Former Braves’ top prospect suffers devastating injury on new team

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder and former Atlanta Braves’ top prospect Cristian Pache has torn the meniscus in his right knee.

The Philadelphia Phillies will be without one of their next up-and-coming stars for a while now in centerfielder Cristian Pache.

After spending last season in no man’s land with the absolutely laughable poverty franchise known as the Oakland Athletics, Pache has played exceedingly well in Philadelphia. He was not going to make the roster out of camp in Oakland, which was shocking to say the least. A well-run operation like Philadelphia pounced at the chance to add the former Atlanta Braves top prospect.

At the time of his injury on April 28, Pache was hitting .360 with one home run and four runs batted in over the course of 25 plate appearances.

While it is not a torn ACL, Pache should be sidelined for the foreseeable future going forward.

He was placed on the 10-day IL Saturday. The hope is he could return before the end of the year.

Former Atlanta Braves’ top prospect Cristian Pache suffers devastating injury

Although the Phillies have played great baseball of late, winners of eight of their last 10, they find themselves at 15-13 on the season and tied for third place in the National League East with the surprisingly decent Miami Marlins. Philadelphia finished in third place in the division last year and went on to win the pennant, but they are still looking up at Atlanta and the New York Mets already.

While Pache never really amounted to much with Atlanta, he was the Braves’ former top prospect for a reason. It was thought that he would be the star in centerfield next to Ronald Acuña Jr. in right. Although some in Braves Country thought it would be one of their own in Drew Waters, it actually turned out to be Stockbridge native in last year’s NL Rookie of the Year in Michael Harris II.

Pache still had a ton of value, as he was the primary asset traded to Oakland in the deal for Lilburn native Matt Olson. For whatever reason, it did not work for him with the A’s. But once he joined the Phillies, we all had a feeling he would be able to make this a great baseball home for him. The Phillies are here to stay, but it is such a shame Pache will be out until the All-Star Break at least.

Here is to a speedy recovery for one of the most talked about high-end prospects in some time.