The Braves placed Raisel Iglesias on the 15-day injured list on April 25 after shoulder inflammation made him unavailable. Atlanta recalled left-hander Dylan Dodd from Triple-A Gwinnett to take his roster spot.
An MRI showed inflammation and no structural damage, according to Chad Bishop, and manager Walt Weiss said Iglesias had been unavailable because he had slept on his shoulder wrong. Weiss also said Iglesias might be available the following day, and he ended up pitching one inning in that game, but the club still decided the injury would cost him at least two weeks.
That is a sharp turn for a reliever who had opened the season with none of the warning signs that usually send a closer to the injured list. Iglesias had allowed no runs on five hits in his first 8 2/3 innings, with an 11-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, after re-signing with Atlanta over the offseason on a one-year, $16MM deal.
The shoulder issue also comes against the backdrop of last season’s workload and velocity trend. In 2025, Iglesias sat 94.8 mph with his four-seamer and later converted 26 of 27 save chances since mid-June. This year, his four-seamer was at 95 mph in an outing on April 14, then dropped to 93.9 mph the next day and has already been mentioned in the context of his brief absence.
For now, the Braves are expected to turn to Robert Suarez in the ninth inning while Iglesias sits out. Suarez, who signed a three-year, $45MM contract with Atlanta, already picked up a save when Iglesias was unavailable on Saturday, and the club will have to navigate at least the next two weeks without the pitcher it expected to anchor the back end.
Atlanta can survive the short term with Suarez, but the larger question is whether Iglesias’ shoulder issue is a one-off flare-up or the first interruption in a season that had started cleanly and looked built to hold up.
