{"id":529708,"date":"2026-03-09T22:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529708\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:27:08","slug":"braves-lhp-joey-wentz-to-miss-2026-season-after-tearing-acl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529708\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves LHP Joey Wentz to miss 2026 season after tearing ACL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NORTH PORT, Florida &#8212; One awkward step has cost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/atl\/atlanta-braves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atlanta Braves<\/a> left-handed pitcher <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/40927\/joey-wentz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joey Wentz<\/a> the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>The club said Monday that Wentz tore the ACL in his right knee while covering first base against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/tb\/tampa-bay-rays\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> on Sunday. There was initial hope that Wentz had avoided serious injury, but further testing revealed the ligament tear.<\/p>\n<p>The injury is the latest setback for an Atlanta starting rotation that has already seen both <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/4424862\/spencer-schwellenbach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/4740117\/hurston-waldrep\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hurston Waldrep<\/a> placed on the 60-day injured list after undergoing elbow surgery to clean up &#8220;loose bodies&#8221; in their throwing elbows this spring.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/48147155\/braves-lefty-joey-wentz-leaves-game-mishap-first-base\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/r1625396_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The well-traveled, 28-year-old Wentz was supposed to be in the mix for a spot in the rotation. He posted a 5-7 record with a 5.60 ERA for three teams last season, including a 3-6 mark with a 4.92 ERA in 14 appearances for the Braves (13 starts).<\/p>\n<p>Wentz entered Sunday&#8217;s game as a reliever in the fifth inning and had two outs with a man on third when Tampa Bay&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/40576\/taylor-walls\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Walls<\/a> bunted. Wentz went to cover first, stepped gingerly on the bag and collided with Walls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH PORT, Florida &#8212; One awkward step has cost Atlanta Braves left-handed pitcher Joey Wentz the 2026 season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-529708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}