1:25 pm: Braves GM Frank Wren spoke with reporters, including Dave O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after watching Sheets' bullpen session. "You look at him being a guy who, if the progression goes as we hope, that he could join our rotation in the next few weeks. What we just saw in the bullpen was very impressive."
11:53 am: The Braves announced that they have signed pitcher Ben Sheets to a minor league deal. The right-hander will make his first start on July 4th for the team's Double-A affiliate.
Sheets, 33, will now work his way towards returning to a big league mound for the first time since July 19th, 2010 when he was with the A's. The Louisiana native had a 4.53 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 through 20 starts that season with Oakland before having to undergo flexor tendon surgery.
As MLBTR first reported, Sheets threw for scouts from the Phillies, Braves, Yankees, and Angels two weeks ago. The pitcher apparently wanted to wait until he was 100% before returning to baseball.
Now come back and dominate like you did the last decade!
Good signing by the Braves. Can never have enough pitching depth.
Good sign for sure and also a FYI update on Prior sign by Boston a few weeks back? he is hurt again… These forever hurt people are like 1 in 10k to ever help. Harden, Zumaya..
wow, forgot that he even existed…If he is even remotely close to what he was 5 or so years ago, good for the braves!
I like the signing, doesn’t hurt one bit. I hope he pitches well and could be in shape by the end of June. But I still think we will need another starter and a reliever. Only 31 quality starts this year? 2nd worst in the NL. Would have never thought our pitching would have been this bad so far. Hopefully we get some help.
Won’t be ready by the end of June, since the end of June was yesterday…
-C
Correction July….lol….if he can take some pressure off of our staff that would help immensely.
Now if he shows he’s really healthy and able to compete at the major league level again, we can work a trade for Greinke our rotation will be able to compete with Washington. Greinke, Hudson, Hanson, Sheets, Teheran. Looks good to me!
Teheran is not ready
I’d go with JJ or Medlen before Teheran
Grienke,keep dreaming braves fans even with the 27 million coming off you still need the money to extend Heyward,Hanson,Freeman,Jurjjens(if you plan to keep him) and Kimbrel.Your lucky if you have 2 pennies to sign Grienke
Angels(maybe),Rangers,Cardinals,Cubs(maybe),Red Sox, Nationals(you never know) will be all over him this offseason,
Given his history with injuries, I always thought that if Sheets were to come back, he would be most effective as a relief pitcher since it would go a long way toward preserving his arm. Sheets is 33 years old and if healthy may be able to successfully complete his comeback. In baseball, you can never have too much pitching and Sheets was always regarded as a top of the rotation starter. If all things break right, he could help them during their Playoff run as a starter and giving him that chance is great.
Surprised Toronto wasn’t in on Sheets. Any pitching is better than no pitching
they probably were, but he didn’t want to come here
Great low risk sign. He says he is 100 % and hasn’t felt this good since mid 2008
To create roster space for Ben Sheets, the Braves have placed Ben Sheets on the disabled list
Looks like we got our MIL ace!!!! oh wait, not that one…Joke aside, I like it. Low-risk, high potential pickup, not to mention decent depth move. Let’s hope for a Peavy-esque return…
if the only trade options are average pitchers, then I like signing a minor league deal and not losing prospects for an average pitcher – if he turns into that.
ok………..
I somehow don’t think this is Frank’s answer. To me this sounds like both Delgado and Minor won’t be pitching for Atlanta in August
Awesome grew up watching him, hopefully he works his way up
When I saw him pitch for the A’s, it was obvious he still looked a bit rusty. Hopefully after his right elbow surgery he’ll be truly back on top of his game. I wish him the best.
YES!
My Braves have become the “scrap heap” kings. If this is their ONLY attempt at tinkering with this year’s team (and it wouldn’t shock me), then I’m miserably disappointed.
reminds me of KC we need new ownership now
good lord, now our fate lies in the hands of an old starter who brings his 4 run shovel to the mound so he can start digging his hole, a good starter who mcann could steal on, 2 kids who leave their cars running, cause they cant stay in the game long enough to break a sweat, a guy who wears knee braces to the mound and now we get a guy who hasnt pitched in 2 years and has his carved up arm in a sling due to operations. Bring on them div. winners, were ready now! hahaha. God ive been waiting since last october i guess i will have to wait awhile longer. Maybe in a few years when wood, sims,teheran,jr graham,gilmartin are ready.
where is that pitcher who we didnt protect because we wanted to protect some guy named cordier? oh wait! wasnt his name diamond? didnt MINN. steal him from atlanta because wren wanted to protect cordier? isnt he now 8-3 and a #2 LH pitcher with a era of 2.65? yea thats the guy. I guess i keep missing cordiers starts for the big club!.
Brandon Webb is next
Was Chuck James not available?
good one, i hear livan and lowe may be available soon!, maybe we could get milwood thrown in. Gotta say one thing for my braves, they remove all doubt who is going to win the game in the first inning, i’ve saved alot of time and money getting out of turner early.
Well here is hoping Sheets can do something slightly better than Minor.
If they can sign a good pitcher and if Sheets can even be a #4 type its a win, unless Venters is sent in to hold a game…..then it wont matter if Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz were the starters!!!
anybody is better than minor right now. Hell Scott Proctor is better than minor.
Thank god he is pitching Wed against a team he saw alot of in the central.
It’s good to see him coming back
This team NEEDS a lot of work done to it…I don’t think the Braves know if they are contenders or are pretenders. I respect the fact that they are trying to see where their young pitchers fit in for the present and the future, but if this team wants to win now, they’ll have to part ways with some of their future prospects to acquire top notch pitching, OR just ride this season out, embracing the fact that either they’ll be in or out with what they have, and try to sign a top tier pitcher in the offseason, e.g. Greinke, Garza, Hamels, assuming they haven’t resigned with their current teams. Oh yeah, this team also needs another proven power hitter. I just can’t understand why our GM Frank Wren can’t sign a Ryan Ludwick, Cody Ross, etc.. for a one year incentive laden deal, heck, even Carlos Beltran was out there, are you kidding me?!?!
If our GM isn’t active around the trade deadline and also doesn’t play in October, I would be really shocked if he sticks around, he’s not an active GM that’s looking to improve the roster, by any means. Honestly, if you asked him RIGHT NOW, “Do you like the chances of this team winning in October, or getting there for that matter?” He’ll say, “This team needs work..” Durrrr…..
You know what they say….if you can’t beat them, join them
Yeah, but Mulder hasn’t been the same since he was separated from his personal catcher, Frank Scully.
I was talking vice-versa (as in the Braves joining Sheet’s side). But looking back, it doesn’t make much sense haha.
Haha, how about, “if you can’t beat him, sign him!”