Evan Gattis expected to return to Atlanta Braves on Thursday
By Ed Carroll
Evan Gattis has missed the majority of September for the Atlanta Braves, as the catcher has battled strep throat and later a kidney stone during Atlanta’s late-season collapse, but it appears Gattis will return to the lineup on Thursday.
#Braves Gattis schedule to play tomorrow, since Hale likely go about 5 inn. and Fredi only wants to play Gattis that long initially
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) September 24, 2014
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Gattis has only had three at bats in the past two weeks (across three games), and has only played in 11 games total in the past four weeks. The Braves’s young catcher had first missed a game on September 7 after falling ill, and has struggled to get himself healthy since then. Atlanta’s collapse can’t be blamed squarely on Gattis’s illness, as the Braves are fairly punchless even with him in the lineup, but the team’s free-fall in September has already claimed now-former GM Frank Wren’s job, and it’s not certain if manager Freddi Gonzalez will return for 2015, either.
On the year, the 28-year old Gattis had a solid first full season as the Braves’s catcher, belting 22 home runs with a weighted on base average (wOBA) of .358, and was worth 2.5 wins according to Fangraphs (fWAR). With the Braves officially out of the playoff hunt, it looks like Atlanta would like Gattis to get a few at bats but doesn’t want to overwork him with just a few games left in the season.
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