The Braves will be without Martín Pérez through the All-Star break, and possibly some time after it, after the left-handed started pitcher was hit with a line drive in the arm Sunday at Truist Park.
Pérez is likely headed to the injured list, manager Walt Weiss said after Sunday’s game.
“He’s not gonna be able to make his next start,” Weiss said. “I don’t think anything’s broken, but it’s still an IL. It’s likely.”
Pérez has had a fine season for the Braves, going 6-6 with a 3.54 ERA over 81 1/3 innings. He has by no means been the staff ace, but has provided serious stability for a rotation that began spring training with two serious injuries to Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep and then lost starter Spencer Strider to injury in May.
Also making appearances out of the bullpen, Pérez has nine outings of allowing one run or less and 12 outings allowing two runs or less.
“Just having a veteran leader like that is — you can’t put like a number to it, but it helps so much,“ Weiss said. ”He’s been around, he’s seen, basically everything. He helps a lot of the young pitchers just kind of get their footing in the big leagues and excel.
“Whenever he goes out and pitches and makes his starts — I know at the beginning he was kind of bullpen length, and then he would bounce around with some starts. That’s huge, when you can fill a start like that and go out and pitch and compete like he does. He’s been a huge part to our success so far.”
Pérez’s absence, in the short term, shouldn’t cause too many concerning ripples within the Braves’ pitching staff.
The Braves (52-36) have seven games remaining until the All-Star break and Pérez was one of six starting pitchers on the roster along with Chris Sale, Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes, Reynaldo López and Hurston Waldrep. The absence of Pérez will actually allow the Braves to carry another reliever.
“It’s been different, it’s been unique because it’s been a seven-man pen. And we’ve been doing that for a little while now,” Weiss said. “You can’t continue to do that. And we won’t.
“This probably allows us to get back to that eight-man pen with (Pérez’s) spot. That’s why it’s been a little different here lately just because of the six starters. You can pop in six starters here and there, but it’s hard to go on a run with six starters because you’re just short every night in the pen.”
The Braves are scheduled to finish a four-game series with the Mets on Monday before ending the first half with a trip to Pittsburgh for three games and then St. Louis for three more.
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