{"id":83588,"date":"2024-08-20T10:58:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=83588"},"modified":"2024-08-20T10:58:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T14:58:12","slug":"braves-sign-gio-urshela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/20\/braves-sign-gio-urshela\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Sign Veteran Infielder Following Season Ending Injury To Austin Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Braves lost star third baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rileyau01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-20_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Riley<\/a> for the season over the weekend due to a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/19\/braves-hit-breaking-point\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">fractured right hand<\/a>. After dealing with injuries all season, losing Riley could represent a crushing blow for a team already clinging to life. To their credit, the Braves won&#8217;t quit, as evident by the decision to sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/u\/urshegi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-20_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gio Urshela<\/a> to a major league deal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Braves<\/a> today signed INF Gio Urshela to a major league contract and placed INF Austin Riley on the 10-day injured list, backdated to August 19, with a fractured right hand. To make room on the 40-man roster, Atlanta transferred A.J. Minter to the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Braves (@Braves) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Braves\/status\/1825901695253041425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The veteran has spent most of the season with the Detroit Tigers after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/22\/gio-urshela-detroit-tigers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signing a one-year deal<\/a> with the team in free agency. However, Detriot <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/16\/tigers-designate-gio-urshela-for-assignment\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">designated and released<\/a> the struggling Urshela last week in favor of younger players with higher upside.<\/p>\n<h2>Atlanta Braves Sign Gio Urshela To A Major League Deal<\/h2>\n<p>The Braves didn&#8217;t sign Urshela expecting him to produce Riley-like numbers. After all, he hit just .243\/.286\/.333 (73 wRC+) in 92 games with the Tigers this season. Plus, his last above-average season, per wRC+, was 2022.<\/p>\n<p>However, Atlanta still possesses postseason aspirations. There is a better chance that Urshela will help the Braves stay afloat in the competitive Wild Card race than the unproven internal options can. Rookie (and top prospect) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alvarna01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-20_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nacho Alvarez Jr.<\/a> has struggled immensely (-27 wRC+) this season. Veteran Luke Williams has barely been better by producing a wRC+ of zero.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves have a recent history of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/sports\/mlb\/tigers\/2022\/08\/20\/braves-fixed-robbie-grossman-matter-days-tigers-couldnt-all-season\/7855603001\/&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjHlIvl4YOIAxUCkokEHaewFp4QFnoECC4QAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Xk-H6i1_Y_BVl16VQQhkB\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fixing struggling veterans<\/a>. While that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/08\/braves-designate-eddie-rosario-for-assignment\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">magic has been missing<\/a> this year, there&#8217;s little downside in trying to capture it with Urshela. The Tigers are responsible for most of the $1.5 million owed to him this year. Atlanta will only have to pay the prorated league minimum for the time Urshela spends on the roster or injured list.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Gio Urshela tacks on another run in the 8th, his first home run of the year. Dan Dickerson on the call <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RepDetroit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RepDetroit<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1BjM995aJO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1BjM995aJO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dan Dickerson Calls\ud83d\udcde (@dannydHRs) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dannydHRs\/status\/1796355219082858829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not out of the question that Urshela gets hot in Atlanta and helps push the team into the postseason. Urshela produced a better OPS (.658) in away games this year than at home (.583) in the pitcher-friendly Comerica Park. Perhaps playing more games away from Comerica will boost his overall numbers with the Braves.<\/p>\n<p>For a Braves team that quickly lost its grip on a postseason spot, it won&#8217;t hurt to find out.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Braves lost star third baseman Austin Riley for the season over the weekend due to a fractured right hand. After dealing with injuries all season, losing Riley could represent a crushing blow for a team already clinging to life. To their credit, the Braves won&#8217;t quit, as evident by the decision to sign [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":83591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1071,35],"tags":[2792],"class_list":["post-83588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-mlb","category-news","tag-gio-urshela"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}