After finishing within a game of reaching the World Series last season, the Atlanta Braves have had a frustrating start to the 2021 season.
Things got a lot more frustrating Sunday.
Huascar Ynoa, who has arguably been the team's best starting pitcher in 2021, broke his right hand when he punched the dugout following his worst performance of the season Sunday. Ynoa allowed nine hits and five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 10-9 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers yesterday. Now, because of a self-inflicted injury, Ynoa will miss "at least a couple months," Braves manager Brian Snitker told the collective media, including Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
Even with yesterday's start factored in, Ynoa had a team-low 3.02 ERA, along with a 3.74 FIP and 0.7 fWAR. Offseason pickups Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly have both struggled to this point, and the Braves learned last week that former All-Star Mike Soroka will require exploratory surgery after suffering a setback in his return from a torn achilles. Additionally, Max Fried has a 6.55 ERA a year after a top-five finish in National League Cy Young Award voting. It's about as inopportune a time to lose Ynoa, a 22-year-old who had been an All-Star candidate.
The Braves, who have won three consecutive National League East titles, are off to a lackluster 19-21 start. While they are currently behind both the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in their own division, it doesn't appear that it will take 100 wins (or anywhere near that) to win an underperforming National League East. Still, it's not a good sign that the Braves starting rotation is being crushed by injuries for the second straight year.
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