on bravest today.com John breia has been fantastic since he's came to Atlanta something that you might not have expected because when you got him he had a 6.29 erra Lindsay he's got three appearances for Atlanta so far all scoreless five innings of scoreless baseball out of the pen is exactly what you need in September yeah and he's not very far removed from being a quality Major League reliever he got multiple millions of dollars on in free agency as a reliever and so getting him for almost free is a great thing for Atlanta especially if he's able to to make the postseason roster you can if they choose to replace Chavez and and Luke Jackson you can put breia you can put desel Hernandez in there again reported this morning Hernandez is being called up as a time of recording that's not been confirmed by the team the thought process here is Hernandez is probably replacing Ronald Lopez going to the iil if not you're looking at your only other options to add him to your Bullpen are option Dylan Le down which leaves you with just one Lefty so it feels like you're not going to do that or DFA somebody because nobody else has options that's been the issue you've had in this Braves Bullpen all season is this if you were to DFA somebody I feel like the guy that would be DFA would be luke Jackson because of his contract it is unlikely that some other team would pick him up off of waivers because if they do they're on the hook for his contract and he wouldn't be postseason eligible for anybody he he's only postseason eligible for Atlanta because he's in their organization as of August 31st so it feels like either if Lopez goes on the I Hernandez is the corresponding move and Grant Holmes now has the option to step into the rotation if you need him to again the first time that spot is open is Sunday against or sorry Monday against the Dodgers but you can move Max freed up on regular rest to make that start against the Dodgers you can throw Grant homes on Tuesday at Cincinnati if you DFA somebody then it feels like Lopez is not going to go on theil I will point out for guette also Zack short and aljo Lopez also both left the game last night I believe short was hit by a pitch Lopez was not I don't necessarily know what the move is here if Atlanta's planning on bringing one of these guys up if this was just maybe they want a taxi Squad thing for Whit May field they want uh one of these guys don't quite know what's going to happen but just felt it was relevant to point that out Lopez not on the 40-man roster you'd have to make a 40-man roster move there Zack short I believe is also not on the 40-man roster because he was DFA don't quite know what's going to happen there but just something to watch for if they think Whit marfield can't come back for the Dodgers series and they go ahead and put him on the iil there are options to get him back or to to get someone up in Atlanta but you have to make a 40-man roster move for any of those guys except for Um nacho Alvarez yeah I still don't understand why they haven't gone with the injured stint for Whit Maryfield they used two more players Off the Bench last night and the huge win the 12 nothing win Eli white and Duval both came in as as some Replacements so obviously snit trying to use his bench he's trying to make some things happen and get people fresh and and ready to go for this September run having one more fresh player Off the Bench and not to worry about only having your backup catcher sitting there waiting for something to happen would be huge so we see what happens this with these roster roofs today I think we're going to see some changes for sure not sure if it's going to be involved with an injury sin as you mentioned but I think it's warranted we talked about that yesterday but I think it's warranted to still move with Maryfield to the injured list you can still retro it enough to make it be worthwhile yeah it's you have three days to retroactive it so at this point being Wednesday Tuesday Monday it' be retroactive to Sunday so you lose a day because he played on Friday I think he got heard on Friday I believe so you would lose a day there but that would put him coming back after obviously he'd miss the Dodger series it' only be 10 days but it's still at that point you would have to assume that it's possible you'd get Aussie alz back at that point time we don't quite know there it almost feels like they initially didn't want to put him on the iil because they wanted to see if aie was going to be able to return before he would get back before the is stint would end I don't quite know what's going on right now um with Eli white able to capably fill in at second base which again he last played in the majors in 20121 in second base but he's looked fine so far it's not as urgent because you have too many outfielders anyway it just means Adam Duval still has a job right now but it's definitely an odd move and like I said when it first happened it's an odd move to have Whit marfield be the guy that you're playing a man short for to try to keep him especially when it's something that doesn't look like it's going to get better between now and then it's brok it's not toally heal it's just a matter of pain Toler L Williams look good at second as well too he stole a base the other he I feel like he's been pretty decent having watched all these games at second base both defensively and offensively I think he had bobbled play the other day but for the most part feel like he's been fine at second he is also your backup short stop so obviously he's important and if Orlando AR were to Leave a Game Eli white would have to come in and play second so Williams could play short but either way definitely interesting there I got one question for you and I know we're getting short in time but the Braves they won 12 to nothing last night for them to for you to be excited about this offense would a one- nothing Victory be good enough for you today or would what would you think about that as much as they've struggled against Jake Irving I just want to see them win a game like I don't it's what's weird 9 and 12 428 ER but he has owned Atlanta this year in three starts I don't love the idea of a one- nothing game but at this point I'll take a win it doesn't matter how you get it a win's a win at this point because the Mets lost last night that made you tied again if you can win and the Mets lose to Toronto you have your back in the postseason pictur at this point I'll take a win I don't obviously don't want to won nothing but I I'll take a win anyway you can get at this point in time love it love it let's hope it happen let's hope it happens Yep this has been Braves today for Wednesday September 11th if you're listening on audio do us a favor leave us a festar review if you're on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit the notification Bell and do me a favor go subscribe to the audio feed too really does help um had a ton there it's a newer feed we're trying to grow that until next time this has been Braves today [Music]