The Braves placed center fielder Ender Inciarte on the 10-day injured list Wednesday to make room on the active roster for Austin Riley's arrival.
Inciarte, hitting .218 this season, left Tuesday night’s game with a lower back strain.
Also Wednesday, the Braves designated relief pitcher Jesse Biddle for assignment and replaced him on the roster with Touki Toussaint, who was promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett and will work out of the bullpen for now.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Inciarte had been battling a sore back for a while.
“He had been getting treatments. It wasn’t anything just sudden,” Snitker said.
After the 10-day stint on the injured list, Inciarte will be day-to-day, Snitker said. The Braves described the injury as a lumbar strain.
Riley, who had hit 13 home runs in his past 18 games for Gwinnett, made his big-league debut Wednesday. He was in the starting lineup in left field, batting sixth.
The Braves designated Biddle for assignment one day after he allowed four hits and three runs in one-third of an inning in Tuesday’s 14-3 loss to the Cardinals. For the season, Biddle has allowed 18 hits, 10 walks and 11 runs (seven earned) in 11-2/3 innings.
Snitker said replacing Biddle with Toussaint gives the Braves “some length in the bullpen” -- a pitcher who can work long relief if needed.
“He had a good year for us last year,” Snitker said of Biddle, “but again last year is last year, and he has had some struggles. And it’s just hard to cover that up and get it going again. When a guy doesn’t have (minor league) options, that (DFA) is what happens.”
