Braves left-hander Ray Kerr will need to undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Brian Sntiker told reporters this evening (video on X via Bally Sports South). Atlanta had optioned the hard-throwing southpaw to Triple-A Gwinnett on June 15. The Braves rescinded that option this evening and placed him on the MLB injured list with the UCL issue.
Kerr will spend the rest of the year on the injured list. (The small consolation is that he’ll be paid at the prorated $740K MLB minimum rate because the injury evidently occurred before he was sent down.) Atlanta can move him to the 60-day injured list whenever they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster. They’ll either need to reinstate him onto the 40-man or put him on waivers at the start of next offseason.
The latter outcome would be particularly frustrating, but it’s possible the Braves don’t want to carry Kerr on their 40-man roster all winter. He’ll certainly be out into the second half of next year and could miss the entire ’25 campaign.
Atlanta liked Kerr enough to eat $4MM of Matt Carpenter’s $5.5MM salary in a trade with the Padres last offseason. The Braves immediately designated Carpenter for assignment and released him, so the trade was entirely about “purchasing” Kerr’s contractual rights. Atlanta even dabbled with moving Kerr to the rotation, giving him a pair of starts in late May.
Those outings didn’t go particularly well, as the 29-year-old allowed seven runs across 7 1/3 innings from the rotation. Kerr had more success in his typical bullpen role, tossing 14 2/3 innings of six-run ball. He punched out 27 hitters while issuing seven walks overall. Kerr is up to 54 1/3 frames of 5.30 ERA ball over parts of three seasons in the big leagues. He likely wouldn’t reach arbitration until the 2027 season, so the Braves could keep him around at little financial cost if they’re willing to carry him on the roster.