There have been plenty of players to play for the Atlanta Braves over the years. Some have been highly touted prospects who falter along the way or have suffered heartbreaking injuries. This is the unfortunate side of baseball. A prospect can show glimmers of success, only to be derailed by injury or underperformance.
Braves fans have seen too much of this over the years, and there are plenty of names that come to mind. During the late 2000s, the Braves focused on developing pitching prospects as their core rotation from the 1990s had reached the end of their careers.
Brandon Beachy was one of Atlanta's attempts to put a great arm in the rotation. Beachy was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of Indiana Wesleyan in 2008. He spent a couple of years in the minor league system, but at the end of the 2010 season, he got his shot at the big leagues.
He pitched 15 innings in September and showed enough for the Braves to put him in the rotation in 2011. It was a phenomenal season, as he tossed 141.2 innings with a 3.19 FIP, 3.68 ERA, 46 walks, and 169 strikeouts.
Beachy would have thrown more; however, he suffered an oblique injury that kept him sidelined for around a month. He hit the ground running in 2012 and pitched well until the worst-case scenario happened.
Brandon Beachy's time with the Braves is a cautionary tale about injuries and expectations
The Kokomo, Indiana, native had a 2.00 ERA through 81 innings before he was placed on the IL with a sore right elbow. That's not what any pitcher wants to feel in their pitching arm. It was later revealed that he would undergo Tommy John surgery for a partially torn UCL.
A year and a half later, he returned to the rotation. That didn't go well as he landed back on the IL after just 30 innings pitched. The diagnosis was right elbow inflammation, and fans found out in March of 2014 that Beachy would undergo a second Tommy John procedure.
This was pretty much the beginning of the end for what started as a great addition for the Braves. Beachy missed all of the 2014 season and elected free agency at the end of the year. He then signed a contract with the Dodgers for 2015, and only pitched in eight MLB innings.
Over 4 years with the Braves, Beachy had a 3.36 ERA over 275 innings. This included a 3.41 FIP, 92 walks, and 280 strikeouts. There was so much potential that was wiped away by unfortunate injuries.
Beachy signed another one-year deal with Los Angeles for the 2016 season, but elbow tendinitis derailed things for him that season. After the injury, he left the Dodgers (and baseball in general) for the next couple of years.
He attempted a comeback in 2018 with the New Britain Bees of the Atlantic League. This led to the Giants taking a chance on the former Brave in 2019, but he spent the entire season in the minors. This was Beachy's last year in professional baseball, and it really drove home how unpredictable this game can be.