Braves left-hander Tyler Matzek, who was left off the NLDS roster due to elbow discomfort, had Tommy John surgery, manager Brian Snitker announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jeff Schultz of The Athletic). Given the timing of the surgery, Matzek will likely miss the entire 2023 season as well.
There’s never really a good time for a baseball player to undergo go Tommy John and then have to spend 12-18 months recovering, but the timing here is especially unfortunate for both Matzek and the team. After winning a fifth-straight NL East crown, the club just began its postseason run, leaving Matzek off the roster. Now that the prognosis is known, Matzek can be ruled out of the entire playoff run and then some.
2022 was his third season with Atlanta after a lengthy absence due to “the yips.” He pitched for the Rockies in 2014 and 2015 but then dealt with control problems so bad that he was relegated to the minors for chunks of the 2016-2019 period, including missing the 2017 season entirely and pitching in indy ball in 2018. He eventually made his way back to the majors and established himself as a useful piece of the Atlanta bullpen. From 2020 to the present, he’s thrown 135 2/3 innings with a 2.92 ERA, 38.2% ground ball rate and 27.4% strikeout rate, despite a high 13.4% walk rate.
In addition to that strong work in the regular season, Matzek has shown a knack for taking things up a notch in the playoffs. In 2020, he threw 8 2/3 innings with a 1.04 ERA and followed that up with a 1.72 mark in 15 2/3 frames last year, playing a big role in helping Atlanta grab its first World Series title since 1995. Unfortunately, he won’t get a chance to build on his track record of postseason heroics here in 2022. Without Matzek, the club will charge ahead in their attempt to repeat as champions with A.J. Minter and Dylan Lee as their only lefty relievers.
Looking ahead to next year, Matzek, who turns 32 next week, is eligible for arbitration again after earning $1.4M here in 2022. He will be due a raise for 2023, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting his salary to come in around $1.8M. The team could consider not tendering Matzek a contract since he likely won’t be able to contribute at all in 2023. However, if the Braves did tender him a contract, they would still be able to control him for 2024. Since Matzek will likely miss the entire season, he wouldn’t be able to push his 2024 salary much beyond his 2023 number, if at all. Players who are free agents but about to embark on a significant absence will often sign two-year deals with the signing club aware they won’t see a return on their investments until the second half of the deal, and Matzek’s final two arb years could effectively function in that way if the Atlanta front office considers him worth the gamble.
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