When Martin Prado saw the doctor in the Braves' parking lot waiting for him at 1 a.m., that's when the gravity of the situation began to sink in.
He had a staph infection in his right leg that was getting worse, and was told by a Miami doctor on June 9 that he needed to return to Atlanta and get it treated right away. He left the team and caught a flight home that night.
Dr. Gary Lourie, the Braves' orthopaedic specialist, performed a surgical procedure at 7 a.m. the next morning to remove infection from Prada's lower right leg and left knee. The infection had spread to a contusion on the knee.
“The doctor [in Miami] said this is something you don’t want to play around with,” Prado said. “They acted quickly. ... It was painful, but, I mean, it would have been worse if I hadn’t taken care of it."
Prado played last season with a broken finger and missed the postseason division series with a hip pointer and torn oblique muscle. But the staph infection has been a different kind of pain.
“I don’t know if it hurts more before [the surgery] or after,” he said. “Oh, man. It was brutal."
He is eligible to return from the 15-day disabled list on Thursday, but is not close to being ready. Incisions are left open to heal after surgery for staph-infection removal, and Prado won’t be cleared to begin physical activity using his legs until the wound is closed.
The Braves have not given any projected date for his return.
"It's better every day, but it's just wait-and-see," Braves general manager Frank Wren said. "You've just got to wait till that thing closes up and heals before he can take it to the next step."
Prado spent the first week after surgery confined to bed rest and for the first four days he received antibiotics intravenously.
“I had to lay down with my leg elevated for a week," he said.
Prado was cleared to come to Turner Field recently and he’s stopped by to see his teammates and have his incision cleaned the past several days.
Escobar's return to Atlanta
He was petulant and pouty at times, but the Braves would not have traded Yunel Escobar if the shortstop played in the first half last season like he has for Toronto this season.
Escobar is back in town with the Blue Jays, his first trip to Atlanta since being traded along with left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes to Toronto at the All-Star break last season for shortstop Alex Gonzalez, shortstop prospect Tyler Pastornicky and since traded lefty prospect Tim Collins.
Reyes will start Wednesday’s series finale for the Blue Jays.
Escobar hit .280 with a .357 on-base percentage, eight homers and 26 RBIs in 67 games before Monday, including .309 with six homers and a .395 OBP in his past 36 games. He signed a two-year, $10 million extension last week.
In his final 135 games for Atlanta, he hit .259 with three homers, 38 RBIs, a .358 OBP and .320 slugging percentage.
If he had performed better, the Braves might have lived with his attitude and on-field incidents that upset some teammates and coaches as much as they irked opponents.
“I’ve got a good relationship with him,” Prado said. “But probably other people didn’t think the same way I did. The thing for me is, he was quiet in the locker room. He’s not a guy who’s going to talk to you every day. But when the time came to play, he played hard every day."
Some have assumed that veteran Chipper Jones pushed for Escobar to be traded, but the third baseman actually was one of Escobar's most outspoken supporters for most of his career with the Braves.
“I think it probably worked out good for both sides,” Jones said. “I think maybe he might have needed a change of scenery, may have needed to go somewhere where there were some influential Latin players who could, you know, show him the way and how it’s done.
“It worked out good for him. But I never wanted Yunel to leave. ... You figured if if he maybe turned the corner maturity-wise, that he could be a perennial All-Star."
Chipper could play Tuesday
With his strained right adductor muscle feeling much better, Jones said he hoped to be back in the Braves lineup on Tuesday night.
“Today was the big day,” he said. “I woke up this morning, [and it was the] first day I’ve thought playing was not too far off.”
Beachy starts Wednesday
A day after saying he expected Brandon Beachy to start Wednesday in place of Tommy Hanson, who is on the disabled list, manager Fredi Gonzalez made it official Monday.
The rookie right-hander, who has been on the DL for five weeks with an oblique strain, will skip a planned second minor-league rehabilitation start and move back into the Braves’ rotation.
