Braves Place Reynaldo López On IL Due To Shoulder Inflammation

The Braves announced that right-hander Reynaldo López was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to March 29, due to right shoulder inflammation. Fellow righty Bryce Elder has been recalled as the corresponding move. Per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Elder will take Wednesday’s start in place of López.

There hasn’t yet been any word from the team on exactly how serious they expect this to be, but it’s concerning on a few fronts. First of all, López also spent time on the IL last year due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Atlanta signed López ahead of 2024 and moved him back to the rotation after many years working in relief. On a rate basis, the results couldn’t have gone much better, as he had a 1.99 earned run average on the year.

But he went on the IL a couple of times, once due to a forearm issue and then a second time due to shoulder inflammation. His tally of 135 2/3 innings was his largest in years but still shy of a full starter’s workload. Now after just one start in the 2025 season, he’s back on the IL with more shoulder trouble.

There was an argument for Atlanta adding to their rotation this winter but they opted not to, perhaps due to financial constraints. Regardless of the reasoning, they opened the season with a strong front three of Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach and López. Spencer Strider would eventually rejoin them but was slated for a season-opening IL stint as he’s still recovering from last year’s UCL surgery.

Two spots were available behind the Sale/López/Schwellenbach trio. Grant Holmes and Ian Anderson seemed like the top candidates for those jobs but AJ Smith-Shawver surged by Anderson during the spring, with Anderson flipped to the Angels last week. With López now out of the picture, they are down to Sale and Schwellenbach at the front, with Smith-Shawver, Holmes and Elder filling in behind them.

Perhaps it won’t be a long-term issue. Strider has been building up on a rehab assignment and could be back in the majors shortly. It’s also possible that this injury is fairly minor for López and he’ll be back soon as well.

Regardless, it’s another gut punch for the Atlanta fans, who are already having about the worst opening week possible. The club got swept by the Padres and are currently in the basement of the NL East with a record of 0-4. As if that weren’t enough, it was revealed today that top offseason acquisition Jurickson Profar has received an 80-game PED suspension. That will put him out of commission for a while and make him ineligible to appear in this year’s playoffs, if Atlanta qualifies.

Elder comes up to take López’s rotation spot for the time being, though he may only take the ball once or twice before Strider is activated. Elder turned in a 3.81 ERA over 31 starts a couple seasons ago. His production nosedived last year, as he allowed 6.52 earned runs per nine over 49 2/3 innings. Elder gets a lot of ground-balls, but he doesn’t have overpowering stuff and gave up a lot of hard contact last season. The Texas product was rocked in his only start with Triple-A Gwinnett this year. He gave up five runs on three hits and uncharacteristic four walks across 2 2/3 innings.