SAN FRANCISCO – Ozzie Albies, who has a locker in the visiting clubhouse at Oracle Park, came on this road trip with his teammates. This seems to be an encouraging sign, even if he doesn’t play in the first of the three cities.
Is it within the realm of possibility for Albies to return this weekend?
“No, I don’t think so,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said before Friday’s series opener versus the Giants.
Albies, who is working back from a strained left hamstring, worked out again on Friday.
“Hopefully we have him back somewhere along this trip,” Snitker said. “They’re kind of intensifying his workouts and everything’s coming good.”
On Monday, Snitker said Albies hadn’t yet progressed enough to know for certain whether he would need to play in a rehab game before coming off the injured list. But he did guess Albies probably wouldn’t need one.
On Friday, Snitker said this: “I don’t think he will. I think he’ll be fine.”
All goes well for Wright
In most cases, teams don’t care about big-league hitters’ results on their rehab assignments.
“I think the pitching thing is a little different and you’d kind of like to see the results,” Snitker said.
Kyle Wright certainly turned in something encouraging when he allowed only a hit over three innings for High-A Rome on Thursday. He threw 26 pitches, and 23 were strikes.
He was sharp.
“He looked really good,” Snitker said. “He said he felt great. It went about as good as I think you can hope.”
Snitker said Wright will now move to his second rehab start. If he stays on a five-day rotation, he would pitch on Tuesday.
The Braves still haven’t officially determined where he’ll pitch.
They seem to prefer sending guys on rehab assignments to Georgia affiliates playing at home. But next week, Triple-A Gwinnett is in Memphis and High-A Rome is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Low-A Augusta, however, will be at home.
Thursday was a nice first step for Wright.
“His stuff looked good,” Snitker said. “I think his arm is working good. I know they’ve been doing a lot of work with his delivery and things like that, and I think he felt really good about everything, so that’s great.”
Lee’s next step
Dylan Lee, a reliever on a rehab assignment, has not pitched since Sunday, when he allowed two runs over an inning.
Snitker said Lee on Saturday will throw live batting practice – a simulated session in which he can face hitters in a controlled environment.
Snitker said this was planned, and that Lee didn’t suffer a setback as he works back from a left shoulder injury the Braves termed as “left shoulder inflammation.”
“That’s just part of the plan, I guess, of what they had scheduled for him,” Snitker said.
The Braves wanted to build up Lee to pitch multiple innings. In total, he’s hurled 6 1/3 frames on his rehab assignment, which started on Aug. 5. Pitchers can be on a rehab assignment for a maximum of 30 days.
