Braves’ Joey Wentz out for season with injury

NORTH PORT, Fla. — The Braves have lost a third pitcher to injury this spring.

Joey Wentz, injured during a collision with a base runner during Sunday’s game against the Rays in Port Charlotte, Florida, has a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee and will miss the 2026 season.

“Feel terrible for the kid,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said Monday at CoolToday Park. “Pitched well for us last year. Really turning some corners in his career last year, and throwing the ball good this spring.

“I didn’t think anybody expected — even Joey, I don’t think he was expecting that news from the MRI. I don’t think it felt like it was torn. But it was. Terrible for the kid.”

Wentz was appearing in his third Grapefruit League game Sunday. He had allowed two earned runs on three hits, walked four, hit a batter and recorded six strikeouts over 84 pitches this spring.

Wentz entered the bottom of the fifth of Sunday’s game and allowed a lead-off double before getting a fly out and a line out. Rays’ shortstop Taylor Walls then dropped a bunt up the first base line, and as Wentz raced to cover the bag at first, he and Walls collided.

The injury wasn’t thought to be serious in the immediate aftermath. Wentz, however, had an MRI on Monday morning that revealed the severity of the injury.

“He’s just out there competing. People might say, ‘Why try to make a play in a spring training game?’ It’s just what we do. The ball’s hit and we compete with our eyes. We do what we always do and that’s what Joey was doing. Just trying to make a play in a game, just competing. Unfortunately, this happened.”

Wentz, 28, joined the Braves in July after being released by the Twins. The Kansan was originally a first-round pick by the Braves in 2016.

He was expected to factor into the Braves’ pitching plans coming out of spring training. The Braves have already lost starters Spencer Schwellenbach (expected to be in the starting rotation) and Hurston Waldrep (a prospect) to elbow injuries are currently only have four members of the rotation set in stone.

Wentz, who made 13 starts for the Braves in 2025, including three outings of at least six innings, was competing with Bryce Elder to be the team’s fifth starter. There was a possibility the Braves carried Wentz at the season’s outset because the team has 13 games in 13 straight days.

Other options for the Braves to consider as starting pitchers are JR Ritchie, a prospect scheduled to start against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, on Tuesday, or veterans Martín Pérez and Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco gave up four runs — and two home runs — in Tuesday’s start against the Twins, while Perez has allowed one run over five innings this spring.