López to begin rehab assignment Sunday
Braves pitcher Reynaldo López will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett on Sunday, the Gwinnett Stripers announced Friday.
López has been on the 15-day injured list since July 30 with left knee inflammation. In 24 games, both as a reliever and a starter, with the Braves this season, the 32-year-old is 4-3 with a 3.64 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and .245 batting average against.
In his six starts since returning to the rotation June 26, López was 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA. He threw 5⅔ scoreless innings July 26 against the Orioles, but the outing before that (July 21) was touched up for five earned runs on nine hits in 4⅓ innings against the Padres.
From April 29 through June 21, López was part of the Braves’ bullpen.
“We look at (López) as a starter first, but like I said, it’ll be a numbers game as we get into September here with some guys in the picture,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “So that stuff, sometimes it sorts itself out, sometimes we gotta make some decisions. But (López will) get ready with the belief in mind that he’s gonna be a starter.”
The Braves are currently using a six-man rotation with Chris Sale, Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes, AJ Smith-Shawver, Tyler Mahle and Martín Pérez.