In simply his second sport again since being activated off the 60-day injured listing, Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies suffered a fractured proper pinky finger in Saturday’s sport towards the Phillies. The damage occurred throughout a slide into second base within the fourth inning, and Albies was changed by Vaughn Grissom at second base for the highest of the fifth.
The severity of the damage isn’t but identified, although the truth that preliminary x-rays decided the issue earlier than the sport was over may point out greater than only a small fracture. It might appear to be Albies’ 2022 season might be over, maybe even when Atlanta made one other run to the World Sequence.
Albies was an enormous contributor to final yr’s championship workforce, incomes his second profession All-Star and Silver Slugger honors whereas additionally ending thirteenth in NL MVP voting. Nevertheless, Albies was off to a comparatively sluggish begin over the 2022 marketing campaign’s first two months earlier than he suffered a left foot fracture on June 13 and needed to bear surgical procedure. As famous, Albies was sidelined till simply Friday, when he went 1-for-4 with two RBI in Atlanta’s 7-2 win over Philadelphia.
The Braves have managed to thrive even with out Albies for a lot of the season, and Grissom has considerably unexpectedly stepped up as a right away contributor after being promoted from Double-A a bit of over a month in the past. Grissom has hit .304/.355/.482 over his first 121 plate appearances within the majors, resulting in some hypothesis that the Braves would attempt Grissom in left discipline so as to preserve his scorching bat within the lineup. Nevertheless, it appears as if opposing pitchers have began to regulate to Grissom, because the rookie has solely a .607 OPS over his final 67 PA.
However, within the wake of Albies’ damage, it might appear to be Grissom will now once more be the best choice at second base for the rest of the common season and postseason. Orlando Arcia can also be available to offer depth, and Ehire Adrianza can also be available, however at the moment on the IL himself resulting from a quad pressure. Pat Valaika, Hernan Perez, and Ryan Goins are a number of the Triple-A choices with MLB expertise, although Atlanta may have so as to add any of these gamers to the 40-man roster.
It was lower than a yr in the past that the Braves overcame the chances by successful the World Sequence regardless of dropping a star participant (Acuna) to damage for a lot of the season and all through the playoffs. Whereas the ebook isn’t but closed on Albies’ attainable availability within the postseason, his absence for at the very least a couple of weeks will make it more durable for the Braves to overhaul the Mets within the NL East, and doubtlessly seize a first-round bye. The NL East runner-up is all however assured to be the NL’s high wild card workforce and thus is about to host all three video games (if needed) of the Wild Card Sequence, but Atlanta would clearly like to keep away from these further video games and an additional likelihood of elimination.
