Nick Anderson was on the mound at Tropicana Field as he faced his former team and put the finishing touches on an impressive first half of the season.
Then he experienced something he could not have predicted.
“Literally the last pitch of my outing, I just felt the shoulder grab a little bit,” Anderson said Friday.
He had planned to go into the All-Star break healthy, then exit it ready to help the Braves push toward a sixth consecutive division title. He had experienced what he called normal arm soreness at different points over the first couple of months. But nothing like this.
“Nah, my shoulder has honestly felt pretty good,” Anderson said. “Kind of just a fluke thing. "
He tossed a scoreless inning in the series opener July 7 against the Rays – the outing when he felt the shoulder discomfort. He played catch Saturday and it went “OK.” He did the same Sunday, but it felt worse, and he underwent an MRI that day.
It revealed a right shoulder strain. More specifically, Anderson feels the discomfort/soreness/tightness on the backside of his shoulder, near his armpit. He wouldn’t call it “pain.”
“Not so much ‘pain,’” Anderson said. “To me, pain drops you to your knees.”
(At this point, I told Anderson that this was the most Nick Anderson quote of all time because he’s a tough dude. He laughed. Anyway, let’s continue with the story.)
Anderson is on the 60-day injured list. He won’t be eligible to return until Sept. 6. He won’t throw for at least a few weeks. At that point, the Braves could re-evaluate him with another MRI before he begins building up again.
On one hand, he wants to pitch. On the other, Anderson knows he can use the rest after pitching a lot in the first half of the season compared with his previous two years. He underwent an elbow procedure in 2021, and he’s worked to get back ever since.
“Anything that happens in my life, I always take the positives, given my path to getting to the big leagues,” Anderson said. “It obviously kind of sucked right away, I didn’t think it was quite going to be, like, a 60-day thing. But after the MRI, the 60-day was kind of like the best option to make sure that I get back, I don’t try to rush back or anything. I don’t really necessarily think about the workload. My shoulder had been feeling good. Elbow, obviously, would get a little tight here and there. But for the most part, everything’s been feeling good. I’ve been really happy with that.
“So in that sense, it kind of sucks. It’s like this (is) kind of out of nowhere, right? Last pitch of the outing. I wanted to end the first half strong and come back and help the team as much as I can, and have a good second half and playoffs. It was a little disappointing in that aspect, but stuff happens. It’s sports. Taking the most positive out of it, I guess it’s a little bit of a breather. Rehab it up and come back, and hopefully be back stronger than ever at the end, when it really matters.”
The Braves almost certainly will need Anderson in September – and especially in October. Their World Series aspirations are realistic. They have the pieces. They have chemistry. It’s a matter of putting it all together and playing their best when it matters most.
To this point, Anderson has tossed 35-1/3 innings – almost as many as his previous two seasons combined, between the minors and majors. The next couple of months could help Anderson be fresh when it counts.
So, can the Braves look at this injured-list placement as being good for Anderson because he’d had a heavy workload?
“Every reliever has a heavy workload in this game,” manager Brian Snitker said. “You’re going to be on the team, probably going to be a heavy workload.”
And did Anderson hope he would hit the 15-day injured list instead of the 60-day injured list?
“Yeah, but it’s just kind of one of those things, just making sure things don’t get worse,” he said. “Kind of like providing it adequate time to calm down. We kind of all (decided) 60 days was the best option, rather than trying to rush back quick and maybe making things worse, versus just giving it adequate time right away. Let it heal, let everything happen and kind of get done with. And then when I’m back, I’m back. Not (having) things lingering.”
But then again …
“I wish it would’ve been zero days,” Anderson said.
A.J. Minter is day-to-day
A.J. Minter, whose left pectoral muscle tightened up in his last outing before the break, is day-to-day, Snitker said.
“He felt good out there playing catch (Friday), but that didn’t translate into pitching, so we’re just going to be day to day with him,” Snitker said.
Will he avoid the injured list?
“That remains to be seen,” the manager said.
Other injury updates
- Max Fried’s second rehab start will come Saturday for High-A Rome. Triple-A Gwinnett, for whom Fried pitched last time out, is in Memphis, and clubs usually prefer to keep rehabbing major leaguers closer to home.
- Jesse Chavez was not using a cane when he walked into the clubhouse Friday afternoon. That is progress. “Jesse, he was playing catch, long toss,” Snitker said. “I don’t think he can still put full weight on it. But he is keeping his arm going.”
- Dylan Lee is long-tossing, as is Kyle Wright. It sounds like Wright will soon play catch off a mound.
