The Braves have reinstated right-handed pitcher Ian Anderson from the injured list, per a team announcement. Fellow righty Edgar Santana was optioned as the corresponding move.
The return of Anderson should give further momentum to a Braves club that has been surging of late. After hovering around .500 for most of the season, the club has gone 17-6 so far in August and vaulted up to first in the NL East, currently sitting 4 1/2 games ahead of the Phillies and 7 1/2 ahead of the Mets.
Anderson’s season hasn’t been quite as brilliant as his 2020 debut, but has been excellent nonetheless. After putting up a 1.95 ERA across 31 1/3 innings last year, the righty has an ERA of 3.56 in 96 innings in 2021. However, he was stalled by right shoulder inflammation and landed on the IL July 16th. Now that he’s healthy again, and combined with the recent return of Huascar Ynoa, the Atlanta rotation is now the strongest it has been in months, as they try to defend their perch atop the division over the season’s final weeks.
For Santana, this continues his yo-yo season, as this is his third time being optioned since being acquired from the Pirates in April. When in the big leagues, he’s been a serviceable member of the bullpen, throwing 37 2/3 innings with an ERA of 3.82. He’s done that despite a below average strikeout rate of 20.3%, but an excellent walk rate of 5.9%.
I do not understand this move. Tomlin is the one that needs to go down
Does Tomlin have an option to go down? I’d imagine he doesn’t, which means they would have to DFA him and expose him.
No ones claiming Tomlin if he’s DFA’d lol
I know, that’s why you DFA him.
I doubt too many people are gonna be lining up for Tomlin’s services. He’s absolutely terrible.
Agreed. I am scratching my head at why Tomlin is still on the roster.
Frankly, Snit has a habit of vouching for veterans past their expiration date. Sure, veteran leadership matters and clubhouse chemistry is EXTREMELY important. Tomlin offers little in the way of actual on-field performance minus being the occasional punching bag in a blowout loss.
Yes, he must be extorting the manager or someone high up in the organization! I don’t understand the logic either. 🙁
It’s bc Tomlin is the mop up guy. They don’t put anyone else in that role.
However, they should.
Exactly tomlin is the innings eater in the blowouts. He hasn’t pitched good to be put in any other position, other than the waiver wire.
Tell that to snitker lol
I agree with you 100 percent, Tomlin was the one to go and while the Braves are at it, work on a trade to rid themselves of Wil Smith.
The deadline passed
Agreed, although in September when the rosters expand you can bring Santana up.
Tomlin is still there because who else is there if long relief is needed. ie. more than 3 innings if there’s a 1st or 2nd inning raid on a starter. Hopefully that won’t happen but it is what it is.
Puzzling move here…. I get Santana has options, but when you’re in the midst of a playoff push, the idea is to make your team better. Tomlin is clearly the worse pitcher on the roster right now and Santana has looked pretty solid to this point. The entire team should not be even a freckle worse off simply because they don’t want to cut bait with a veteran that has had a rough year
The Yanks are doing this kind of stuff too.
I think most (all?) GM’s of contenders are being especially conscious of holding onto every little scrap of depth that they can.
Oftentimes, this means sending down a better player who has options & keeping a lesser guy on the 26 man who does not. I honestly can’t blame them. ’21 is the Year Of the Injury & Covid is still a thing.
Yanks had 21 guys out less than 2 weeks ago. & of course the Braves have been hit equally hard. So we are seeing some moves that appear pretty questionable.
But in the Yanks case (& I think in this instance too), every one of those moves is always about holding onto as much depth as long as possible.
That’s exactly it, Ducky. Obviously us Braves fans don’t want to see Tomlin pitching multiple innings, but he has the ability to do it. It’s purely that they don’t want to lose that depth option if they lost 2 starters or something. With a true, firm trade deadline, it’s nearly impossible to add September pieces now.
& on paper it looks so stupid sometimes.
The Yanks have this kid Ridings on their Covid taxi squad. He was up for a couple weeks. Man. He throws a 4-seam, 2-seam, & cut FB. From 92-100 mph. Looks like he has the makings to be an absolute sawmill for RH bats.
Yet…he got sent back down.
GM’s are being Scrooges with any remotely serviceable arms.
What’s ironic is, he should have pitched today in this blowout, but we pitched TT instead. Heck, minter even pitched. Should have pitched tomlin a couple innings and rest up for the Dodgers
Aqualung > Black Magic Woman
Both good but for me
Black Magic Woman > Aqualung
Can players who are sent down on the 29th be back brought back up on 9/1 when rosters expand?
Santana 3.84 ERA
Tomlin 6.85 ERA
He must have some explicit pictures of Snitker to still be on the team.
You could bring up Tanner Roark to be the long guy. Geez, this makes no sense at all. Tomlin couldn’t even get AAA hitters out. Being a “good guy” is no reason to keep someone on a 26-man roster, but Snitker loves him some sucky veterans.
3 things hard to comprehend…Smith as closer, Smiley still in rotation, Tomlin still on the roster.
Rosters expand soon, I wouldn’t worry too much.