Braves Being Patient with Injured Star's Rehab from Oblique Strain

The Atlanta Braves are being cautious with their All-Star catcher's oblique injury

Atlanta Braves catcher Sean Murphy has been out since Atlanta's first game with a strained oblique / Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves have been reeling from the loss of starting pitcher Spencer Strider to an UCL injury, but it wasn't the first injury suffered by a Braves regular this year.

And Atlanta's wisely taking their time with that one.

Starting catcher Sean Murphy injured his side on a swing in Atlanta's first game and has been on the injured list ever since, being diagnosed with an oblique strain.

The Braves provided an update this week, with manager Brian Snitker telling the media that Murphy has progressed in his rehab all the way to walking on a treadmill, but still wasn't running or hitting. It's a tough injury," Snitker said. "Even as slight as that one was, it's still a big injury."

Murphy's already eligible to be activated off of the injured list, but is obviously nowhere close to being ready. And that's a wise decision, as rushing Murphy back too early would lead to offensive issues for the star catcher.

"The oblique muscles are important to generating speed during a swing, so if the muscle is injured or they are having pain, the player will not be able to swing as effectively," explained David A. Wang, MD, sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery, to Braves Today. "Even once pain has improved, you still have to be cautious with how quickly the athlete returns because there is always a risk of re-injury. After an injury, the oblique muscle needs enough time to heal and rehabilitate to handle the large amount of load they see during a swing or throw. As with any muscle injury, if you progress and load the muscle too quickly after injury, even if pain is better, you risk re-injuring the area."

And this risk of re-injury is magnified for a hitter like Murphy, as he's known for "max effort" swings every time he comes up to bat. Thankfully, catching isn't the area where we would see the highest risk of re-injury, so Murphy should be able to perform defensively as soon as he's reinserted into the lineup, per Wang. "While catchers do have additional and unique physical requirements compared to other positions in the field, when it comes to oblique injuries, the most common mechanism of injury is from swinging during batting."

And that's good news for Murphy's return date, as well, as Wang confirms that there's not any sort of additional rehab needed to return to catching - it'll just be the standard rehab that all hitters would need to undergo.

It's possible, depending on the length of the absence, that Murphy might need a rehab stint before he rejoins the big league club. Given that he was injured so early in the season, it's likely that he needs to get back to speed offensively, as he had only 34 combined at-bats between spring training and the first game of the season prior to his injury.