Austin Riley’s fracture of his right hand has not yet healed sufficiently to allow him to play as the Atlanta Braves’ third baseman this season, including the playoffs, manager Brian Snitker said Tuesday.
Snitker said a CT scan showed it was too early to remove Riley’s cast. The 27-year-old two-time All-Star was hit in the hand by a 97-mph fastball from Los Angeles Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz on Aug. 18.
“It just hadn’t healed well enough to think he could come back this year,” Snitker said. “He’s still in a cast, so realistically it would have been pretty rough on him. We would have had to get pretty far into the playoffs. It’s not where the doctors wanted it to be.”
Snitker said Riley is expected to be fully recovered before spring training.
The Braves (85-71) are still 1½ games away from the last wildcard spot in the National League before Tuesday’s game against the New York Mets.
Riley had a .256 batting average with 19 home runs and 56 RBIs in 110 games this season. In six seasons with the Braves, Riley had 153 home runs and 429 RBIs with a .272 batting average.
Third baseman Gio Urshela, who was released by the Detroit Tigers the day of Riley’s injury, was signed by the Braves and has a .270 batting average with three home runs in 30 games for Atlanta.
Field Level Media and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
