The Braves announced this morning they’ve selected the contracts of right-hander Nate Jones and infielder Ehire Adrianza. Outfielder Abraham Almonte has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to the alternate training site, while right-hander Touki Toussaint was placed on the 60-day injured list with a strain in his throwing shoulder. Fellow right-hander Bryse Wilson was optioned to the alternate site, meaning he won’t be on the Opening Day roster.
Jones and Adrianza signed minor-league deals over the offseason and won roster spots with impressive performances in Spring Training. Once an elite reliever with the White Sox, Jones’ career was sidetracked a bit by injuries, as he managed just 52 innings between 2017-19. He pitched to a 6.27 ERA over 18.2 innings with the Reds last year, allowing five home runs in that limited time. Jones struck out 23 against just six walks for Cincinnati, though, and he’ll now enter his tenth different season at the big league level.
Adrianza spent the past four years as a utility option with the Twins. He had a brutal .191/.287/.270 line over 101 plate appearances last year but hit a solid .272/.349/.416 over a larger sample in 2019. Also a former Giant, Adrianza has played everywhere along the infield (with extensive experience up the middle) and picked up a few innings in the corner outfield.
Almonte surprisingly signed a major-league deal with the Braves last October but he’ll lose that 40-man roster spot before the start of the season. While he has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past eight years, Almonte has gotten very little recent playing time. The switch-hitting outfielder only picked up 51 combined plate appearances between the 2019 Diamondbacks and 2020 Padres.
It’s a bit of a surprise to see Wilson optioned out. When the Braves optioned Kyle Wright earlier this week, that seemed to suggest Wilson would open the year as the #5 starter behind Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Drew Smyly and Ian Anderson. Wilson will likely be back before long, but it seems Atlanta’s content to lean on multi-inning arms like Josh Tomlin and/or Sean Newcomb in the fifth starter’s spot, at least early in the year.
Toussaint’s placement on the 60-day IL comes as a surprise. It hadn’t been clear the 24-year-old was dealing with an injury of any kind. The Braves didn’t announce a timetable for his return, but he’ll be shelved at least into June.
Adrainza forcing himself on the roster! Got to love that! Honestly though, I’m very frustrated Wilson will not be the 5th starter and we are going with a bullpen game with a weaker bullpen that we had last year. Kinda ridiculous. He’s pitched fine this spring and I honestly think he earned himself a start or two. Why would we potential tax our bullpen unnecessarily so early in the season? Idk. Just my opinion. Gonna be interesting to see the rest of the roster fill out. Camargo, Ender, Jackson, Dayton… all guys to keep eyes on
Seems I read that the schedule will allow them to go without a need for a 5th starter until the middle of April when Soroka is expected back. If all goes well, he comes back and we have 5. If it doesn’t, we can then bring Wilson (or someone else) back up and have 5 as well.
Doesn’t seem to be a real need for a 5th starter this early in the season, which allows you to carry an additional bullpen arm (Newk maybe) or an additional bat.
Snit already said they are leaning towards a bullpen game unless I misunderstood that interview the other night. Even so, for that short amount of time, I see no reason to not keep Wilson on the roster. Like make him a bullpen arm for a couple weeks, that’s perfectly fine. I hope Newcomb makes the roster. I think it’s time for Dayton and Jackson to go. They don’t have options, so you know we will keep them. But I think we have better options at this point
If he’s being conditioned to be a SP, they’re not just gonna throw him into some RP situations.
Pitchers these days are overly sensitive, can’t throw over 100 pitches, teams don’t let them work through rough innings, etc. It’s def not the 90’s or even the early 00’s.
We’re already at the point where starting pitchers will be brought in after another starting pitcher has hit his allotted 100 pitches (or whatever his amount is). Sort of like a Spring Training game.
That’s why the “bulk pitcher” buzz-phrase is being bandied about in the media. Teams will have 6-8 bulk pitchers.
Watch what the Rays do this year.
Wilson was optioned because he could be. Several of the braves relievers are out of options forcing the move to be made. As noted above the first game pitched by a fifth starter will be a bullpen game, iirc that will be against the nationals. I believe bryce has won the fifth spot, or first chance at it, if soroka falters in his return timeline.
Yes a few weeks ago the Braves said they wouldn’t need a 5th starter the first couple weeks of the season. Shut did kind of mention a BP game was a possibility but I seriously doubt he would do that this early. Wilson still might get a start before Soroka is ready. I know I’m ready. GO BRAVES!!
So who will be the 5th starter?
Prob won’t need/use one until Soroka comes back if all goes according to plan, Mid-April.
The Braves have two off days (April 2 and April 8) early in the year. Fried will take the ball on April 1. Instead of giving him an extra day, they’ll give him the ball again on April 6, which is normally the fifth turn but he’ll be on regular rest. The Braves will have a bullpen game on April 7, but then they have the 8th off which gives everyone an extra day of rest until the fifth spot is needed on April 13.
TL,DR: By opting for a bullpen day (which again is followed by a day of rest), the Braves can carry an extra arm or bench player for the first 10 games of the regular season. At that point, Soroka should only be a few weeks from returning so you could theoretically go with six starters for a turn or two.
Somebody please for the life of me explain why a team that has ample SP options would need a bullpen game this early in the season ?
When will this opener fad just go away already
What do pitching coaches nowadays even get paid for none are teaching anybody how to pitch
They send guys out there to throw as hard as they can for as long as they can and then replace them after a few innings for the next high velocity arm
Because they have ample SP options in the bullpen stretching them out after an anomaly of a season. Guys aren’t going to go from 60 IP to 190 IP without a lot of risk, especially if they’ve never done it before (most of our guys). It’s just semantics, but the SP will get their IP, just maybe not when and how they’d expect at first.
Going from 60 IP to 190 IP without risk?
Come on. These guys come off having 5 months off following every season and can pitch 190 innings just fine.
If they’ve thrown that volume in the past the fact they only pitched 60 last year is inconsequential. If anything, it was a welcomed break.
If they’ve never thrown that much it’s simply a matter of building the stamina that every young pitcher goes through. The 60 IP last year didn’t weaken any pitcher, that’s craziness
They haven’t thrown that volume before.
Bryse hasn’t thrown more than 141 innings.
Ian hasn’t thrown more than 135.
But they should be conditioned at this stage of their career to do so. That’s what off-season work is for. Not bulking up muscles but stretching out the arms so you can increase IP’s.
SP’s should be able to go 200 innings a year.
So you want to risk pitchers getting injured in the offseason. You’re smart one
Not sure that’s what he said.
In addition to your comment, some of the bullpen guys are failed SP’s themselves. So, by using 2 former SP’s for 3 innings ea then use regular RP’s to finish the game should be doable (on paper at least).
I’m still upset we did not get the best third baseman in baseball. If memory serves me correct the Rockies are paying his salary this year. The Cardinals basically gave Nolan another year and some low level prospects. Nolan’s defense alone is worth the price of admission. Trying to go to the World Series with an average budget is tough. Where are you Ted Turner?
Braves are above the league average in spending. Nolan’s defense is not worth the cost (alone) and there are serious questions about his offense numbers outside of Coors. I can see why a team would be wary of taking him on.
The Rockies aren’t paying all of it. They sent $51m of the $199m he’s owed. Not to mention the opt-out deal(s) included.
Because Cobb County didn’t approve moving the Rocky Mountains into metro ATL. Something about too many overpasses to replace. And you misspelled José Ramírez.
It’s all subjective, but he did say the top 3b, not the 2nd best (if that) in baseball.
Not to long ago a SP would work 75-80% effort and dial it up to 95-100% effort when he needed it & get you a solid 5-6 innings with better PITCHERS able to go longer
Nowadays guys come in blazing 100 mph wild and all over the place extending pitch counts and begin to get rocked by the 4th cause the hitters are able to catch up to them by then
Jacob DeGrom is the only pitcher I see able to dial it down a bit and hit his spots consistently with movement over brute velocity. He throws hard but it’s so effortless. No wonder he is the best SP in baseball far & away.
You say that but I saw headlines in the first 3 weeks of spring with reports that degrom was hitting 102. Scary if he can produce that when needed over 7 innings. But normally Atlanta seems to do well against the top 3 or 4 pitchers in baseball. Just let them grind themselves out with a little hard work on the corners.
You’re correct in your analysis – and it is why starters are less and less important. They have a ceiling of 100 pitches. With the additional foul balls batters continue to hit each year the number of innings all pitchers complete goes down as well. Two years ago the average start in MLB was 5-2/3 innings – expect that to go down this year. So it makes sense that a Josh Tomlin and/or Sean Newcomb can share a start and get the team into the 6th or 7th inning where the 4,800 bullpen guys each team carries can take over. That is the future.
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As for DeGrom being ” the best SP in baseball far & away”, check out Shane Bieber of the Indians. Had he followed his friend Lindor to the big city (and national media fawning) Mets – everyone would know about him……MLB players sure do.
People already know about Bieber, but DeGrom is the #1 pitcher in baseball and it’s not even close.
Sure, Bieber’s not close to DeGrom.
You got that.
2020: Degrom:
WAR 2.7
W 4
L 2
ERA 2.38
2020 Bieber:
WAR 3.2
W 8
L 1
ERA 1.63
DeGrom pitching vs AL/NL East
Bieber pitching vs NL/AL Central
No comparison in opponents
Fail to add that to your analysis
Hmm, did you really just use W/L’s as a metric to judge a pitcher? Pretty sure that’s been a no-no for 5 years or so.
I’m a damn Braves fan, and DeGrom is the #1 pitcher in baseball. The rest are fighting for #2. Period.
DeGrom faced AL East and NL East in 2020.
Beiber faced AL Central and NL Central in 2020.
Look at where those rank going into 2021…
mlb.com/news/mlb-divisions-2021-ranking
Not to mention, Beiber got destroyed by the Yankees in the playoffs. 4.2 innings, 9 hits, 7 runs, 7 earned runs, and 2 walks.
Gerrit Cole has entered the chat…
Not sure why, don’t need a moderator.
No it makes absolutely no sense for Newcomb & a Tomlin to get a team to the 5th
& what does 2 years got to do with anything. That was closer to what is goin on. Ow than to what was going on in Maddux, Clemens, Pedro etc heydays
Yes I like Bieber but let him do what he is doing for a little bit longer before you put him in DeGrom’s category
Big Jake deserves at least that much respect for what he has accomplished
Wilson will be the 5th starter when they need one
I think the early season is still a “weeding” process. Trot a bunch of pitchers out there and find out which ones are reliable. Too often teams do that later in the season out of necessity rather than having a plan. You can still use all your pitchers but you have to start thinking about the fact that your best 3 relievers are going to be in 60 games and that you’re trying to win 90 games. And you can increase those numbers a little bit it takes a lot of arms to get through 162 games and arrive at the postseason with some horsepower that can still fire on all cylinders.
It’s hard to believe Wilson is still so young. I feel like he’s been around for a while and was quickly approaching bust status but he still has years to figure things out in the majors. It’s good to see him finding success in the early going.
if im Bryse Wilson im TICKED
He’s a competitor and understands that they don’t need a 5th SP until a couple weeks in, where he wouldn’t be getting reg work, which could jeopardize his readiness when they really will need them. Finally it feels like ATL is starting to benefit from the luxury of too many arms.
I’m sure Snit pulled Bryse into his office and told him the plan to start the season. Not that he had to bc I’m sure he knew they didn’t need a 5th early on. But letting him know they still have plans for him would probably help a young guy who’s had so many ups and downs. Having an extra bench or BP to start makes sense though.
The schedule allows Braves to skip a 5th starter at least 1 time through rotation, so I guess moving Wilson to alternate training site allows Braves to carry an x-tra reliever early when starters are likely not to go very deep in the game and give Wilson simulated game action to keep him ready when Braves will need a 5th starter.
Wilson moves makes sense, he will be up in two weeks. I think Camargo doesn’t make the club nor Kipnis. I am hoping Contreras wins backup catcher.
Tukki will be released mid year, 60 day stint is bs
I think it’s time to package Ender & Camargo to a team like Seattle or Baltimore for their old broken washing machine, throw in a Tukki as well. He’s not going to cut it for the Braves. Get something for him in return.
Since the minor league season doesn’t start until May this year, I think the plan is to have Contreras be up for April then swap Jackson and him so Contreras can play everyday in Gwinnett.
Wilson, by a long shot, outplayed Jackson for the backup C spot but the Braves will still go with Jackson(IMO) to start the season. From everything I’ve heard they want Contreras to get some every day playing time in triple A. I would definitely rather have him with the big club but understand getting him more AB’s too.
Snit to touki “you are officially hurt ok? Now go figure out how to throw strikes and get outs the next 2 months.”
Just released Camargo, we’ve spent enough money and time on him to develop.
Some players can’t adjust to being pinch hitters or not playing every day. Maybe Camargo is one of those. Maybe if he landed on a second division team and they just threw him out there everyday, he’d figure it out again. The Rockies, maybe?
Peace Touki Toussaint. Hope he gets released