The Atlanta Braves are a franchise that strives to win a championship at the end of each season.
This season, however, they will be lucky just to make it there.
Atlanta swooned in July, losing seven of their last eight games and clinging to a playoff berth. As of Monday, the Braves lead the New York Mets by half a game for the National League’s third and final Wild Card slot.
The Braves’ pitching staff carried the team for the majority of the first half, but they are currently struggling. Starters Max Fried and Reynaldo López are out with injury, and the bullpen exploded over the weekend in the series defeat to the Colorado Rockies.
Given their recent troubles, the Braves cannot afford to lose any relief pitchers at this time. However, in the short term, they will have to deal with the loss of one of their most key relievers.
The Braves announced on Monday that lefty bullpen pitcher A.J. Minter was placed on the 15-day disabled list due to hip inflammation. In a simultaneous move, fellow lefty Dylan Lee was called up from Triple-A Gwinnett.
The left hip ailment is the same one that led Minter to miss the entire month of June, limiting him to only 34.1 innings pitched this season. However, the southpaw has been in fantastic form recently, allowing only three earned runs in 13 innings since the beginning of July.
Minter has a respectable 2.62 ERA this season and has been the Braves’ go-to lefty in late-inning matchups.
Fortunately for the Braves, Lee is also having a terrific season in the major leagues. The 30-year-old has a 2.00 ERA in 35 appearances this season, but he has rarely been deployed in high-leverage situations.
Moving forward without Minter will be difficult for a bullpen that is already thin on players. However, it would be prudent for the Braves’ highly touted offense to begin assisting their pitchers. Atlanta has scored just 96 runs in the second half, tying for seventh in the National League.