The veteran right-hander is going to be out of action for a while after he gets this procedure done.
Well, we’re barely a week into the season and the Atlanta Braves are going to be losing a starter for a good long while. Yesterday, the Braves suffered an extremely nasty 1-2 punch of losing Jurickson Profar to a PED suspension and then immediately afterwards placing Reynaldo López on the IL due to shoulder inflammation.
We now know that this isn’t going to be a quick trip to the IL since Mark Bowman of MLB.com is reporting that Reynaldo López is set to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder.
Reynaldo Lopez will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder to determine if he has any structural damage. Imaging only showed inflammation. Timetable for return won’t be known until after surgery. You can expect him to miss at least a couple months.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 2, 2025
Since he’s going under the knife, he’s going to need a while to recover so it’s not really a surprise to see “surgery” and “miss at least a couple of months” being mentioned in the same breath. The obvious hope is that the surgery doesn’t reveal that there’s any structural damage and that all he needs once the surgery is over is to rest and recover. If there’s some serious damage in there then “at least a couple of months” could end up being much longer than that.
The obvious comparison that I can think of is when Kyle Wright had shoulder issues in 2023 that essentially derailed his stint with the Braves. His shoulder issues were severe enough to where he’s only just now returning to action following rehabilitation from his shoulder surgery. Obviously, the Braves are hoping that López can dodge that type of bullet since it would be a major blow to the Braves to lose him for any longer than he’s already going to be out.
Either way, the 2025 season has gotten off to an absolutely miserable start and this news does nothing to help sooth the mood of unrest surrounding Braves Country at the moment.