Dustin Peterson out 8 weeks after hand surgery

Dustin Peterson had himself a breakout performance in 2016. After some uneven performances in the minors, Dustin slashed .283/.343/.431 in Double-A in 2016 with 12 homers and 88 RBIs which, given the fact that he did a good chunk of the damage in pitcher friendly Trustmark Park, made him one of the better hitting prospects in the system. He had a chance to make the club as a bench bat out of Spring Training, but at the very least he was expected to get promoted to AAA Gwinnett and stood a very good chance to see some time with the big league club at some point.

Unfortunately, his chance to play in the big leagues is going to have to wait a bit.

While the Braves’ 2016 Minor League Player of the Year will have to wait to try and play his way onto the Braves roster, generally such injuries have no lingering effects. The expected recovery time from surgeries of this type is around 8 weeks, although a quick search has yielded timelines a little more and a little less than that.

We will keep you posted on Dustin’s injury and recovery as it develops, but for now it looks like Gwinnett (and the Braves) will be unexpectedly without one of their better prospects for the first month of the regular season at least.