Austin Riley’s broken right hand will likely sideline him for the playoffs, should the Atlanta Braves advance. A CT scan on Monday confirmed that the third baseman’s injury hasn’t healed enough.
“It just wasn’t healing enough to think he could come back this year,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker on Tuesday.
Riley was hit by a 97 mph fastball from Jack Kochanowicz of the Los Angeles Angels on August 18, initially expected to miss the rest of the regular season. There was some hope he might return if the Braves made a deep playoff run.
“He’s still in a cast, so realistically, it was going to be pretty tough,” Snitker said. “We’d have to go deep in the playoffs. It’s not where the doctors wanted it to be.” As the final week of the season neared, the Braves were 1.5 games behind Arizona for the third NL wild card spot.
Riley, who hit 19 home runs with 56 RBIs and a .256 batting average in 110 games, was coming off a strong previous season with 37 home runs and 97 RBIs. The two-time All-Star had averaged 159 games over the last three seasons.
Snitker noted that Riley is expected to fully recover before spring training.
In Riley’s absence, the Braves signed third baseman Gio Urshela, released by the Tigers on the same day Riley was injured. Urshela has hit .270 with three home runs in 30 games for Atlanta.