Unfortunately, the news that Austin Riley needed season-ending abdominal surgery should not have come as much of a surprise to the Atlanta Braves or their fans.
After hitting the IL a second time, the Braves’ handling of Riley’s first abdominal injury looked very questionable and as soon as the second injury wasn’t healing, the odds of a hernia or something else that needed surgery went up exponentially.
While injuries like Riley’s are not super uncommon, the Braves need to hope that his recovery goes better than Rangers star Corey Seager.
When healthy, Seager is an absolute monster who is capable of producing at the level of a MVP candidate. However, after finishing second in AL MVP voting after the Rangers’ World Series win in 2023, Seager ended up needing hernia surgery and few thought much of it.
What happened after that is a cautionary tale that abdominal injuries can be a red flag and need extra special care to fully recover from.
Austin Riley has to hope that his recovery from abdominal surgery goes better than Corey Seager’s has
After a bit of a slow recovery that cost him a bunch of time in spring training, Seager ended up putting up a decent 2024 season with an .864 OPS with 30 homers.
However, he only played 123 games as he dealt with hamstring issues before getting a hernia on the other side of his abdomen that ultimately required surgery that ended his season again. Seager returned this season, but his production has diminished and his hamstring continue to cost him a lot of playing time.
Some may think Seager just has terrible luck or is specifically injury-prone and that may be true, but soft tissue injuries are tricky.
It is hard to condition your body and build up strength in those core muscles during your recovery as you just have to rest and let your body heal from the surgery.
Once you have one hernia, the odds that another could pop up as your body compensates go up. Given the multiple lengthy downtimes after surgery, Seager’s ability to keep his hamstrings stretched out and conditioned may have been compromised as well.
For the Braves, they cannot afford for this to happen to Riley.
Thankfully, he is having the surgery now and will be able to heal all offseason versus Seager who had his first hernia surgery in January 2024.
Everyone involved has to get his recovery right and not rush him back into baseball activities. Riley is just too important given the current void at third base right now and if anyone pushes him too hard or takes his rehab in the wrong direction, this could be a recurring problem like it has been for Seager.
