{"id":514099,"date":"2026-03-10T02:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514099\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T02:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:02:07","slug":"joey-wentz-to-miss-2026-season-due-to-torn-acl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514099\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Wentz To Miss 2026 Season Due To Torn ACL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braves left-hander Joey Wentz<\/a> has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the entire 2026 season. Mark Bowman of MLB.com<\/a> was among those to relay the news. Wentz will be transferred to the 60-day injured list whenever the club needs a roster spot, though their 40-man count is currently at 39 due to outfielder Jurickson Profar<\/a> landing on the restricted list for a PED suspension.<\/p>\n

Wentz, 28, was covering first base on a bunt attempt in yesterday\u2019s game when he appeared to injure his right leg. Though he was carted off the field, initial tests seemed to suggest he may have avoided serious injury. It seems that further testing contradicted the first reports.<\/p>\n

The lefty was claimed off waivers in July of last year and was effectively in the rotation from that point on. He made 13 starts and one relief appearance for Atlanta, allowing 4.92 earned runs per nine. His 23% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate were both close to league average. He qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player and the club felt good enough about that performance to tender him a contract. The two sides avoided arbitration in November by agreeing to a $900K salary for 2026.<\/p>\n

As of a few weeks ago, Wentz was a bit buried in the depth chart but the Atlanta rotation has been hit hard since camp has opened. Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a> and Hurston Waldrep<\/a> each required surgery a few weeks ago, as both pitchers had loose bodies in their elbows that needed removing. Their specific timelines aren\u2019t clear but each is slated to miss months.<\/p>\n

After those two surgeries, Atlanta projected to have a rotation with four spots going to Chris Sale<\/a>, Spencer Strider<\/a>, Reynaldo L\u00f3pez<\/a> and Grant Holmes<\/a>. That left Wentz, Bryce Elder<\/a>\u00a0and Jos\u00e9 Suarez<\/a> battling for the final spot. Since all three are out of options, one of them was probably going to break camp in a long relief role.<\/p>\n

Even before this recent spate of injuries, there was an argument for Atlanta to add more rotation depth, as even the guys who aren\u2019t currently hurt have question marks. Sale has been injury prone in recent years, making more than 2o starts just once in the past six years. Strider returned from internal brace surgery last year but posted a lackluster 4.45 ERA. L\u00f3pez only made one start last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament last year and is currently trying to pitch in 2026 without surgery. Elder had a 5.30 ERA last year. Suarez is a fringe roster guy who rode the DFA carousel this winter.<\/p>\n

Despite all of that uncertainty, the front office hasn\u2019t shown much urgency in adding more arms. It was reported<\/a> in mid-February, as the Schwellenbach and Waldrep injuries were coming to light, that Atlanta didn\u2019t have much interest in Chris Bassitt<\/a> before he signed with the Orioles and had not been involved with free agent Lucas Giolito<\/a>. Up until yesterday, Zack Littell<\/a> was still out there but he now has an agreement in place with the Nationals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that recent events make the club more likely to make an addition. If the budget was the problem, the Profar suspension helped them out, as he won\u2019t be paid his $15MM salary this year. Atlanta saved about $18MM in total when factoring in tax savings. With the freed-up cash and now yet another injury, perhaps president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos does turn to free agency. In addition to Giolito, guys like Tyler Anderson<\/a> and Patrick Corbin<\/a> are still unsigned. More arms could shake loose as Opening Day approaches and other teams make cuts.<\/p>\n

For now, the top depth options include Didier Fuentes<\/a>, JR Ritchie<\/a>, Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez<\/a>, Carlos Carrasco<\/a> and Elieser Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>. Fuentes was hastily promoted last year at the age of 20 and was lit up in his first four big league starts. Ritchie is one of the club\u2019s best pitching prospects but he has no major league experience and just 11 Triple-A starts under his belt. The other three are veterans who haven\u2019t had much big league success in recent years.<\/p>\n

As for Wentz, it\u2019s a frustrating setback as he had a real chance to earn a rotation gig. Instead, he\u2019ll spend the season on the shelf. If there\u2019s one small silver lining, he\u2019ll earn a full year of service time while on the IL, but he\u2019ll be a non-tender candidate going into 2027.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braves left-hander Joey Wentz has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[108151,99],"class_list":["post-514099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-joey-wentz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}