The Braves hope center fielder Ender Inciarte’s hamstring strain won’t require a stint on the 15-day disabled list, but if it does they might call up prospect Mallex Smith from Triple-A Gwinnett.
“I think that’s the easiest one because he’s on the (40-man) roster, he’s a center fielder, he’s a speed guy,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. “But we’ll check with our people and say, hey, is (Smith) ready? How close is he? If we bring him up for a short period of time is it going to hurt his progress, hinder it, or is he going to be OK with it?
“It’ll be a conversation we have with our player-development parties, our front office and our (coaches).”
Inciarte left Friday’s game after feeling tightness in his left hamstring while running to first on a ground ball. Initially diagnosed as merely tightness, the Braves’ next-day diagnosis was a mild strain. Gonzalez said Inciarte felt significantly improved when he reported for treatment at noon Saturday.
“I think we might have dodged a bullet,” Gonzalez said. “He felt a lot better today than he did yesterday. There is a strain there, Bubba (head athletic trainer Jeff Porter) said. It’s a small degree of (strain). He’s day to day, and hopefully we can keep him out of action for a day or two and keep him off the DL, if we can get him through the next couple of days.”
Inciarte missed a month in 2015 for a strained right hamstring with the Diamondbacks. Inciarte said Friday he didn’t feel any pop this time as he did a year ago, and he hoped it was just tightness and he could be back in the lineup soon.
Coincidentally, Gonzalez had said a few hours before Friday’s game that having Inciarte allowed the Braves to be patient with Smith and not rush him to the majors. Smith, a former Florida high school football star, hasn’t played as much baseball as most prospects or players his age (he turns 23 in May), and his considerable skills are still a bit unrefined.
Smith, a former Padres prospect, led all of minor league baseball with 88 stolen bases (in 114 attempts) in 2014 in Single-A. Last year in his first season in the Braves organization, he hit .303 with a .371 OBP, eight triples and 56 steals in a combined 125 games in Double-A and Triple-A.
He impressed at spring training, batting .346 (9-for-26) with seven extra-base hits (three triples) in 15 games before being sent to minor league camp. Smith was 6-for-15 in Gwinnett’s first three games this week, including a double and triple in the season opener Thursday and four hits and a stolen base in Saturday’s 11-5 win against Norfolk.
Gonzalez was asked before Saturday’s game if he’d be comfortable playing Smith.
“Yeah, I would,” he said. “He had a great game (in the Triple-A opener), then (Friday, 0-for-5) he didn’t; didn’t get a couple of bunts down. But that’s a young kid. … Someone asked me (Friday) about having Inciarte up here, and I said it buys (Smith) more time to get better. But that’s something we’ll talk about.”
Gonzalez said Smith’s name was part of the postgame discussion Friday between him and team officials.
“We said if we’ve got to DL this guy, would Mallex be the common-sense guy?” Gonzalez said. “You have to (discuss it) because you don’t know how (Inciarte) is going to wake up today. But we didn’t say yes or no, or ‘hold (Smith) out of a lineup,’ or any of that kind of stuff.”
Gonzalez reiterated that his hope is to avoid placing Inciarte on the DL. He’s already shown off Gold Glove-caliber defensive skills and gives the Braves a proven high-average hitter at the top of the lineup.
The Braves finish a five-game homestand Sunday before a seven-game trip to Washington and Miami that begins Monday at Nationals Park. The forecast is for chilly, rainy weather Monday and Tuesday.
“The weather can be a big factor (in the Inciarte decision),” Gonzalez said. “Looking at the forecast, not only cold but I think it’s going to be wet. But if we can buy a couple, two or three days. … That 15-day DL, that’s a tough thing to swallow. And if we can do that (rest Inciarte a few days, avoid the DL) and there’s some improvement, we will.”
