Injury updates; personnel notes for the Atlanta Braves

One of the biggest storylines heading into this season was who would win the starting shortstop job vacated by Dansby Swanson's free agent departure for the Chicago Cubs: Vaughn Grissom or Braden Shewmake? 

Turns out the answer was neither - Dansby Swanson's backup Orlando Arcia won the job, signing a contract extension before Opening Day. 

Arcia not leaving the shortstop job any time soon; Arcia has "solidified himself at short", per Anthopoulos, and so the goal now is to find playing time for Grissom across multiple positions, in a utility role. The goal this season was to get him reps - being promoted last season straight to the majors to replace an injured Ozzie Albies in the lineup, Grissom had only 22 games of experience at AA and so he was essentially making a virtually unheard-of leap from High-A straight to the Majors. 

AA reiterated his belief that Grissom has the defensive skills to play on the dirt, but with the trio of third base, shortstop, and second base all spoken for by players on long-term contracts, they're going to look and see if he can be moved around to get meaningful playing time to add both his personality and his offensive potential to the clubhouse. 

It's possible we hear about Grissom spending some time working in the outfield this offseason; 34 year-old Kevin Pillar is a free agent and 32 year-old Eddie Rosario is at the end of his contract but Atlanta holds a $9M club option for the 2024 season.  

Kyle Wright will be unavailable for 2024 - the right-hander had shoulder surgery to replace a torn capsule on Friday in Arlington, TX and will miss the entire 2024 season.

Wright's injury presents some interesting rotation questions for 2024: Spencer Strider, Max Fried, and Bryce Elder are all expected back, but the back end of the rotation could have used 2022's MLB wins leader (Wright won 21 games that season). 

There's another big unknown for the rotation, however: 

The rotation's elder statesman, Morton turns 40 next month and there's questions about whether or not he'll come back for one more season or hang them up for good. Atlanta holds a $20M team option for Morton's services next season, and all indications are that the Braves are prepared to pick that up if Morton wants to return. 

“I know he was hurt at the end of this year, but you look at the body of work and all the starts he’s made here over the past few years,” Anthopoulos said. “Beyond that, he’s always been (an) incredible teammate.” 

The ball is solidly in the veteran's court - suffering a finger injury and missing the NLDS could make Morton want a re-do on how his career ends and he comes back, or it could be a signal from his body that he's ready to be done and move on to something other than baseball 

We'll have to wait on this one. 

Lee, one of Atlanta's lefty options out of the bullpen, suffered a shoulder injury that derailed his late-season return from the injured list and ultimately caused him to miss the postseason. 

Anthopoulos indicated that he had a "clean-up" procedure on that shoulder and should be full-go for spring training. 

Matzek, the 2021 postseason hero who missed last postseason for an elbow issue and ultimately had Tommy John surgery, is projected to be back and full-go for spring training.  

The former 1st round pick in 2009 by the Colorado Rockies returned to the majors in 2020 after a five-year absence and proved to be a crucial part of the Braves bullpen for the last three seasons. 

He was part of the vaunted "Night Shift" bullpen that carried Atlanta's pitching to a 2021 World Series championship, famously entering the 7th inning of game six with the bases loaded and no outs. Replacing Luke Jackson, Matzek struck out Albert Pujols, Steven Souza Jr, and Mookie Betts to strand all three runners and preserve Atlanta's lead. 

But elbow issues entering the postseason last year caused him to be left off the NLDS roster, and he ultimately had Tommy John surgery in mid October. Given the typical twelve to eighteen month recovery time, it was expected that Matzek would miss the 2023 season, but it's good to know the rehab has progressed in time for him to rejoin the team in spring.