CHICAGO — Evan Gattis had no problems taking his first swings since a back injury, so the rehabbing Braves catcher went ahead and took some batting practice on the field before Single-A Rome's game Friday.
Gattis hasn’t officially begun a rehab assignment, but that could come as soon as Tuesday for Rome. On the 15-day DL since June 28 for a bulging disk in his upper back, Gattis hit .290 with a .900 OPS and still led major league catchers with 16 home runs before Saturday.
He had a checkup Thursday and was cleared to begin taking some swings. Gattis planned to test it Friday by first hitting some balls off a tee and others flipped to him by a coach, and if that felt good he had the option of taking batting practice on the field.
“He’ll do the same (workout) today, and then just keep ramping him up that way,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday morning. “(Rome) doesn’t play Monday; they play Tuesday. But we haven’t talked about any of that (rehab assignment) stuff yet.”
“Maybe he comes in today and it’s gotten a little sore and (he says) I don’t want to do all that stuff. But I think it was encouraging what he was able to do (Friday).”
