Braves make a flurry of roster moves on Opening Day

Braves roster moves

The Braves take on the Nationals in less than an hour, but the front office has been busy since this morning. Alex Anthopoulos inked a three-year deal with Orlando Arcia, keeping him here through at least 2025, and he also swung a trade with the Royals for left-handed reliever Richard Lovejoy.

On top of that, the Braves also made several internal roster moves. A few 40-man roster spots had to be opened up to add Ehire Adrianza, Jesse Chavez, Jared Shuster, and Kevin Pillar to the Opening Day roster. To do that, the Braves placed Tyler Matzek, Huascar Ynoa, and Kolby Allard on the 60-day IL.

Huascar Ynoa and Tyler Matzek were always expected to hit the 60-day IL. Ynoa is still recovering from Tommy John surgery, and Matzek will miss the entire season with the same injury. Allard, on the other hand, came as a bit of a surprise.

After looking pretty good in his first couple of games of Spring, the Braves announced Allard would begin the season on the IL with an oblique strain. That was a tough blow for the lefty, but I wasn’t sure how much time he would miss. Now, we know it will be several months.

Oblique injuries are typically very difficult to recover from. They take a lot of time to heal, and the Braves don’t have any reason to rush Allard back. They have plenty of starting pitching depth; however, this is a disappointing start to 2023 for a guy who was looking to prove himself at the major-league level after be acquired from the Rangers this offseason. Hopefully, the former first-round pick makes a full recovery and can pick up where he left off in Spring Training.

Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire

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