Braves Brian Snitker Opens Up on Decision Not to Activate Austin Riley

Riley is progressing and looking good, but the Atlanta Braves felt it made more sense to wait a little longer to bring him back

Just a little longer before Riley is back | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Braves head into Tuesday with third baseman Austin Riley still out of the lineup. Manager Brian Snitker and company felt that while he’s looking better and is eligible to be activated, they felt there was no need to rush him.

Ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Giants, Snitker said when discussing the situation with Riley that it was worth giving it a few more days. 

“I think there’s still a shadow of something in there,” Snitker said. “And talking to him, and we started thinking about it, and it’s like, you know, using the next two days and the off day’s probably he smart thing and more likely if we played him today, wouldn’t want to fire him up on short rest tomorrow.” 

The Braves have a 7:15 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday followed by a 12:15 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday for the getaway game. 

Earlier reports in the day had a target return day of Friday. However, Snitker left it more up in the air. 

“Well, I mean we’ll see how he feels when he wakes up Friday,” he said.

Snitker assured that Riley didn’t experience a setback of any kind. They just want to play it safe. He added that if there was a playoff game, he’d have no issue penciling Riley into the lineup. 

The Braves All-Star third baseman went down with an abdominal injury on July 11. He exited the game early and went on the injured list the following day. 

Riley is batting .274 with a .764 OPS, 14 home runs and 48 RBIs in 93 games this season. It’s been an up-and-down year for him, but he’s still one of the more important bats to be absent from the lineup. 

Nacho Alvarez has been filling in at third base for the time being.