WASHINGTON – A day after saying he intended to play Evan Gattis almost every day the rest of the season, manager Fredi Gonzalez saw his best-laid plans go astray when the power-hitting catcher was diagnosed with strep throat Monday.
“We’re calling it day-to-day, but it may be a little more than that,” Gonzalez said before Monday’s series opener against the Nationals. “I don’t know. It depends on how quickly we get his strength back. It’s the darndest thing. We talked yesterday about playing him as much as we can.”
Veteran backup Gerald Laird replaced Gattis in the lineup Monday, because Gonzalez liked how Laird worked in previous games with left-hander Mike Minor, the Braves’ starter for the series opener.
The manager said strong-armed rookie catcher Chrtistian Bethancourt would probably catch the last two games of the series, “and then, hopefully, we’ll see where we’re at with Gattis.”
Gattis hit a game-winning homer in the 10th inning Saturday against the Marlins, and before Sunday’s series finale at Miami the manager said he would try to ride Gattis the rest of the way with the Braves in the throes of a tight wild-card playoff race. That changed after Gattis began feeling ill Sunday night during or after the Braves’ flight from Miami.
Gonzalez said when the catcher woke Monday feeling worse, he contacted trainer Jeff Porter, who examined his throat and sent Gattis to see a Nationals doctor. He got in to see the doctor at around noon and was told he had strep. The Braves had Gattis stay back at his hotel room Monday rather than come to the ballpark and risk infecting others.
Gonzalez had been careful not to play Gattis more than a few games in a row most of the season, in an an effort to keep the 250-pound catcher healthy and fresh. He’s had two surgeries on his right knee, including an arththroscopic procedure in October to remove a dime-sized bone chip.
He missed three weeks in July with a bulging disc in his back, but has otherwise avoided injuries this season. And with the Braves’ offense struggling mightily, Gonzalez decided it was time to take off the kid gloves and try to play Gattis in almost every game for the remaining three weeks as they try to beat out the Brewers, Pirates and others for a wild-card spot.
Gattis has hit .270 with 22 homers and a .507 slugging percentage in 359 at-bats, second on the team in homers and slugging behind Justin Upton, who had 26 homers and a .511 slugging percentage in 497 at-bats before Monday. Gattis has hit .308 (12-for-39) with a homer and five RBIs in 10 games against the Nationals this season.
“I want to keep that bat in the lineup as much as we can going down the stretch,” Gonzalez had said Sunday. “If he comes in and says, hey, my legs are hurt and I’m tired, or whatever, then we’ll play it by ear…. (But) that’s a plan. It doesn’t necessarily always work that way, because the next thing you know he takes a foul tip off his head or something and he’s out.”
Less than 24 hours later, something was not a foul tip, it was a bad throat.
