WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 22: Michael Harris II #23 of the Atlanta Braves rounds the bases after hitting a home run in the second inning during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 in Washington, District of Columbia. (Photo by Alyssa McDaniel/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images Michael Harris II has had a fantastic series as he has absolutely feasted upon the pitching that the Washington Nationals have served up for him. Hopefully, he’ll be able to take that with him back to Atlanta instead of the IL, as Harris has been removed from Thursday afternoon’s game ahead of the bottom of the seventh inning.
Michael Harris II has been taken out of the game. Eli White moves to center, Mauricio Dubón goes to left and Jorge Mateo comes in at shortstop.— Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 (@BarrettSallee) April 23, 2026We’ll let you know later what’s going on, since it wasn’t exactly apparent what was going on with Harris while he was out there. He ran the bases fine, so maybe something tightened up on him while he was in the dugout?
That’s as much speculation as I’ll give you. We will continually update this post as the the situation continues to develop.[UPDATE 3:10 p.m ET]: The Braves have described it as “left quad tightness.” Hoo boy. Keep your fingers crossed, folks.OF Michael Harris II was removed as a precaution from today’s game with left quad tightness.— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 23, 2026[UPDATE 4:53 p.m.
ET]: Money Mike talked to the media after the game and apparently the precautionary removal was just that: Precautionary. He’s feeling good and is expecting to play tomorrow. We’ll see if Walt Weiss gives him a breather in order to make sure he doesn’t exert it too much but as we just saw with Ronald Acuña Jr. and his scare, there’s a very good chance that we will indeed see Harris in the lineup for the series opener against the Phillies on Friday night. Michael Harris II expects to play tomorrow night pic.twitter.com/QLRF7zOUOW— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 23, 2026