The Braves placed veteran reliever Jason Motte on the 10-day disabled list Friday with a back strain and recalled rookie right-hander Jason Hursh from Triple-A Gwinnett for the fourth time this season.
Motte strained his back while throwing in the bullpen warming up for a late-innings appearance Sunday in the last game before the All-Star break. He was scratched from that appearance and he and the Braves hoped that a few days of rest and anti-inflammatory medication during the break would allow Motte to avoid going on the DL.
But when the team gathered at SunTrust Park for a workout Thursday, Motte still felt soreness and the decision was made to place him on the DL.
With Arodys Vizcaino on the DL since July 5 with a strained right index finger, the Braves were without two of their primary relievers Friday for the first game back from the All-Star break, a series opener against the Diamondbacks at SunTrust Park.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Vizcaino was to test his finger with a bullpen Friday afternoon and indicated he could be back soon if that went well. Vizcaino was the Braves’ top setup man before the injury. Motte isn’t expected to miss much time either.
Motte had expected his back to feel better after resting during the break, but could tell it wasn’t healed yet.
“It felt better over the break, the three days of kind of relaxing helped it,” Motte said. “I came out here (Thursday) and tried to throw a little bit, just to see. If I couldn’t play catch and get after it, it’d be pretty hard to get after it in a game. So I came out here and played catch, tried to get after it a little bit, and I kind of still felt it.
“So it was like, you know what, let’s calm it down, not try to re-aggravate as bad as before. So we just kind of took a step back. I planned on throwing a bullpen (Thursday) and kind of testing it out, but couldn’t really even get to that point without feeling it a little bit. Didn’t want to overdo and go back to square one.”
The DL assignment was retroactive to July 6, the day after Motte last pitched in a game. That would make him eligible to return as soon as Sunday.
“He tried to test it (Thursday), said he felt good coming into today,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said before Friday’s series opener against the Diamondbacks at SunTrust Park. “But (doing things) around the house and just normal stuff is not really (telling) until you try to torque a ball, and when he did it wasn’t going to work. We can backdate something like that and use those (days) over the All-Star break…. We’ll take it a day at a time to be sure, don’t want to lose him for any extended period if we don’t have to….
“I would think by the time he’s ready to come back, we’ll be through the 10 days and he’ll be ready to come back.”
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