The Braves may have stumbled into a useful answer in Brewer Hicklen, but one good night shouldn’t send Atlanta’s plans off course.
With injuries forcing the club to keep digging into its depth, the latest shuffle came after Mike Yastrzemski went down with an elbow injury. Yastrzemski will be on the IL for at least 10 days because of elbow inflammation, and the Braves filled the opening by bringing up outfielder Brewer Hicklen.
Hicklen wasted no time making the most of it. In Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, he went 2-for-4 and delivered the RBI double that brought in Atlanta’s third run of the game.
That mattered. St.
Louis answered with two runs in the bottom of the same inning to tie things up, and without Hicklen’s hit, the Braves would have been chasing the game. Instead, Mauricio Dubon later drove in the winning run.
What Hicklen showed in that debut is exactly what Atlanta has been missing in spots: a right-handed bat with some pop. If he keeps producing, he could give the Braves a useful bench option once Yastrzemski and Ronald Acuña Jr. are back.
He could also give Atlanta more flexibility with Acuña, even allowing him to spend some time in the DH spot to help preserve his legs. That would matter, especially with the Braves still needing to think about adding a DH at the deadline.
Dom Smith has cooled off, and Atlanta needs more out of that position.
The sample is tiny, of course, but Hicklen has been swinging it well in Triple-A Gwinnett this season. The Alabama native is hitting .300 over 287 at-bats there, with 16 home runs, 55 RBI, 28 walks, 77 strikeouts, and an .882 OPS.
The strikeouts stand out, and they’ll need to come down if he’s going to stick long term. He’s also logged just 11 MLB games in his career, so there’s a real chance he ends up back in the minors once the injured pieces return.
Still, Hicklen has put himself in position to make a case. For now, he’s given the Braves something they badly needed: a right-handed hitter who can at least make the conversation interesting.
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