Braves Finally Place Injured Starter on IL After Over a Week

The Atlanta Braves made a move that was widely expected.

It was just expected to be a lot sooner than it actually was.

The Braves today placed starting pitcher Reynaldo López on the injured list with right forearm inflammation. López first reported the injury last Sunday when he was forced from his start against the New York Mets after just three innings with the issue.

López, 30, is 7-4 with a 2.06 ERA in his 19 starts.

There was initial hope that López could avoid an IL stint - he was flown back for imaging and treatment in Atlanta immediately after the injury, with the medical scans coming back clean that there was no significant issues. But after a week where López was unable to throw a bullpen, he was placed on the injured list, retroactive to August 2nd.

With the week-long delay in the IL placement, there's two significant repercussions. The first is that Atlanta's bullpen lost lefty Dylan Lee to Triple-A Gwinnett - he was the corresponding move for Max Fried's activation off of the injured list on Sunday morning. The second issue is the extended absence for López - since IL placements can only be backdated three days and pitchers are required to spend fifteen days on the IL before being activated, López can't rejoin the major league rotation until August 18th, the final date of the team's road trip out west. With Monday the 19th's off day, the most likely date for López to pitch (assuming a minimum length stay on the IL) would be August 20th at home against Philadelphia.

The silver lining to the move, however, is a chance to rest López. Converting back to starting after multiple seasons as a reliever, the righty's already passed his 2023 workload of 66.0 innings. Atlanta's attempted to give him extra off days throughout the season to avoid a move to the bullpen, and this enforced three weeks of rest (the already-passed week and the two more during his IL stint) will likely save around 30 innings from his season total.

The corresponding move for López was the recall of Bryce Elder , who will start tomorrow's game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Elder, 25, was an All-Star in 2023 bt faded badly down the stretch, spending this season bouncing back and forth between Atlanta and Gwinnett. He's made nine MLB starts, going 2-4 with a 5.67 ERA in his 46 innings.