Atlanta Braves slugger Eddie Rosario, the most valuable player of last year’s National League Championship Series, may miss the next three months with an eye injury, according to Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The team said Monday he will have a laser procedure to reduce swelling and blurred vision in his right eye. That problem apparently contributed to his slow start, which included an .068 batting average as well as defensive problems in right field.
A 30-year-old left-handed hitter acquired from Cleveland for fading veteran Pablo Sandoval at the 2021 trade deadline, Rosario initially spent time on the injured list recovering from an oblique strain. Once healthy, he posted a solid .271 batting average that included a game with a rare cycle: a single, double, triple, and home run in a span of only five pitches.
Then he tore up Dodger pitching in the playoffs, producing a pair of four-hit games while collecting three home runs, a double, triple, and nine runs batted in. In the six-game series, he hit .560 with a .607 on-base percentage, and 1.040 slugging average.
After his three-run homer gave the Braves a 4-2 win in the finale, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Rosario, “We couldn’t figure him out.”
His 14 hits tied a major-league mark for most hits in a single post-season series and gave Atlanta its first National League pennant since 1999. After the team won the World Series, the popular Puerto Rican tested free agency but re-signed with the Braves, accepting a two-year, $18 million deal that contains a $9 million team option for an additional year.
Rosario’s injury could speed up the timetable for the return of Ronald Acuña, Jr., currently rehabbing the ACL he tore last July 10 while trying to catch a line drive by Jazz Chisholm of the Miami Marlins.
Acuña had been projected to return on May 6, when the Braves open a homestand against the Milwaukee Brewers, but has been playing so well a Triple-A Gwinnett that Atlanta manager Brian Snitker told reporters last week that he could return earlier.
Rosario’s injury – plus a four-game series in New York against the arch-rival New York Mets – turn that possibility into a probability, though no decision has yet been made by the team.
Atlanta’s active outfielders are Adam Duvall, whose 113 runs batted in led the National League last year; Marcell Ozuna, who led the league in home runs and RBI during the virus-shortened, 60-game season of 2020; journeymen Guillermo Heredia and Alex Dickerson; and rookie Travis Demeritte. The team could also add an outfielder through a trade or free-agent signing, with former Yankee Brett Gardner among those who remain unsigned.
The Braves could even promote speedy center-fielder Delino DeShields, signed last week to bolster the organization’s outfield depth, or switch-hitting Drew Waters, one of its top prospects.
Atlanta starts a three-game series at home against the Cubs tonight.
