Second baseman underwent surgery after dislocating his left shoulder with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Meanwhile, the team announced last week that third baseman Brett Harris underwent surgery to repair the UCL in his left thumb (link via Jason Burke of Sports Illustrated). The injuries cloud what were already the two weakest positions in the lineup heading into the winter.
"I think what I would say is that we need to figure out ways to improve the team and that could take a number of shapes," Breslow said. "Every team gets better if you can bring in a starter or develop a starting pitcher that could pitch at Garrett Crochet's level, right? "There's no running from that and we'll be as aggressive as we can in chasing that down while also ensuring that we're doing everything we can to develop our players internally."
"It sucks to say right now that we're looking forward. But ultimately, that's our reality," said Garett Crochet. "Right now, it's kind of that, 'So what? Next pitch' mentality. Next pitch for us is in five months."
The Braves will hit this offseason at a reasonably-sized crossroads. I think that's pretty clear, clear enough that I will almost certainly have a post early in the offseason where the title is some variation of, "The Braves are now at a crossroads." There is the potential to say a lot about where the Braves go from here, what they do next, and how they enter their next franchise phase