LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – His second major league spring training started with Ozzie Albies rehabbing an elbow injury and ended Tuesday night with a freshly bruised knee and a long bus ride back to big-league camp, wherein he learned he’d been reassigned to the minors.
That said, the overall spring experience was resoundingly positive for the Braves and their plucky second-base prospect, who moved on quickly, mentally and physically, from last year’s elbow injury to resume his career ascension. He went 6-for-16 (.375) with a double, three walks, no strikeouts and a .500 on-base percentage in 11 Grapefruit League games.
“Ozzie is a very special talent and person,” Braves general manager John Coppolella said of the Curacao native, ranked as the sport’s No. 11 prospect by Baseball America. “We are excited for him to finish off his development at Triple-A. We expect him to be here soon and for a very long time.”
Albies, 20, was reassigned to minor league camp a few hours after leaving Tuesday’s Grapefruit League road game against the Nationals in the seventh inning, after fouling a ball off his right knee and crumpling to the ground at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.
The injury was diagnosed as a bruise, and Braves manager Brian Snitker said Albies would probably be ready to play by Thursday.
With the Braves off Wednesday and down to their final week of spring training games in Florida, Albies was sent to minor league camp to begin playing full-time for Triple-A Gwinnett while the major league team begins to use its regular lineup on a more frequent basis in preparation for opening day.
Late last season when Albies was tearing up Double-A pitching for playoff-bound Mississippi — he hit .321 with a .391 OBP and .858 OPS in Double-A — the Braves discussed having him compete for the opening-day second-base job this spring. They thought he might be ready to join his friend and former Mississippi teammate Dansby Swanson to form a double-play combination the Braves expect to become entrenched once it’s in place.
But after Albies broke the olecranon bone at the tip of his right elbow taking a swing in a Double-A playoff game, the Braves decided to have another second-base plan in place for at least the early season, since Albies needed surgery that would keep him from a planned assignment in the Arizona Fall League and curtail much of his offseason work.
They signed versatile veteran Sean Rodriguez and penciled him in for second base to start the season, but that plan had to be scrapped when Rodriguez badly injured his left shoulder in a late-January automobile accident after the SUV he was driving with his family was T-boned by a stolen police car.
The Braves then scrambled to revisit trade talks with Cincinnati for veteran second baseman Brandon Phillips, an Atlanta native, former All-Star and former Gold Glove defender who was acquired the week before spring training.
Phillips, 35, will be the starting second baseman to begin the season. But with the Braves paying only $1 million of his $15 million salary (the Reds agreed to pick up the rest), it’s not difficult to see a scenario where Albies arrives during the 2017 season. And rest assured, he won’t be brought up to be a backup.
