Jurickson Profar Injury, Spencer Strider Update, and Free Agent Catchers

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. It is a pleasure to be with you once again, and as always, I am joined of our podcast partner, Steven Tolbert. Steven, how are you this afternoon, sir?

00:00:34
Speaker 2: What's up, Sean? Yeah, it's good to be with you, buddy. Man. We had a scare today. Yeah, we're gonna talk about it. Obviously, probably tell by the title of the episode what this show is mainly gonna be about, because we had a big scare in spring training today. The game was on MLB dot TV. I was watching it and my heart dropped. So we'll get into a second. And then we got a couple of news and notes things. But yeah, always going to do these with you, man.

00:01:02
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, same here and and and I'd say that it's good to do these with you as always, But definitely don't want the content to be focused on injuries, and it seems like that that's been kind of the theme over the past ten days, you know, last week coming and coming last weekend, we had the Sean Murphy injury news and then of course the event that we're talking about was, you know, as Brave's country knows today Jerks and Profar dived after a ball in the outfield and he hurt his wrist. He jammed his wrist on the dive. Steven, I'm gonna let you go through the updates. The initial reaction to those who were who witness it in person and saw it on TV was definitely a scare. It seems like that right now. There are positively some positive vibes, but we're not out of the woods yet basically, So Stephen, if you will with the updates, just hoping you know that definitely this is not going to be a continuation of what we've already seen with Sean Murphy and obviously what we saw last year.

00:01:59
Speaker 2: For Yeah, So the Braves tweeted out like ten minutes after the injury is a very quick thing, but they tweeted out that Profar was removed from today's game with a jammed left wrist. Initial X rays were negative and he is set to undergo further testing at a time yet to be determined. And so basically that means initial X rays negative. That's not a that's not you know, I saw a lot of people celebrating. That is not completely out of the woods. Yet a lot of times we get the initial X ray negative and then the MRI later, you know, additional imaging shows a hairline fracture or something and it's just as bad. So that was the first update we got, and then Bowmanmarbowman MLB dot com sent out, you know, reminded people that with Riley and RCA in the past couple of years, the X rays have been negative and then they're not being a break anyways in the MRI, so not to get a ahead of ourselves. And then Bowman's last update was and this was about thirty five minutes ago as the time we're recording this, snicker said that trainer Greg Polis was encouraged by the early test on on profged wrist. The Braves hope they dodged a bullet, but it all comes down to what the MRI says. So you know, that's where we are. The the x rays were negative, but again the MRI is the is the big one. I'm guessing that will be done very rapidly, if it hasn't already been done. My guess is by the time some people are listening to this, they might already have the answer. Depending on when you listen. So this is probably something we're going to get an answer to pretty quickly. They're not going to let this linger. I don't know why you're diving for a ball in spring training. You know, he actually did it a couple of times today and both of them were kind of awkward, to be honest, I get listen, every picture wants a clean, you know, clean stat sheet and spring training. But important players, guys you're counting on for one hundred and sixty two games, do not need to be diving for balls in spring training. And just there's no point I really thought at the time he broke his wrist. I mean, he was in a lot of pain. He was rolling around in agony. He like when he even when he left the field, like his arm was just dangling. He was, you know, he it looked it did not look good. And so if they did dodge a bullet, they dodged a huge one, because that looked like a very serious injury. And we'll wait and see what the imagy. But the braids Man, they're already gonna be without Acunya. We talked about pro far while he was so important because of his on base skill, He's got a specific skill that the Braves don't really have outside of Acunya, and that's why he was so important. And so if they lose him while Acunya's out, it's, you know, we're back to the same thing, and let's just hope. We're just gonna hope that it's a minor thing. It's just you know, a jammed wrist. He's out for a week, and he's back and he's ready to go for opening day. The way the Braves injury let goes, especially the last you know, year year plus, I'm certainly not expecting that. I'm expecting kind of the worst, but we should know here pretty soon. Yeah.

00:05:15
Speaker 1: The other thing is is you know, with a risk injury that that's something that yeah, it may eventually heal and so Profar would be back, but you know, if if the worst does wind up coming true, it's multiple months that he's likely out. And then, like I mentioned that, it's not necessarily I don't think that the ristal injury lingers, but it just it's something you got to go work back from, get strength back into, get trust back into. And so getting that type of injury to start the season certainly is one of the least ideal injuries to to encounter, and so what is the ripple effect of this? What comes from this? Well, of course, there's a good chance that Profar probably has taken his last at bat, you know, of spring training. With us being about three weeks away from opening day, you certainly hope that he is, you know, going to be available to you know, play because we're going back to San Diego, you know, at to begin the start of the season, so you know that he'll want to be as healthy as possible. But Stephen, let let's you know, not necessarily suggesting that I feel the worst is going to happen, But what is the ripple effect for the rest of the outfield in your opinion? You know what, if this potentially is a two to four weekend dream, even though it's not broken, it may need some time to heal, does it become Brian Day, La Cruz, Jared Kelnick, as well as Michael Harrison the outfield, What do we see happen from the rest of spring training. Who has the opportunity to potentially make the most of this opportunity and kind of how will the outfield hierarchy structure itself get Profar is out for a while.

00:06:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we kind of go back to where we were before the Profar signing, right, I mean we're talking about day La Cruz and Jared Kelnick both starting every day. Day La Cruz has had a really good spring and Jared Kelni gets out of solid spring, so they would both you know, it would be an opportunity for both of them to basically show that they can be an everyday player. I don't at all, at all have any interest in Jared Kelnick taking at bats against lefties. I actually wouldn't be surprised if maybe the Braves went out and grabbed somebody else to, you know, have day La Cruz start every day and then have somebody else who can platun with Kelnick. But yeah, it's not great. I mean, that's why we wanted an outfielder to begin with, so we didn't have this very situation where Kelnick and Dyla Cruz would both have to start every game until Ronald comes back. But we might be there. I don't I haven't looked at the outfielder free agent marking in a while. I don't actually know. I think Alex Radugo, I think is the biggest name that's still out there. If I'm if I'm remembering that right, I'm sure there's a couple of right handed guys that I'm not thinking of.

00:07:49
Speaker 1: But Adam deal is out there.

00:07:51
Speaker 2: Statement, yes, Adam Davall is technically out there. There was actually a report on Deval recently that he he was gonna sign with the Royals, but he was like, I'm either gonna get the money I deserve or I'm gonna retire. And it's like, Bro, you had like a forty WRC plus last year and you're like thirty eight years old. I don't, you know, I don't. I'm not sure beggars can be choosers at this point, but maybe Adam of All, I don't know that. I know they love him. He was terrible last year. But yeah, if it's a long term thing, or even like a two month thing, that I wouldn't be surprised if they added somebody else. They do have Carlos Rodriguez. I think it's Carlos d. Rodriguez, and on the forty man roster he has actually got on base skill in the miners. He's a no power guy. He's like five eight, one hundred and eighty pound like he's a tiny dude, but he does have some on base skill. I don't know if that would be somebody they tried. I don't know, but I really don't want to have I don't really want to think about this, honestly, what what the outfit looks like without profile, without Acunya, because it's in Michael Harris and then just a bunch of prayer. So but yeah, I wouldn't I if it is something that's you know, more than a month or a couple of months, I wouldn't be shocked if they actually went out and added somebody.

00:09:03
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know, of course there's Eli White as well, but you know it's more his speed, his defense that stands out. The big thing that stands out is is that if Profar is you know, out for any sort of absence, it takes away, you know, the the option of having you know, a really good bat in this Atlanta lineup, which brings me to my other point that I think is worth discussing, because you know, depending on how the outfield looks, what have you. The other big thing that stands out is is that it's not only the outfield depth. Hooly is off of this situation like, do you basically go Jared Kellnick possibly against you know, right handed pitching, and then Ausi Albi's against left handed pitching. You know, that's another scenario that really needs to be thought about when it comes to if we were to be without Profar. Again, I'm not saying that I want that to happen. I'm not saying that that's likely to happen, but it's worth discussing because that's how important Prof Far It's slady to be for this phrase lineup, especially without Ronald Acunya.

00:10:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. We don't there's no other guy on the team that is good at it is good at being a leadoff hitter. It's a Cunya. And before they signed Profar, it's just a Kunya, and then it was a Kunyan Profar. I don't know what I mean. I guess my guess is against righty's, they do Michael Harrison. Against lefties, they do Ozzy Alby's, put Riley in the two hole, Olsen in the three, Ozuna in the four. I guess is what you do? You know, maybe Kelnick? They tried Kelnick there a little bit last year he actually did decent. He doesn't walk a lot and he strikes out a ton, and so of course Ozzy Alby's doesn't walk around. Neither is Michael Harris. So I mean, you know, there's not a great answer. So I don't know. I mean, yeah, I don't I would probably just platoon it and try to take advantage of Ozzy being able to hit lefties and Michael being able to hit righty's. Again, not something I want any part of, quite frankly. I think Ozzie and Michael are both better in the middle of the order where their power plays. You know, they're both slug over OVP guys. Those guys are better off in the middle of the order where they could drive in runs versus having to get on base. So that's you know, that's the best the Braves can do until either Profi Orcunya gets back yep.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: And so we're talking about adding potential players, and you know, you know, we we've seen Terry mcwork, you know, kind of hint at the fact that there are still several free agents out there that could make sense for the Braves if they needed to do it. And there was a report earlier this week as I mentioned, you know, last weekend, we know Sean Murphy is going to be out for another probably month or so. You know, the initial reaction to that is, oh, that could open up the door for Drake bald would have a great opportunity. We discussed that, you know, on a you know, a few podcasts ago. But there was a report earlier this week that the Braves may have interest in some free agent cancers. You know, to name a few is Money Grendall, as well as James McCann. And I get it, you know, especially if you feel that the Sean Murphy injury may keep him out on the longer end of that timetable. But I'll be honest with you, Steven, and I've seen this opinion shared elsewhere. My initial reaction is this, I think that you're going to be perfectly by brinstance, if you wanted to start the season with Drake Baldwin and Chadwick Trump and then Sandy Leone and you know Kurk Cassally are there as well, I believe, I hope I got his name right. My point is is that that group can get you through the first few weeks of the season if you've got the money to potentially go get a option that's out there for a few million. I would much rather that be allocated to an ARM than some sort of backup catcher. That's my initial reaction. I get the need for a potential veteran catcher, but my thought is is that I would much rather use that money to go get an arm if that's the case. No, if it's a non roster invite, that makes some sense, but especially now with the profile injury, I don't think that adding another catcher becomes a priority for the break.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of a weird report. Honestly, it was John Hayman who said the brains are interested in both Yasmani Grondal and James McCann. I think we're the two names mentioned. Grendal is a switch hitter. Gondaal actually had a pretty good year last year, and he actually does a lot of things really well. Still, he's a decent hitter. He's a really good framer. He's one of the worst throwers in baseball. He cannot throw a runner out. I think he's I think he's twenty three for his last like one hundred and eighty six and throwing out base runners or something. It's like he's throwing out like eight percent of base runners or something like that. So yeah, I mean, I don't know those guys. Any of those guys are substantially better than what the Braves have at the moment. I would much rather just see Drake Baldwin and pick one of the other three guys as his backup, you know, until Sean Murphy gets back again. Like you said, if we're talking about just alex allocation of resources, I would much rather just see an arm added, Like we've been trying to get an arm added since November, but I mean every day they don't do it. It just it's I know, David Robertson is still out there. Apparently he wants to close, and obviously the Braves are not gonna take that job away from Russie ill Iglesias. So maybe that's why that deal hasn't happened. I don't know, no one signed him, so you know, he might be asking for an absurd amount of money. I don't know, but yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't know. I don't know that it's a huge need. I get that you lost your starter, but you know, one of your top prospects. Your top prospect is a catcher, so and then you got plenty of guys who can be backup catchers already in camp. So it's kind of a weird report. Maybe they do it. I like Grendall. I've always liked yas money. Grendal actually thought maybe they'd try to go get him earlier in the off season before they decided on having Trump be the backup. But yeah, it doesn't move the needle whatsoever. So you know, it's a very low impact rumor for the Braves at the moment.

00:15:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And again, like I say, you know, we've already, you know, seen the fact that the Braves are, you know, working through their bullpen, you know, going with guys. They've not really added that notable name that we had hoped for so far in spring training. They're working through a bunch of guys that they added, like basically as non roster invites or minor league deals or the equivalent of that. But the point that I'm getting that is is that, yes, I do think that the opportunity exists for the Braves to potentially add another notable piece, you know, in time, you know, maybe as a short term platoon option in the outfield or maybe another bullpen option. But again, I just would put Catcher at the bottom of that list when it comes to the priority of adding another talent. So moving away from negative injury news or the ripple effect of negative injury news, let's get to a bit of positive injury news. And we got a good update on Spencer Strider. Spencer Strider, you know, was able to put together another side session bullpen session. I believe assimilated too inning session based. He came out of that, he looked good. He has another one scheduled.

00:16:03
Speaker 2: You know.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: The big talk he is and it's kind of been speculated. We haven't heard much of it, I don't think since the start of spring training over the past few weeks. But the idea is, you know, could Spencer Strider potentially, you know, be in a game at some point in spring training. I I forget who mentioned it, but you know, it makes sense to kind of you know, hey, yeah, we could put him in there, but we already you know, have a limited number of innings for other pictures. I don't think Spincer Strider needs to get into a spring training game that doesn't need to be forced. You already know he's not going to be available to start the spring. I would just keep him on a routine, have him build up, and then let him obviously get that rehab assignment in the minor leagues. That's the kind of the route that I would go. But at the very least, it's good to know that he's continuing to progress to hopefully be available sometime in April.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, that's the big takeaway is that he's close enough where this is even a possibility. You know, whether they do it or not, I don't. I don't know matters a ton. Like you said, they're already kind of talking like he's gonna miss all of April. So it's not like he's gonna it's not like he's gonna run out of time to get ready. I mean, he can spend all of April and extended spring training and then do a minor league rehab assignment. So, like you said, there's no rush. My big takeaway was he's obviously doing well enough where this is even a conversation. It is certainly a positive because it means the timeline maybe get moved, maybe gets bumped up, maybe instead of in May. He's the last you know, two weeks of April. Somewhere in the last two weeks of April, he comes up. You know, you know, that's all I care. I just I don't really care when he comes back specifically, you know, April May doesn't really matter. It's just when he comes back that he's Spencer Strider, that's the big thing. And so the fact that he's doing so well that this is even a conversation is you know, music to our ears, obviously, especially after all this other crap that's already happened. You know, on the position player side, the Raves don't have a lot of pitching depth. They didn't add anything. They're already kind of depending on Ian Anderson and Grant Holmes unproven, well not unproven, but you know, ian Ian Anderson has done it in a long time. Greg Holmes hasn't done it for a full season. So you know, the Raves kind of need their big four. They need Sale, Swallenbach, Lopez and Strider to be really good. And so yeah, the fact they even talk about this is great news to me. And I don't really care if they end up doing it or not. Just the conversation is is good enough your muta.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: Forgive me sorry about that. The other thing that I'll say is this, for the pictures that have been on the mound, you know, up until this week, if they've been done pretty good, especially the starters, they've done really well. But yesterday saw a little bit of concern when it came to Rinaldo Lopez. You know, it looked like there had been a dip in his velocity. It was reported after that there was really no concern from Lopez. Today's Fincher Schwellenbach, who had been afishent effishent as possibly can be. You know, even the MLB dot com was looking at him as you know, being one of the ten most buzzed about, you know names in spring training. It's not just the braves who are to you notice a spincher squillerbox, it's all a baseball. He had a bit of a rough outing today as well. Several of the arms that are trying to fill the braves boopy and also had some shaky outings as well. I'll ask you this ste even any concern from the past couple of days. Obviously, I know it's spring training, but a bit of a first bit of rough stretch for the brace pitching I think in this spring training, especially when you come to the names that you're hoping to rely on once the season starts.

00:19:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm always concerned about pitching. I'm in I don't They could all look great and I'm still concerned. And obviously anytime there's a dipping velo like there was with Lopez, you know, he said after that he's just working on stuff. There was actually a kind of a similar dipping velo last spring training. It's kind of a dead arm period in spring training. It's pretty common. But if you're asking me, like, am I you know how how worried of mine? A one to ten? Ten being you know, terrified one being nothing. I'm always at least a three with pitching. Like, there's never a point where I'm at like a one or two, even if everybody's healthy, I'm worried about it. So you know, if you give me any news of like a guy's velocity dipped a little bit, then that already bumps me up to like a four. So that's just where I live kind of all throughout the season, especially when the Braves didn't add anything in the rotation or the bullpen in the off season. You know, you're you're really depending on these four guys staying healthy and being good. So anything I hear about velocity dipping or you know, any kind of arm thing, I'm gonna get worried. But Ronaldo wasn't worried. The team doesn't seem worried, So I'm good enough with that. I can live with that. But yeah, they need these guys and sales look good. Schwallon Buch has looked good. Schwall'muck didn't have a great out of day. He got hit around a little bit by the Pirates. It looked good early in the game. The last two innings, that's what Profar got hurt on a ball that obviously he called it had been out of the inning. But overall, they've looked really good. The fact that Strider's progressing the way he is is great news. The fact that Lopez is not worried about the velocity stuff, I'm that's good with me. And we just got to get these guys to the season and then through the season, you know, at least till July, where the brains can at least start adding reasonably add reinforcements if they need to. But yeah, they need these four guys. Desperately. They need these guys to be healthy and good.

00:21:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you are not that certain, if you're a bit concerned about those guys being healthy and good, I can't blame you a bit over the past few seasons. And that's why I think that's what one of the biggest differences between this year in the past couple of years, that question about reinforcements, that competence and the reinforcements if injuries were to occur. We're starting to see them occur. We're starting to see those concerns there. So the competence that you have in reinforcements, it was already a bit shaky. Now the potential that those reinforcements are gonna have to play an even more important role. It's just you're really hoping for some positive injury. Is when it comes to Jerks and Profar Steven As we wrap up this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast, anything else from.

00:21:53
Speaker 2: You, No, We're getting close, Like we're less than three weeks away from opening day. It's coming. I can't wait. March Madness is right around the corner. Bamm and Auburn are playing right now. I'm watching it on the side here it's in overtime, but March Madness is here, Spring training is here, Opening Day is coming very soon, one of the best times of year, my favorite time of year by far. I know everybody's obsessed with football. This is by far my favorite time of year and I can't wait. And we're gonna be here to cover it. So if it's not you know, this is a great time to subscribe. Obviously we've been with you all throughout the off season all last year, but with the season right on around the corner, if you're not subscribed, we'll have content four times a week all throughout the season. So we appreciate everybody that's followed to this point. And if you have it, welcome, you know, welcome to the show and hope to join us.

00:22:43
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And we've been like I say, we've had months and months of less content that we expected to talk about. Hey, we've made it through it. We've got plenty of content to discuss. Now, how about it's less on injuries, more on performance analysis in a positive way and let's get to the season. But of course you can bind myself Sean Coleman at STATSUSC On Twitter slash act, you can find Stephen Tolbert at Me underscore outliers hammerd Territory across all forms of social media. Proud member of the foul Territory family of podcasts. So many great podcasts out there covering many of the teams that you enjoy potentially watching even outside of the Braves. Make sure you check out all the great content, But for Steven and myself, until next time, Go Braves. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory podcast