Braves place key reliever on 15-day injured list

The Braves announced that left-hander A.J. Minter has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation.  The placement is backdated to July 12, and right-hander Dereck Rodriguez was called up from Triple-A to take Minter’s spot on the active roster.

Minter left last Saturday’s game due to what was described by the team as left pectoral tightness, though the southpaw said he was feeling better just a day later.  It isn’t yet known if this shoulder problem was related to the pectoral tightness, or if this is a new injury altogether.  Regardless, the Braves will now be without one of their top bullpen arms for at least another 12 days.

The bottom-line numbers don’t really reflect Minter’s overall quality, as he has a 4.91 ERA over 40 1/3 innings this season.  Of his 22 earned runs allowed, 11 of them came over a disastrous stretch of 4 2/3 innings over five appearances in April.  Minter has a 3.04 ERA over 26 2/3 innings since that rough patch, and both his 2.88 SIERA and his largely above-average Statcast numbers indicate that he has been a lot more effective than his 4.91 ERA would suggest.

There isn’t yet any suggestion that Minter could miss a lot of time or that his shoulder problem is anything serious, though inflammation is something of a tricky injury to gauge.  Fellow Atlanta southpaw Dylan Lee has been out of action since mid-May with his own case of shoulder inflammation and has been throwing some bullpen sessions as he works his way back from the 60-day injured list.

The league-leading Braves don’t have many overt weaknesses, but Minter’s absence could give the club something to address heading into the trade deadline.  With Lee sidelined, Minter and Lucas Luetge were the only left-handers in Atlanta’s bullpen, so southpaw depth was perhaps a need for the Braves even before Minter’s injury.  Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is typically aggressive at the deadline, and left-handed relief figures to be high on his list of targets as he looks to put the final touches on what looks like a World Series contender.