WEST PALM BEACH – As eager as he was to see Ender Inciarte back at the top of the Braves’ lineup, manager Brian Snitker agreed it made more sense to push back his return to Thursday.
Inciarte, who was away for the World Baseball Classic and hasn’t played a game for the Braves since March 4, was originally scheduled to make his return Tuesday against the Washington Nationals at the new Park of the Palm Beaches. But the decision was made Tuesday morning to have the center fielder stay back at Braves camp and work out with others who didn’t make the three-hour bus ride to West Palm Beach.
Inciarte and Braves bench coach Eddie Perez, who was on the Venezuela coaching staff, flew back from San Diego late Sunday night after Venezuela was eliminated in the WBC second round. Inciarte was 7-for-24 (.292) with three doubles and three RBIs in seven games for Venezuela.
“Just give (Inciarte) a day to kind of recuperate,” Snitker said. “I think the travel and everything. … I was going to take him today and he was like, ‘I’ll go and play, but I think I’d be better served just to kind of get himself back (to normal).’ He was exhausted when he came in today, just from the travel and everything. And flying back he was sitting (scrunched in a middle seat) next to some big guy. They couldn’t get them flights.
“They got in (late Sunday). I texted him yesterday and he was like, ‘I’ve been sleeping all day. Just wore out.’ Eddie said they didn’t have any days off, travel was terrible. … It’ll be good to let him get a good workout in today and let his body kind of get back, take tomorrow off and then be good to go.”
The Braves are off Wednesday, then play seven consecutive games before breaking camp March 29 and returning to Atlanta for a March 31 exhibition game against the Yankees to open SunTrust Park. They open the season at New York against the Mets on April 3.
Five of the final seven games in Florida are home games at ESPN Wide World of Sports, and another in nearby Lakeland against the Tigers, the only opponent that trains within an hour of the Braves now that the Nationals and Astros have moved south to a new shared spring-training facility in West Palm Beach.
