LAKELAND, Fla. – In the final days of spring training, seeing reliever Jonny Venters staring at his sore left arm before being pulled from Tuesday's game against Detroit put a damper on things for the Braves.
Venters was diagnosed with a sprained elbow and will presumably open the season on the 15-day disabled list.
“We’ll reevaluate tomorrow, see what happens,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, who didn’t know anything more regarding the severity of the injury or how long Venters might be out.
Pitching in a major league game for the first time in 13 days, he faced five batters in the sixth inning and gave up a leadoff homer, a walk and a triple before throwing a wild pitch to the fifth batter, a ball that went to the backstop screen and let in the third run of the inning.
One pitch later, Venters signalled to the dugout, and Gonzalez came out and removed him from the game and sent him to the clubhouse with a trainer.
When asked last week why Venters hadn’t pitched since a four-walk inning against St. Louis on March 13, Gonzalez said there was nothing in particular wrong with him and the team had just decided to “back him off” and give him some rest. Venters also was asked last week and said there was nothing physically wrong.
After Tuesday’s game, Gonzalez was asked again, this time specifically if the elbow had bothered Venters this spring.
“Off and on,” he said. “Hasn’t been anything crazy. We’ve laid off of him a few times because of that, backed him off because it’s a long spring training. From the other day, that minor league game, all indications were that he was good.”
Venters pitched a perfect inning without incident in a minor league game over the weekend, as Gonzalez watched.
In six Grapefruit League games, the lefty has pitched 6-2/3 innings and allowed 13 hits (two homers), eight runs (six earned) and six walks with six strikeouts.
Venters had a stint on the DL last July for an inflamed elbow. At that time he revealed that the elbow had flared up a few times previously during the season.
He was also rested nearly two weeks in late March 2012 during spring training for a sore shoulder. He was told the subsequent elbow issue might have been caused by favoring the shoulder.
Venters has a whopping 230 appearances in three major league seasons, including a majors-leading 85 in 2011. As a minor leaguer seven years ago, he had “Tommy John” elbow surgery and missed the entire 2006 season.
One of the majors’ top relievers in his first two seasons, Venters had a career-worst 3.22 ERA in 66 appearances last season, although he pitched well after coming back from the DL.
After going 12-6 with a 1.80 ERA and .191 opponents’ average in his first 173 career appearances through April 30, 2012, Venters had a 6.08 ERA and .343 OA in 31 appearances from May 1 through July 4. After returning from the DL on July 22, he had a 1.71 ERA in his final 26 appearances.
His injury creates a second open spot in the Braves’ bullpen to begin the season. Cristhian Martinez and Anthony Varvaro are both out of minor-league options and obvious candidates to fill the spots, but Gonzalez said Wirfin Obispo was also a candidate.
Two days after being sent to minor-league camp, Obispo was brought back for Tuesday’s game and pitched one inning with one hit and two strikeouts. For the spring, he’s pitched five scoreless innings with two hits, no walks and eight strikeouts.
“Put him back in the mix,” Gonzalez said. “We made a little switch two days ago to bring him back up here; we wanted to see him in some (more) games. We didn’t plan it this way, but here we go. He got in the game that Jonny got hurt. We’ll see how that develops.
“It’s an opportunity for somebody else.”
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