Kurt Suzuki hopes to return early next week from hand injury

For the time being, it appears that Kurt Suzuki will avoid a DL stint which would have made the Braves’ catcher position very, very thin.

On Opening Day, the Braves’ Tyler Flowers went down with a strained oblique and could miss as much as a month of the season as he recovers. This made Kurt Suzuki the de facto starting catcher with Chris Stewart serving as the primary back-up. As a result, when Suzuki was plunked hard in the hand by a pitch in Friday night’s game, Braves fans everywhere were understandably concerned since there does not appear to be a ready-made replacement currently on the roster at catcher.

For the moment, it appears that the Braves should only be short-handed for a few games as Suzuki could still avoid the disabled list.

There is still a chance that Suzuki will have to miss some extended time once he resumes baseball activities. If he can’t grip a ball or swing a bat without discomfort or further injury, well....thats a problem. For what it is worth, for the moment the Braves have not made a roster move yet that would indicate that they are planning on being without Suzuki for a while.

In 2017, Suzuki was excellent at the plate with a .283/.351/.536 line with 19 home runs in 81 games.