{"id":767734,"date":"2026-08-02T05:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/767734\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T05:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:18:16","slug":"braves-first-round-pick-aj-gracia-undergoes-season-ending-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/767734\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves first-round pick AJ Gracia undergoes season-ending surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Atlanta<\/p>\n

The Braves selected former University of Virginia outfielder AJ Gracia with the No. 9 pick in this year’s draft. Brett Davis \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Aug. 1, 2026 9:28 pm EDT Updated <\/p>\n

ATLANTA \u2014 Atlanta Braves prospect AJ Gracia, the No. 9 pick in this year\u2019s MLB Draft, underwent labrum surgery Wednesday and will not make his professional debut this season, league sources said. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a medical procedure that the team has not yet announced.<\/p>\n

The sources added that Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed Gracia\u2019s surgery in Los Angeles, and the 21-year-old outfielder could miss seven to 10 months. He could recover in time to participate in spring training next season. Gracia is slated to begin swinging and start a throwing program four to six months into the rehab process, the sources said. When he agreed to a deal with the Braves, Gracia received a $3,997,500 signing bonus, which was $2,677,800 less than the slot value at that pick.<\/p>\n

Gracia played 56 games last season at the University of Virginia, hitting .354\/.489\/.632 with 14 home runs and 48 RBIs. He didn\u2019t suffer any injuries this past spring, but a collapsed lung sidelined him during the preceding fall season.<\/p>\n

The Athletic\u2019s Keith Law wrote that Gracia<\/a> \u201chas plus power and walked more than he struck out in each of the last two seasons\u201d after Atlanta drafted him. \u201cIn a clip of an interview with Gracia that MLB played before the draft began, he said he modeled himself after Cody Bellinger, which totally fits \u2014 both guys are left-handed hitters with very uphill swings designed to pull everything in the air. He\u2019s played some center but likely moves to a corner, and there could be more power to come given that he played this spring with some kind of shoulder injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Aug 2, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves selected former University of Virginia outfielder AJ Gracia with the No. 9 pick in this year’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[46,5,2291,4,1586],"class_list":["post-767734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-draft","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-draft","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117024227808949052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}