Chis Sale’s injury casts Braves’ rebound chances

Last Wednesday against the Mets, Chris Sale was almost at the first time in six years. Now, he was eliminated – a very familiar event in recent years – suffered a fractured rib cage while doing a defensive game of acrobatics due to a freak injury. His losses interrupted a strong follow-up to his first season of championship and interrupted the extension of the Braves’ attempt to dig himself out of the holes early in the season.

At Truist Park, Sale shut the Mets out with four hits in the first eight innings, only 102 goals. Manager Brian Snitker returned his ace to ninth place with a 5-0 lead, the first shutdown since June 5, 2019, when he hit three shots for the Red Sox. Facing Juan Soto to lead the game, the sales were counted in full, and then lured the slugger to hit the soft chopper and hit one to the right side of the infield. The 36-year-old left-handed dove was halfway between the mound and the first base, landing on his left while stopping it and recovering from his knees. It’s an impressive drama, and second baseman Ozzie Albies might throw that footless Soto, considering the score, if not entirely necessary. “Do you think he wants this complete game?” Brandon Gaudin, an amazed broadcaster by broadcaster.

With the adrenaline pumping, the sales showed no signs of injury. He followed his dive show and hit Pete Alonso, who beat 96 mph for four seconds on his sixth night. Brandon Nimmo hit a single on the left field on the 116th court of the night, and he finished the game. Not wanting to push this anymore since August 19, 2017 – Sales haven’t pitched more than 116 times, and there have been more than 117 without pitchers this season – Snitker brings the closer Raisel Iglesias, who only needs two pitches to finish the game by retiring Luis Torrens on the grounder.

Snitker said on Friday when Sale was part of his day job he “feeled like something wrong”. X-rays show sales suffered from what the Brave called a “left rib fracture”, which suggests that the injury is more severe than a single ruptured rib. Sales were placed on the 15-day injury list and as of Thursday, he would not be back anytime soon.

“With bones like this they have to heal before they start the process, but I don’t know how long it will take,” Snitker said.

The Brave will wait until the sales symptoms decrease and then provide a schedule for his return schedule. “Given the nature of the injury, it could be a big time, perhaps amplifying his age, his slim physique and the torque that the 6-foot-6-foot assisted left-hander produces in his labor.” sportsDavid O’Brien. The prolonged absence will require sale to rebuild his field count, so it is worth noting how much time it took before he resumed his throwing.

this Baseball prospectus There are only a few precedents to restore the dashboard to provide any guidance on the schedule; most of the rib fractures that pitchers suffered over the past decade were stress fractures, for example, a sales time of 99 days in 2022. In both cases, Dodgers’ Walker Buehler missed 33 days in 2018, being an incredible one-off start, creating a “Microfractir actir” in the inning drive. The Cubs’ Keegan Thompson was out for 41 days last year due to a rib fracture, and the reason was never disclosed.

How long does Saar lose is a tough blow for the Braves, who struggled at the gate, while Ronald Acuña Jr. eight of 12. Even so, they are currently trailing the Phillies 11 games in NL East games, and seven games behind the third NL wildcard position, leading 4 teams. Their playoff odds are just 26.7%.

Last year not only marked Sale’s first season championship – he previously finished second, third, twice (two), fifth (two) and sixth in the vote – but his first season avoided the injury list since 2017. The injury may have won an award-winning season in the 6.17 Erain of 6.17 Erain in 23 quarters, which could be another award-winning season shutdown. He released the MLB best 1.23 ERA (2.22 FIP) in 66 innings in the last 10 laps:

In his last six games, Sale did not allow more than once in his last six games, and only had two or more matches in these 10 start-up matches. He has been so good that his overall statistics series looks like an extension of last season:

Sale’s strikeout, walking and home run rates aren’t as good as last year, and he also allows for higher barrel rates (7.6% vs. 5.6%), but even so, he ranks third in the NL, FIP, strikeout rate, strikeout-Peak Differential and strikeout (114), while also ranked sixth in the war (2.5). The peek under the hood shows that while his sliders are still devastating, his changes don’t fool the batsmen to the same extent. They hit .155 with a WHIFF rate of 24.2% in 114 sets against the court last season and hit .444 with a .704 with a 27 pa in 27 pa this year. In response, he essentially gave up on the court, throwing only six changes at the start of the above six, and his overall usage dropped from 14.2% to 5.9%. With a simplified combination, the batsman against his four-selling division rose from .248 AVG/.431 SLG to this year’s .331 AVG/.500 SLG.

Sale’s injury caused a brave spin to explode, which had already lost Reynaldo López to arthroscopic shoulder surgery while AJ Smith-Shawver gave Tommy John surgery. Lopez may return at the end of the season. He will be evaluated in early July, 12 weeks after the surgery, but the smooth returns of the shoulder surgery are not guaranteed. Among other brave appetizers, Strider trends in the right direction after returning from UCL brace surgery. He released 3.89 ERA and 3.66 FIP to 7 innings, a total of 37 innings. Spencer Schwellenbach performed well, pitching to 3.26 ERA and 3.33 FIP, Grant Holmes has been a serviceable situation (3.75 ERA, 4.47 FIP), but both he and Bryce Elder (4.77 ERA, 4.61 FIP) are working hard to keep the ball in the park.

To replace sales in the rotation, the Braves have summoned Righty Didier Fuentes from Triple-A Gwinnett. Since Julio Urías made his debut with the Marlins three days before his 20th birthday in 2016, making him the youngest pitcher. Fuentes allowed four runs in five innings while defeating three innings at the same time, defeating 6-2.

Fuentes, who is six feet 170 pounds tall, ranks 11th on the Braves’ highest prospects list in March, has a fastball of about 93 mph, but he upgrades to the top 100 with his 50 fv prospects at the end of April, and he is not in the current position. Board of Directors 82. His fastball averaged 95.7 mph in Gwennett, at 96.2 mph in his debut. Here is his latest report from Eric Longenhagen:

Fuentes is a loose, short right who allowed only 80 basemen in 75 2/3 innings in 2024 and hit 98 in 75 2/3 innings, most of which are unable to position the fastball to the top of the area. Sometimes last year, Fuentes paved the way on the A-ball lineup, even though he used fastballs with 70-80% clips. He used it 70% of the time this season, but still hit 32% of his opponents. In further context, the average Major League fastball produced 23% turnovers in 2024, while Frentes had a much higher turnover rate than 30%. Fuentes was originally written on the Braves’ roster of this cycle with over 40 FV prospects and has heavier fastballs that he might break through if his condition improves to help improve the strength of his arm. Well, that has happened. Starting in 2025, Fuentes has launched a sculpting with three advanced launches and has gotten a quick link to double-a. His fastball usually scored 94-96, hitting 97-98 several times in his first doubles match at 97-98, while he averaged 93 miles per hour last year. He exploded along the mound and produced an extension of nearly seven feet, although the 19-year-old’s right was only six feet tall. His driving power was so explosive that the referee had to stop playing and talk to him about how far he was from it before he was released.

Fuentes is still a guy with two steps, his sliders aren’t consistent, but his fastball will take him into meaningful major league roles, like Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller or Joe Ryan, at the start of their major league tenure…he’s a potential mid-range weapon.

Both of our pitch model systems were Gaga on Fuentes’ debut, with PitchingBot scoring 65 in the 20-80 level and 117 points at a 100-average ratio.

I omitted Fuentes’ splitter, he only shot one, but that included his two broken balls, each of which would be about 20% of the time against the Marlins. Both like the Fuentes curves, almost as much as the heater, a mix of comments on the slider (but decent), and a nice rating for the command and overall mix. If he can keep his mark around that, the Brave may only be able to replace the back-end starter after the sales…but this is ahead of the matter in terms of injury and potential growth for the 20-year-old pitcher. Perhaps the arrival of Fuentes proved to be a silver lining for the brave. At the moment, though, it is difficult to see Sale’s injury as another dark cloud of their season.