Another man down: Braves put Schwellenbach on injured list

Early in that outing, Schwellenbach started feeling discomfort, he said.

“I’ve pitched through a lot,” Schwellenbach said. “I pitched through a torn UCL in college. It wasn’t that; I just thought it was tightness. I went as far as I could and then they took me out of the game. I was in the training room after and it felt really tight. Then I woke up the next day and it was like, ‘Woah, this is a little bit more than tightness.’

“I came in and we talked about it, decided to get some imaging (on Monday) and yeah.”

Schwellenbach will be shut down until the bone feels better. There is no timetable for that reason. He said he still hopes to pitch again later this season.

“I hope to; obviously, if I’m not healed, maybe not,” he said. He said his injury was described as a “freak accident” by experts, who were unsure how it developed.

Schwellenbach said he believes one possible reason could be his recent increase in velocity. “Maybe the elbow wasn’t ready for it; but who knows? It could’ve been anything,” he said. His fastball was averaging 97.1 mph, a full mph above last season. He’d hit triple digits recently.

While the lifeless offense has taken most of the blame for a disappointing season, the Braves’ rotation has been decimated by injuries. They’ve lost Reynaldo Lopez, AJ Smith-Shawver, Chris Sale — who won’t return until late August at the earliest — and now Schwellenbach, who had become an All-Star candidate (7-4, 3.09 ERA).

“Sale went down and as a staff, we knew we had to pick up some slack,” Schwellenbach said. “Now this happens and I feel horrible. I set a goal for myself to be healthy and throw a bunch of innings. It just really sucks.”

The team’s current rotation includes Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and the 20-year-old Didier Fuentes, whose 10.80 ERA over his first two starts shows he likely isn’t ready to regularly contribute.

The team has Hurston Waldrep, Jackson Stephens and Nathan Wiles among its internal options at Triple-A Gwinnett.

“We started the year with five and lost four starters,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just hard on any organization to cover that depth. It seems like every day it’s something else.”

Regarding the team’s internals options, Snitker added: “I keep asking (president of baseball operations) Alex (Anthopoulos), Double-A and up really. Hopefully somebody might - we’re pushing young guys all the time and it may end up where we have to do it again. We’ll just assess the situation day-to-day and see where we’re at.”

The trade deadline is July 31, but the Braves (38-46) are already so far back in the postseason race they can’t afford to wait to make upgrades.

They’re in fourth place in the National League East, 11½ games back. They’re seven games back of the third spot in the wild-card standings, with five teams between them and third place.

“We made a playoff run (last year) through all those injuries, I don’t see why we can’t do it again,” Schwellenbach said.

The Braves also reinstated reliever Daysbel Hernandez (forearm) from the injured list, which will help their bullpen. Snitker said Hernandez feels healthy. His velocity was hovering in the high 90s during a rehab stint in Triple-A.

Hernandez, 28, owns a 2.22 ERA in 25 games, striking out 21 in 24-1/3 innings. He gives the Braves another high-leverage option in the bullpen.