For Atlanta Braves fans, Austin Riley was a big surprise when he was first called up to the show early on in 2019. All he did was bat .356/.397/.746 with seven home runs in the first 15 games he appeared in.
However, he had been in a major slump (.156 batting average with 30 strikeouts in 64 at-bats) before suffering an injury during a routine workout back in early August. Riley couldn’t seem to lay off sliders outside the zone and that caused him to miss fastballs that he normally wouldn’t miss.
Luckily, the injured knee didn’t require surgery and Riley would get the chance to work on his swing down at Single-A Rome and Triple-A Gwinnett.