Braves News: Max Fried and Kyle Wright likely to miss at least two months
By Eric Cole
The Atlanta Braves have been bitten by the injury bug in a big way this way. Injuries to Kyle Wright, Max Fried, Michael Harris II, Travis d'Arnaud, Orlando Arcia, and others have already forced the team to scramble earlier in the season. So far, the team has been successful in weathering those injuries as they are off to a 25-11 start and have a healthy 7.5 game lead in the National League East.
However, it appears that their biggest test is yet to come as the recent injuries to Max Fried and Kyle Wright appear to not be minor and are going to sideline them for quite some time.
Expectation has been Fried and Wright will both be sidelined for at least two months. With this being his second shoulder ailment of the year, Wright thinks he could be out longer than Fried.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) May 10, 2023
Max Fried and Kyle Wright likely to miss two months
This is a pretty brutal blow to a Braves team that is on a very good run right now. Kyle Wright's shoulder has been giving him fits for a while now and despite getting injections in his shoulder during the offseason, the issue continued to plague him until recently when the team placed him on the injured list. Wright was asked before the game tonight about his issue and he indicated that since this is his second flare up this year, he expects that he will be out longer than Max Fried.
That is not particularly good news because Bowman's reporting indicates that both Fried and Wright were expected to be out for at least two months. Fried developed forearm soreness after his last start and while he is not expected to have to undergo his second Tommy John surgery (at least for now), the team placed him on the injured list as well and gave no indication that his stay would be a short one.
In the short term, the Braves are going to have to lean on Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd to cover innings in the rotation. One potential wild card is Michael Soroka. While it does seem clear that the team does not think he is ready to return, he could be another option further down the road if Dodd and/or Shuster struggle. If you feeling particularly adventurous and wanting a deep dark horse pick, AJ Smith-Shawver has been turning a lot of heads this year and just got promoted to Double-A. He is very young and nothing seems imminent there, but if he continues striking out everyone at Mississippi, he could make things interesting.