The Braves announced on Thursday that shortstop Orlando Arcia has a microfracture in his left wrist. They did not provide an immediate return timetable, only announcing that he will be placed on the injured list. That transaction, officially, won’t need to take place until Friday, as Atlanta is off on Thursday.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com relays that Vaughn Grissom is not in the lineup for Triple-A Gwinnett on Thursday evening, which could speculatively point to a potential recall. The club has also announced that Ian Anderson underwent Tommy John surgery, a development that had been reported on earlier this week.
Arcia was hit by a pitch on his left wrist by a 98 MPH fastball from Hunter Green during Wednesday's matchup against the Reds. Though Arcia initially stayed in the game to run the bases, he was later removed and replaced by Ehire Adrianza. While X-rays done later that night proved negative, subsequent MRI and CT scans revealed the microfracture.
This is the latest plot twist in the Atlanta shortstop battle, a storyline that has had many since the end of the previous season. Dansby Swanson had held that job since 2016 but reached free agency and signed with the Cubs over the offseason. It never seemed like Atlanta had much interest in meeting Swanson’s asking price to return, though, seeming to have confidence that Grissom could step up to replace him.
The youngster had shortstop experience in the minors but prospect evaluators questioned his long-term viability there and he mostly played second base during his major league debut last year. It was a risky move for a competitive club to leave a premier position open for a 22-year-old player with legitimate doubts about his immediate ability to find big league success, but Arcia was also around as the more-seasoned fallback option -- he finished last year with 642 games of big league experience and had been a full-time shortstop earlier in his career with the Brewers before transitioning into more of a utility role in recent campaigns.
Towards the end of spring, Grissom was optioned to the minors, with Arcia winning the Opening Day job. The latter was off to a strong start here in 2023, hitting .333/.400/.511 through 13 games. He wasn’t going to sustain that kind of pace all year -- he owns a career batting line of .245/.298/.372 -- but it’s still a frustrating development for him to be shut down when he was in a nice groove.
Though nothing is official yet, it seems like Grissom could now see a real chance to prove his mettle. There is not much doubt about his offensive prowess, as he hit .291/.353/.440 during his debut last year and has a .366/.458/.585 line through 10 Triple-A games this spring.
The bigger question will be with Grissom's glove, which will undoubtedly receive plenty of attention in the coming weeks. Depending how things play out between now and Arcia’s return to health, Atlanta will potentially have a difficult decision about how to proceed.
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