The Braves felt they had sorted out their bullpen issues with a trio of trade-deadline acquisitions, but it hasn’t turned out that way. Jeff Schultz of The Athletic (subscription link) recently examined the situation, featuring the thoughts of GM Alex Anthopoulos.
More than anything, the Atlanta roster architect suggested, the difficulties are simply a rough section of the sample-size roller-coaster. “I just think it’s a two-week period and guys aren’t performing at their best,” he says. Anthopoulos says that the club would not “just ignore it” if a player was not performing over a longer stretch, but suggested the organization doesn’t yet feel that point has been reached.
It’d obviously be foolish for the Braves to give up on their three new relief arms — Shane Greene, Chris Martin, and Mark Melancon. Greene was solid all year long before he became the club’s key acquisition. The other two have produced sparkling K/BB and groundball numbers in Atlanta. It’s equally difficult to ignore just how rough the results have been. Through a dozen cumulative frames, each of those three hurlers has allowed more than an earned run for every inning thrown.
“We’ll continue to work and do what we can to get everybody on track,” says Anthopoulos. “But at this point, we’ll ride it out.”
As Schultz rightly notes, there isn’t much of an alternative now that the calendar has flipped to August. But the org does have a few potential avenues to get better. Waiver claims are perhaps the most promising. We’ve seen the Reds add multiple big-league pieces through that mechanism — including former Atlanta righty Kevin Gausman.
True, the Braves won’t likely land any players that look like especially good values. Should such an asset hit the wire, another pitching-needy organization with a higher waiver priority will likely snap it up. But shedding Gausman did draw down the Atlanta payroll by about $2.8MM. That bit of good fortune could theoretically allow the organization to look past value concepts and take a more aggressive waiver-wire stance, particularly since some other contenders may be tapped out financially. Whether a worthwhile opportunity will arise remains to be seen.
What a mess. Trading Allard now looks like a mistake, and taking on Melancon.
Trading Allard looks like anymore of a mistake than it did at the time? This is a prisoner of the moment comment. Allard has pitched 4 innings and Martin has pitched all of 5.
Its not prisoner of the moment look at comments at the time. Trading a young starting pitcher for a 33 year old relief pitcher with no track record is just dumb and desperate.
You say “young starting pitcher” as if it’s in a vacuum. Just ANY young starting pitcher? He wasnt a top 100 prospect who the Braves had in their system for years. They know what they gave up better than anyone, they have plenty of “young starting pitchers” that might never do anything of value in the majors so they traded him from their depth.
He turned 22 today, believe it or not some guys take that long to develop. He was a top 100 for a time and just 1 year ago he was pitching great in AAA. Trading away from depth isn’t an excuse for making a dumb trade. Not saying Allard is amazing but giving up on up for a relief pitcher that doesn’t move the needle was unecessary.
Allard was one of the most overrated prospects the Braves had. At some point to have to trade prospects if they are redundant. The trade was still a solid move for both the Braves and Rangers. You don’t win games by being conservative. You have to take chances. This move was a medium risk high reward type move.
Sigh..you know he fell out of the top 100 for a reason. Stupid? I guess I trust the talent evaluators on this one more than I trust you. Prospect talent is traded for relievers all the time.
Yes because the guy did not become a major leauge star immediately he fell off. Top 100 lists mean nothing when talking about player value. Those lists are constantly changing and not the end all be all. An example would be Will Smith who took breaking out at the major league level to finally get on the list. Making it from high school to the bigs in 3 years is impressive and you just dont give up on that because his development slowed down a little. Chris Martin is an unproven rental that gives up too many HRs. No one was banging down the door for him. I’ll take that bet of Allard being a better asset than Martin any day of the week
In my opinion, Melancon has never been a consistently reliable closer in any instance his team or its fans have had great expectations.
Never is a silly thing to say. From 14-16 he led baseball with 131 saves, was second in WPA (behind only Britton), and carried a 1.93 ERA. Now, he’s never had threw truly dominant stuff associated with top closers, but he made up for it with soft, ground-centric contract. Converting 92.9% of his save chances over a 3 year period made him a very consistent, reliable closer for the pirates.
He’s a groundball pitcher. Zack Britton doesn’t have dominate stuff anymore either. Both those guys live by getting balls on the ground. Melancon was once a very good closer. He never had dominating stuff. He’ll be good as long as the ball is going on the ground.
Britton throws freaking bowling balls and still averages around a K per inning. His ground ball rate is 80 or so % !!!
You and everyone up voting you didnt bother with looking at Britton’s stats, right? Britton hasnt averaged a strike out per inning since 2016 and in fact he has only done it twice in his entire career.
I was wrong about his K rate BUT Strikeouts or not he puts the ball on the ground at a beyond elite rate. His stuff is more than fine
?
Don’t forget Greene looking like a mistake also
Yes, let’s evaluate guys with less than 5 IP on their new respective teams. No, Greene isn’t going to be pre-AS Break Greene, but man…just breathe.
And no matter how much they suck, it has no baring on keeping Allard who wouldn’t have been an option at the backend of games, and is still skeptical as a long-reliever/starter where we could be fielding guys like Bryse Wilson, Kyle Wright, Patrick Weigel, Tucker Davidson with so much more potential. Allard was a mulligan by another GM who wanted value from an injury.
Fact is, should have gotten more with Allard or stayed put. He’s worth more than what we got. Sure he isn’t a back end of the bullpen guy, but he was traded for a player that has made our bullpen worse. And sure, evaluating these guys so early seems unfair, but Martin and Greene have had absolutely brutal careers until this year. I think we have enough to make a fair assessment of them
Ok but the point is he was an asset that could have been used to get somebody better whether at the deadline or in the offseason.
And that’s why we only gave up what we did to get them. If Greene had the same numbers going back years he would’ve cost a top 10 prospect. There was risk involved with all of these guys, but what you need to realize is that Greene is better than what he’s been in his short two weeks as a Brave.
You guys don’t think they tried to move Allard for someone else already? Allard has been a potential trade chip for 2 years. I’m pretty sure AA had a good gauge on his true value
Jon, u forget Allard was a top 100 prospect for years and still highly rated. And he’s only 21! That’s a nice asset to have on the books and worthy of more that a 33 year bum rental. Point being, he makes more sense to trade or package for a guy like Greene cept with a better track record. Not a 33 year old rental with historically bad numbers
Krillin, based on the trade they made, it looks like AA made a desperate and bad decision. I don’t doubt he had a good gauge on his value. I think the situation AA put himself in my refusing to make offseason improvements to the bullpen and the meltdown the bullpens consistently have, forced him to over pay (in prospects) for Martin in hopes to make the team a tad better.
Moral of the story, don’t give up much for relievers and/or sign them to huge deals. They can be a flash in the pan and fall off the face of the earth all in the same series.
Wish Annibal would have been resigned, this club could sure use his versatility and Suzukis bat back.
Monday morning Quarterback
Nah, I always believed in those theories and scenarios Sunday morning corner creeper
Trading Allard was the right thing to do, period. He’s a soft tosser with sporadic offspeed pitches with no hope of ever cracking the Braves rotation and a poor option out of the bullpen.
DTD… plz don’t make any more stupid comments that show a completely lack of intelligence…
That’s really all AA can do at this point. Hopefully August waiver trades come back next season because the one deadline idea was a complete flop. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to professional pitchers to get results.
None of this excuses him from not adding a single reliever this offseason. I know Kimbrel was sort of the poster boy of Braves inactivity this past winter, but there were more quality arms on the market than just him.
that’s generally what I was thinking. Holland has been about the only one I’ve seen that makes you think but even that’s not saying much. I Am fairly surprised Gausman didn’t at least get a shot in the pen prior to being waived but I guess they viewed saving the money as best case scenario
Melancon has 4 clean outings and got nuked once. You guys should hold up a little longer to denounce every single move. This is the smallest of small sample sizes. Greene does look very bad and his peripherals suggested this was coming all along. The Velo has been down all year and he hasn’t generated groundballs in Atlanta. I’d hold on your judgment of all these moves for now though. It’s been less than 5 innings apiece.
You mention Holland; if you would’ve evaluated him after his first 5 innings you would’ve loved him. Not so much after 35. Give them a little rope here.
I don’t mean “this” as in getting blown up every time out. But his underlying numbers at the time of the trade had him pegged as a high 3 ERA pitcher. Which is realistically around what you should expect from Shane Greene.
I just meant the idea of riding out…obviously you’re rising it out. Holland has been the most prominent name to be available through waivers since there’s no waiver trade period. I don’t see them removing Any one at this point to plug in someone lesser through the waiver wire.
I don’t feel it was a flop I just think like I have said before the 2 deadlines should have been met in the middle. An August 15th deadline would be better.
I agree he sat on his hands when there were quality bullpen arms available all offseason.
Can’t not spend money in the offseason and overpay in the trade deadline and expect good results…. big miss on the braves part this year. Really screwed up
@bravesfan
I know the Braves have largely ignored the high-end relievers in FA for a while but in their defense, other than Ottavino, Britton and Bud Norris most of the guys from this past winter have performed poorly in terms of actual results.
Familia (6.52 ERA), Miller (3.92 ERA), Kelly (4.73 ERA), Herrera (7.22 ERA), Soria (4.33), Allen (6.92 ERA), Brach (6.08 ERA) and Chavez (4.85 ERA).
RP are so fickle. Look at Diaz with the Mets. They’re getting roasted for the trade but they went after a healthy, super young dominant reliever and he just went sideways this season.
Britton should have been the closer this year.
Bud Norris hasn’t thrown a pitch this year so you’ll have to scratch that name. Sergio Romo has been successful though.
You listed plenty of pitchers we could have gotten and been fine. You also threw a couple in there that you say are having bad years, that are in fact doing better than our current piece. A lot of those guys have a track record of being good, but we traded for guys who don’t have a good track record. Idk man… I get ur point but it’s not the strongest argument. The Yankees get it… go get the arms cause it pays dividends and if one goes down, it’s next man up.
Well put
Relievers live in the universe of the Small Sample Size…..and they still have a 6 game lead in the division, and are a virtual lock for the playoffs…..If all three flip it around, and pitch well this week (not in the least bit impossible), AA will look like a genius…..
I thought he might have paid too much, but he had to address the issue, and he did…..
“Ride it out”
…lmfao
“Ride it out”
…. lmfao
I admit I wasn’t as high on Ottivino but I did want Britton & David Robertson. When Kimbrel was still available after the draft I wanted him too.
If you look a lot of teams in the playoff hunt have had bullpen issues.
“We’ll ride it out” = “Darned good chance we make the playoffs next year…”
I believe Captain Smith on the Titanic also said ” we will ride it out “……………………. may the lost RIP.
Most trades are mistakes…until they’re right.
Thanks Yogi.
As a Yankees and Dodgers fan bullpen is not a concern but you cannot just “ride it out“ because come October you cannot rely on a bullpen that has been hit or miss. It is attitude like that why teams like Atlanta are knocked out in the first round.
^^^
Unfortunately, that is the mindset of most teams today. They make their money regardless if they win or lose. They don’t lose their home, car, or anything else of luxury.
The Braves are your prime example. They don’t care about this year because they are content with their overrated farm that has only produced one talented pitcher.
How is Greene doing so bad?
Doyle alexander karma.
This is exactly the comment you can expect from this organization going forward until proven otherwise. I guarantee this!
Ho-ard prospects and ride it out!
Top 3 farm > MLB championships!
Considering no more traded can be made, the only option is to ride it out and hope they get back on track. My God, you are more insufferable by the day.
I bet you are a blast at parties.
Go braves!
Rick Kranitz is the problem. All year, all different relievers, no adjustments made, no accountability. Kranitz has never had a team perform well behind his coaching. The Braves are winning despite his oversight. I miss the days of Leo Mazzone.
Yeah, I think Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz, among others, had a little something to do with the mighty Mazzone. He didn’t do much for Baltimore.
The whiz kid the Phils kept in place of Kranitz ain’t setting the world on fire, either.
Its AA. He’ll “ride it out” until his job is on the line and then blow up the farm system to try to keep it.
Didn’t do enough. Stretched it and overpaid desperately trying to do too much. What is it? Do they not care or or did they care too much and overspend? Someone complaining about lack of pitching coming from the farm system? You guys are in year one basically of being good to great without doing a whole lot for years to come. Good for you rebuilds are hard you deserve it. Enjoy it!!! Please there are teams with greater needs clawing just on the edge that might not even be .500 next year or begin their own rebuild. Again, enjoy it.
Melancon has only had 1 bad outing. Pitching on back-to-back days, he got one out, then gave up 4 straight singles. He left the game with 1 run in, bases loaded and 1 out. Shane Greene allowed all those runners to score. In Melancon’s other 5 games with the braves, he has allowed 0 earned runs.