Atlanta’s Wright expected to miss all of 2024 season
ATLANTA — Atlanta Braves pitcher Kyle Wright missed nearly the entire season with shoulder trouble.
Now it looks like the 28-yearold right-hander will be out for all of 2024.
Left off the roster Saturday for the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Braves manager Brian Snitker revealed hours before the opener to the best-of-five matchup that Wright had a setback in his recovery.
Wright underwent an MRI on Friday and will likely need surgery that would cost him another full season, Snitker said, adding: “I hate it for him. There was something going on, and they found it yesterday.”
The news cast a pall over the Braves’ sixth straight playoff appearance after a 104-58 regular season for the best record in Major League Baseball this year.
“I rehabbed a lot with Kyle throughout this year,” said Atlanta left-hander Max Fried, who is set to start Monday in Game 2 of the NLDS after his own injury woes this season. “We spent a lot of time together. He worked extremely hard to try to come back and battle, and I know he wanted to be a part of this run and into this playoffs, and that’s what he set his goals out to be.”
After leading the majors with 21 wins in 2022, Wright underwent a cortisone injection in January to deal with lingering shoulder pain, forcing him to start this season on the injured list. He made his debut on April 11 but got through only five starts — going 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA — before returning to the IL.
Wright was out for more than four months before he finally returned to the Braves on Sept. 11, but he never looked like the pitcher who had that breakout season, giving up 10 earned runs, 11 hits, six walks and three homers over seven innings in two regular-season starts against the Phillies.
Snitker moved him to the bullpen for the final week of the regular season, hoping he would be more effective as a long reliever. Wright did produce better numbers (two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings), but he struggled to bounce back after each outing, prompting the Braves to finally send him for another evaluation.
“Kyle is not right,” Snitker said. “He’s going to have to have a procedure done in order to get him right. And we are going to confer with the doctors and decide exactly what it is. But you could tell he wasn’t right in the last three or four outings in the regular season, and it just wasn’t going to be.”
Snitker wasn’t specific about Wright’s injury, but it will clearly require major surgery.
“It’s something that looking at it; he’s going to miss next year,” the manager said.
After being told he wasn’t going to be on the NLDS roster, Wright pushed to get a more long-term solution to his shoulder problems.