Ramiro Pena To Undergo Season Ending Surgery

Apr 14, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Atlanta Braves third baseman

(14) during the second inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit:

-USA TODAY Sports

According to David O’Brien, Ramiro Pena will be having season ending shoulder surgery later today to repair a torn labrum:

This isn’t good. After trading Juan Francisco, the Braves were either banking on Chris Johnson to be able to hold down third for the entire season, or liked the way Ramiro Pena was doing. Now they are just going to have to rely on CJ 2.0 and whoever becomes the new back-up third baseman.

It’s really tough to see for Pena because he was having a career year in limited time with the team:

"Pena was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday, after rest didn’t relieve soreness he began to feel after making a pair of diving stops in a game two weeks ago.He’s having a career-best season, batting .278 in 97 at-bats and already with career-hights in extra-base hits (nine) and home runs (three)."

Now, Paul Janish/TylerPastornicky will have to serve as the back up at the hot corner. Janish is definitely a defensive first infield utility guy with no bat, while Pastornicky is bad defensively, but decent (he’s got potential) with the bat. Unfortunately, Ramiro Pena was pretty good defensively as well as offensively. He was hitting .278/.330/.443 in 107 plate appearances which is easily the best line of his career.

I bet Frank Wren is wishing he hadn’t traded away Juan Francisco right about now. However, we do have the benefit of hindsight…

Even though this is unfortunate, I am excited to see what Tyler Pastornicky can do if he is given another shot. I still believe in his bat and he can’t be any worse at third than he is at short right? In Triple-A Gwinnett he was hitting .309/.351/.429.

This is definitely a blow to the Braves bench and with Evan Gattis on the DL still with Jordan Schafer‘s ankle still questionable–X-rays were negative but ankle injuries can be difficult to get back from even if they aren’t broken–it’s possible that our three real weapons could be taken away in less than two weeks.

Let’s hope that isn’t the case.