In the moments following the Braves failed comeback attempt to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers and even their record at the 40-game mark Sunday, manager Brian Snitker unknowingly uttered a simple remark that feels quite ominous in retrospect.
“It didn’t go his way and he didn’t help himself.”
Sure didn’t.
At the time, all Snit knew was that his hotshot starting pitching prospect who came out of the gates this season as the staff’s top performer had a rough afternoon, failing to command his pitches, and had a brief tantrum in the dugout afterward.
What he didn’t know while talking to reporters was that Ynoa — he of a sub-three ERA entering Sunday’s contest — had broken a bone in his pitching hand while throwing a haymaker against the stubborn dugout bench. The bench always wins.
The infamous punch will certainly feel like one to the gut for Snitker, who’s now dealing with major turbulence in his rotation for the second consecutive year. Last season the Braves manager was forced to send 16 different pitchers to the bump over the course of a 60-game season thanks to a bevy of injuries. This year, Ynoa will be the third Braves starter to hit the IL, following Max Fried and Drew Smyly.
Thankfully for the Braves, both Fried and Smyly are beginning to find their form once again. After a rotten start to the season before hitting the IL, Fried looks every bit the Cy Young contender he showed himself to be in an abbreviated 2020 season. (Though Fried left Monday’s game early with a cramp in his throwing hand, the team believes it won’t impact his ability to make his next start.) And Smyly, the team’s biggest underperformer through the first month of the season, has shaped up and pitched solidly in his last two outings. So there’s that silver lining.
But what the Braves will try to replace — and something no one can claim they saw coming in 2021 — is Ynoa’s consistency. Granted, it’s a small sample size, but Ynoa allowed one run or less in a majority (5) of his 8 starts, and allowed more than two runs just twice.
For now, Snitker will turn to the club’s in-house options to fill the void, and first up will be 24-year-old prospect Tucker Davidson. The Amarillo, Texas native came up for a cup of coffee last season when the Braves already had the division safely locked up. He was roughed up for seven runs in that outing at home against the Red Sox, though only two of them were earned. Still, he’s reached a somewhat mythical status in the Braves farm system thanks to his strong arm.
But over the months-long time span that Ynoa will miss as his fracture heals, more familiar faces in Bryse Wilson and Kyle Wright are also expected to get opportunities. After a dominant postseason performance last year, Wilson has stumbled a bit in 2021, but told reporters he’d rediscovered his “identity as a pitcher” prior to his six-inning performance on May 11.
And then, of course, there’s Kyle Wright. The 25-year old prospect has been one of the most highly-touted in the Braves system over the last few years — but he’s had as many opportunities as any Braves prospect to prove he belongs at the major league level and has yet to grasp that bull by the horns.
It’s a pivotal time of the season for the Braves — a time when a hot streak or a cold snap could make all the difference in the team’s playoff hopes. But with a sputtering offense and shaky bullpen, any success or failure will rely heavily on the starting staff.
