PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — One of the Braves’ promising prospects will be sidelined for the entire season.
Right-hander Blake Burkhalter will undergo Tommy John surgery. Manager Brian Snitker addressed the injury update after the news was confirmed by several people familiar with the situation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The news was reported first by Auburn Daily, which covers Burkhalter’s alma mater.
“I hate it for him,” Snitker said Thursday at Clover Park before an exhibition game against the Mets. “He was doing so well. I was excited to watch him go. It’s just probably something that was inevitable. He’s going to have a year-later start. He’ll come back stronger than ever, but I like everything about that young man and what I saw, and the makeup and the stuff and everything, and I hate it for him, coming into his first spring.
