SEATTLE – Huascar Ynoa’s journey back to a major-league mound recently hit a bump.
Ynoa, who is in Triple A, is dealing with right elbow inflammation. The Gwinnett Stripers placed the right-hander on the seven-day injured list on April 23, so he was eligible to be activated on Tuesday, but the Braves don’t provide timelines on injuries.
Before the Stripers were postponed on Tuesday due to inclement weather and wet field conditions, AJ Smith-Shawver was slated to start that game. Now, Gwinnett will play a Wednesday doubleheader, with Smith-Shawver starting the first game and Ray Kerr making a spot start for the second contest.
Dylan Dodd will start on Thursday. Darius Vines will pitch on Friday. Allan Winans will go on Saturday.
Ynoa – who this season is returning from Tommy John surgery – hasn’t pitched since April 14. That was the third of his three starts thus far.
In those outings, he allowed seven earned runs on 11 hits over 9 2/3 innings. He struck out seven batters and walked two. He hurled four scoreless innings in his season debut and tossed four innings of one-run baseball in his last outing. Six of the seven runs came in a start that lasted only 1 2/3 frames.
In his April 14 start, Ynoa averaged 92 mph with his four-seam fastball. He topped out at 94 mph, and hit that only once. In that appearance, his fastball actually was up from his April 9 start, when he averaged 91 mph and maxed out at 92 mph. (For context: Prior to being optioned in 2022, Ynoa averaged 96 mph with his fastball.)
Many Braves fans have been rooting for Ynoa’s return to the big leagues. By now, you might know the story: In 2021, he had a 3.02 ERA over his first nine games (eight of them starts). But he broke his hand when he punched the dugout bench after exiting the ninth of those nine games, and he hasn’t been the same since then.
In September 2022, Ynoa underwent Tommy John surgery. He missed the entire 2023 season, and returned to the mound in big-league camp this spring.
In camp, Ynoa told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, through interpreter Franco García, that he felt like “something was off in my elbow.” He pitched through it, but he knew something was wrong.
To begin that 2022 campaign, Ynoa surrendered 11 runs – 10 earned – across 6 2/3 frames in two starts. The Braves then optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett. He pitched for the Stripers until August, when he made his final appearance. In September, the Braves announced he had Tommy John surgery.
This spring, Ynoa felt some soreness while throwing bullpen sessions. The Braves backed off of him a bit, which put him behind others competing for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.
Ynoa pitched in one big-league spring game: On March 14, he tossed a scoreless inning versus the Pirates in North Port. Earlier in camp, it became clear that he might not be stretched out enough to truly compete for the fifth starter job – which went to Reynaldo López, who has exceeded expectations for Atlanta.
“It was a (feeling of) tranquility and extreme relief to come out of it (healthy), because I haven’t pitched healthy since the end of ‘21,” Ynoa told The AJC after that outing.
