Braves get good news on Reynaldo Lopez, MRI positive

An MRI of Lopez’s right forearm came back positive, manager Brian Snitker said. Unless his forearm continues to bother him, the Braves don’t appear ready to shut Lopez down for any length of time, Snitker said before Monday’s series opener against the Brewers at American Family Field.

“He’s taking a day-to-day lifestyle,” Snitker said. “We’ll see how he does with the treatment. But there’s nothing serious, so that’s always a good thing.”

While his teammates finished off the win Sunday in New York, López returned to Atlanta to have his MRI. On Monday, he received treatment and told the Braves he felt better than he did Sunday, which is encouraging. The Braves will monitor how he feels Tuesday and beyond.

The Braves haven’t placed Lopez on injured reserve yet. They may not even do that.

“We’ll know more later on how he progresses through the first part of the week and then we’ll see when he starts throwing again, but I don’t think there’s any plans — unless it continues to bother him or something — to shut him down for an extended period of time,” Snitker said.

Lopez’s positive MRI result likely has implications for Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos and his strategy for Tuesday’s trade deadline. If the Braves knew they would be without Lopez for much of the second half of the season, Anthopoulos probably should have made a little more effort to find a starting pitcher — though the Braves have internal options in A.J. Smith-Shawver, Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder. (For that matter, Elder seems likely to start Tuesday’s game in Milwaukee. He’s with the team here, and the Braves don’t have a starting pitcher for Tuesday.)

If Lopez returns soon, Anthopoulos can focus on acquiring an outfield hitter. That doesn’t mean he won’t trade for a starter, it just means rival clubs won’t have the benefit of knowing they’ll be without a key starter for much of the rest of the regular season.

The Braves will continue to keep their fingers crossed, but Lopez appears to have avoided a worst-case scenario. Snitker couldn’t say whether Lopez could follow his routine between starts right now or start next weekend, but the manager didn’t sound like he’s preparing for life without another starter.

The Braves lost Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. for the season. They are without Michael Harris II, Max Fried and Ozzie Albies. They have been dealing with other injuries.

And on Sunday, it looked like they might lose Lopez for a long time.

“You always worry when you’re dealing with a guy who has a forearm problem and stuff like that,” Snitker said. “It’s nice to have the pictures, and it was nice to see them come back with nothing out of the ordinary. We’ll take it day by day.”

López has pitched 104 2/3 innings this season, a significant increase from the 66 he logged last season. He hadn’t topped 100 innings since 2019, when he pitched 184 as a full-time starter. The Braves have given López plenty of rest this season (he’s started just twice on regular rest), but his workload has still increased in his return to the starting role.

Snitker was relieved to hear the news about Lopez.

“The doctors are looking at them and everything seems to be going really well, but until we get the images, we don’t know what they’re going to find,” he said. “So that was a good thing. It was very encouraging.”

On Sunday, Lopez left the field after three scoreless innings with a tight right forearm. Baseball people are familiar with that ominous phrase and what it can mean.

So the news – the positive MRI result – came as a pleasant surprise.

“No, it’s true,” Snitker said. “That tension can be anything, really. So it was a good thing he had that.”