The Braves have selected right-handed reliever Evan Phillips from Triple-A Gwinnett, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. They’ll send closer Arodys Vizcaino to the disabled list (retroactive to June 21) to open up a 25-man spot for Phillips, Burns adds, and designate infielder Phil Gosselin for assignment to create 40-man space, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
Phillips, who joined the Braves as a 17th-round pick in 2015, is set to make his major league debut after opening the season in impressive fashion in the minors. Across 35 innings this season, the 23-year-old has pitched to a 2.31 ERA with 12.86 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 50.7 percent groundball rate. Phillips doesn’t rank among the Braves’ top 30 prospects at MLB.com or their 32 best farmhands at FanGraphs, though FG’s Eric Longenhagen wrote entering 2017 that his three-pitch mix “may work in middle relief.”
The Braves’ hope is that Phillips will help make up for the loss of Vizcaino, who has dealt with shoulder soreness throughout the season. Thanks in part to that, Vizcaino hasn’t pitched since last Sunday. When he has taken the hill, Vizcaino has continued to show off high-end velocity, helping him to convert 15 of 17 save opportunities and post a 1.82 ERA with 10.01 K/9 and 3.64 BB/9. A.J. Minter and Dan Winkler stand out as the Braves’ best ninth-inning possibilities while Vizcaino’s out, though his shoulder issues could also help push the playoff contenders to acquire veteran relief help prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
Gosselin, 29, joined the Braves off waivers from the Reds on May 3. It’s his second stint as a member of the Braves, though he hasn’t actually played with the club this season. Gosselin has instead racked up 126 PAs at Gwinnett and hit .236/.325/.364.
Wow! I thought they might DL Viz and backdate it, just to give him an extra week off. This may be more serious.
But yeah, Phillips deserved to be called up on his merits. GO #36!
Retroactive to June 21, the team announced. Added to the post.
Cool. Thanks for updating.
I’ve wanted to see Phillips up on the main roster.
Finally. When will see Moylan transition to color commentator? Hopefully soon.
The Braves pitching staff is losing allot of innings to the “injury bug”: Mike Foltynewicz, Julio Tehran, Mike Soroka, Anibal Sanchez awhile back now Arodys Vizcaino. I understand now why they let Sam Freeman go up and get shelled by the O’s the other night. The pen was depleted.
Snitker uses the wrong pitchers at the wrong time most of the time. His misuse of Moylan, Minter and Winkler says it all.. He over uses Winkler & Minter. Yesterday’s loss is on Snitker, not on Moylan.
Braves should look at a guy like Oh, veteran closer, not expensive, worth a try and has been pitching well all year.
While I can agree with you, Moylan’s soft toss breaking ball inside to one of the games best hitters (Machado) is inexcusable. Pitchers have off games, I get it, but you can’t blame a pitchers lack of execution on the manager, especially when he has had a terrible June. He has given up runs in 3 of his last 5 appearances dating back to 6/10. That is not on Snitker when an extra inning game begs for all available arms on the roster.
Moylan threw 95+ during his first run with the Braves and could get out RH even if his location was off. Since then he’s lost 8-10 MPH on his sinker, and even hitters he fools can still catch up with his stuff. By all accounts, he’s an awesome guy, but I don’t see how you put him in high-leverage positions during a pennant race. If they weren’t contending this year, sure, let him take a victory lap. They probably should DFA him in favor of a more effective arm.
I think that was probably the idea. Even the front office can be surprised by winning, and Moylan could be evidence of that. I think he was expected to eat garbage innings in the beginning.
While I don’t see the Braves willing to spend/trade for pitching I hope they realize that late August, early September this staff will be gassed. My take is this is still about the future a couple years down the road, Liberty is making a nice profit as is.
Liberty does not make a profit or a loss on the Braves. The revenue and or expenses from the team can not by SEC Law be transferred to Liberty. LM has absolutely ZERO to do with running the team or daily activities. It is simply an asset that will be sold one day,
Can you explain why please?
I missed this story. Thanks!
I want Evan Phillips to pitch against Phillip Evans
They just need to get rid of Tehran. He’s been doing nothing but pitching bad. His last outing was terrible. He isn’t consistent at all and we just need to trade him away.