Braves News: Albies' shoulder surgery, how to watch spring training, more
The Atlanta Braves' spring training schedule opens up today with a game against the Boston Red Sox at 1:05 PM EST. Finally our long nightmare without Braves baseball is coming to an end. While we do know that Kolby Allard is going to be getting the start for today's game, it will be very interesting to see who else gets playing and how much.
One guy that it sounds like will be playing, but only at DH for the first few games is Ozzie Albies. Yesterday, everyone was caught off guard when it was announced that Ozzie had surgery this past offseason to correct an impingement that had bothered him for a couple of years now. It sounds like he should be back manning second base within the next week or so, but the weird injury stuff this offseason is starting to add up for the Braves.
More Braves News
While we do have spring training games to occupy our attention for a while, watching said games could be easier said than done as there will only be seven Braves TV broadcasts of said spring training games. However, there are some streaming options for other games and, of course, the radio route. We broke down your options on how to watch spring training in 2023 with plenty of schedule info to help you out.
The Braves have a new PA announcer at Truist Park, although not without some weirdness. The Braves announced that Kevin Kraus would be taking over in the place of the late Casey Motter despite the fact that Kraus did not win the fan vote (and it wasn't close) that the Braves pushed during their very public contest/hiring process.
Finally, we took a look at seven Braves prospects that we think you should keep an eye on in 2023. From guys looking to bounce back from injuries or down years to guys that seem underrated by the masses, the Braves' farm system is more interesting than people give it credit.
MLB News
Spring training did get started for a few teams a bit earlier than others and that meant we had our first chance to see the new rules for 2023 and beyond in action for the first time. MLB did us all a solid and put together a nice post about how those players and coaches reacted to seeing how these new rules played. Definitely going to be an adjustment for everyone (fortunately spring training exists), but the sentiment seems to be overwhelmingly positive especially when it comes to the pace of play.
While Manny Machado made news yesterday as the first batter to have an automatic strike called against him for not getting fully in the box in time, most of the news around him of late has been regarding his desire to opt out of his current contract with the Padres after the season. However, it sounds like the Padres are not giving up on locking him up on a long-term extension as the two sides are at least having real conversations about it as we speak.