Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: the NL East is strange
In the news this week, there’s been a bunch of double-take stories about our rivals in the NL East… news that’s worthy of a comment or two.
If all of this is to be believed, then the Atlanta Braves might not have to worry about some of their competition in the division for a while. Teams continue to make questionable decisions, implode on their own accord, and even continue buying medical care in bulk.
Let’s start with the latter.
The Mets
David Wright To Undergo Shoulder Surgery; T.J. Rivera To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
- Steven Matz
- Noah Syndergaard
- Zack Wheeler
- Yoesnis Cespedes
- Michael Conforto
All on the DL. All out for the rest of the year. But there’s more, as we hear from MLBTR:
"The Mets made another series of medical updates today, with the most significant news of the bunch being that infielders David Wright and T.J. Rivera will undergo surgery. Wright will have his right rotator cuff repaired, while Rivera will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow (with which he was diagnosed in late July)."
But there’s more: Josh Edgin (knee) is likely done, Michael Conforto could be done for 2018 after he has surgery to repair his left shoulder. So that’s four (4) Mets under the knife this week.
In the Most Mets Thing Ever, Wilmer Flores broke his own nose when fouling off a pitch. That alone pretty much describes the crazy-bad season the Mets have had.
Yet what will this team do in 2018? What can they do? They don’t spend money, but they also have a lot of talent that can’t seem to stay on the field.
Their pitchers will probably start the year healthy, at least, but their fans may have to cringe through another year as they will need outfield help, (probably) pitching help, and infield help (having traded away Neil Walker, Lucas Duda, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, and could very well decline Asdrubal Cabrera’s option).