The Braves announced this afternoon that they’ve released left-hander Robbie Erlin, who’d been designated for assignment over the weekend. The veteran southpaw is now free to sign with any club.
Erlin, 29, opened the season with the Pirates but was designated for assignment and picked up off waivers by the Braves shortly thereafter. The longtime Padres hurler made a pair of solid starts for the Braves early in his tenure, tossing eight innings and holding opponents to a combined two runs, but he’s been hammered over his five most recent outings. Overall, he’s put together an ugly 8.49 ERA with Atlanta and an 8.10 mark on the season as a whole.
Rough 2020 results aside, Erlin isn’t far removed from a solid 2018 campaign in San Diego. He tossed 109 frames that year between a dozen starts and 27 relief outings, working to an overall 4.21 ERA and 3.31 FIP with averages of 7.27 strikeouts, 0.99 walks and 0.99 homers per nine innings pitched. Prior to his poor results from 2019-20, Erlin had compiled a lifetime 4.40 ERA and 3.58 FIP in 257 2/3 MLB frames.
It’s impossible to simply ignore his recent results, but perhaps a club with some other ideas for his pitch selection might have ideas about how to help him return to form. Erlin did scrap his once-effective sinker entirely in 2020, gravitating more toward four-seamers and curveballs than ever before.
Best news I’ve heard so far! Erlin was AWFUL.
Definitely the news the world needed to hear right now! Hurray!
Good news!
C’mon Rangers, we need to add Erlin to our “can’t fail tank duo”. I hope we lose the last 13 games. Let’s go… or… not go, Rangers!
Oh, I didn’t specify who was in the “Can’t fail tank duo”, it’s Jesse Chavez in the pen. I think they’d be er, great together.
Allard got the memo.
I know he has had some god awful outings, but Allard has impressed me. I see a lot of potential as a 3 starter there. In the outings that he has good command, he can fly through 7 innings. But he has been off his game more than he has been on it. He’s still only 23, and I expect big things from him.
I feel bad for Robbie, but it just didn’t work out.
I think the article’s commentary at the end is spot on, he needs to go somewhere where a team can revaluate his pitch mix and set him up in a position to be successful. Braves are in a pennant race and desperately need starters so they weren’t really a fit for that.
After watching him in SD it seemed like he was way better out of the bullpen than as a starter, and this year he was throwing a smaller variety of pitches which probably compounded his troubles as a starter. Not that there aren’t starters who are successful and predominantly rely on two pitches, but with him starting and no longer throwing his slider and sinker it probably did not help. Who knows, maybe focusing on the 4 seam and curve out of the pen would work or maybe he needs to bring one of those pitches back into the fold. Regardless, I think theres definitely some value to him as a reliever with the right team, they just have to be willing to work through that with him.
Next man up, Anderson definitely made a stride and Wright did his own little hop. Now Hamels just needs to stay healthy and Folty and Newk just need some much-needed confidence/bulldog attitudes. Not asking for too much am I?!
Newk’s gone. Or at least back in Gwinnett
He’ll end up back in Pittsburgh
He needed to go. Look, I thought he’d be a bit better than he ultimately was for us. People act like because he was a starter that’s why he didn’t succeed and that he should have been a long reliever… but he never pitched very many innings per game… the guy just stinks.
Pretty sure I just heard the other day newk is or was just being called back up…
They called him up this past weekend but was sent down after 2 days for Toukki who started tonight. I guess after less than 3 innings and 8 runs that wasn’t a good decision.
Now let’s get Touki and Kyle Wright their release papers