The Braves have selected reliever Dylan Lee to the big league roster, per a team announcement. They’ve also recalled utilityman Orlando Arcia from Triple-A Gwinnett and placed Edgar Santana on the paternity list and Touki Toussaint on the bereavement list in corresponding moves. Atlanta already had a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no move was necessary in that regard.
Lee is up to make his major league debut. The left-hander was selected by the Marlins in the tenth round of the 2016 draft out of Fresno State. He spent the next few seasons in the Miami system, generally posting quality results but never garnering much prospect attention. Miami released him at the end of Spring Training this year.
A few weeks later, Lee hooked on with the Braves via minor league deal. He’s spent the year with Gwinnett and put up dominant numbers, working to a 1.58 ERA across 45 2/3 innings. Lee has punched out a stellar 30.2% of opponents against an extremely low 3.5% walk rate. He’s generated swinging strikes on 16.1% of his offerings, a mark that ranks 14th among the 296 Triple-A hurlers with 40+ innings pitched.
Lee’s fastball has topped out at 96 MPH but gotten plenty of whiffs in the strike zone this year, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote earlier this month. That elite showing at the minors’ top level earns the 27-year-old his first look against big league hitters.
Should the Braves hold onto a three-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East, Lee might even be an option for the postseason roster. Players in the organization but not on the 40-man roster before September 1 can still participate in the playoffs via a petition to the Commissioner’s Office, a fairly common maneuver throughout the league.
Sorry to hear about the passing of Touki’s father.
I hadn’t heard about that. Man… That’s been a pretty tough week for the guy. It also seems like he may have lost his starting job to Smyly at pretty much the exact same time. Maybe even on the same day. I know the two don’t even really compare but still, tough week. I feel for the guy.
He posted a tribute a few days ago on his IG – he passed 9/15, unfortunately.
I’ve never heard of Dylan Lee before. Looking him up on BBREF he does have some nice numbers in AAA this year. Hopefully it translates to the big leagues. Fan graphs is showing a 84% probability the Braves win the division. It appears Smyly is the long reliever at this point. Hopefully Touki will be able to grieve healthily over the loss of his father. That’s tough especially with direct family.
Who is the 5th starter? Is it just a bullpen game that Smyly usually pitches in if he’s not the one who got Touki’s spot?
And another player from the Brazilian national team has arrived in the bigs!
We need to promote Gwinnett’s pitching coach to the show today. He knows how to get it down. Nuff said
If he throws strikes and gets batters out that’s the only thing that matters. Can he start? How can we get Fried and Morton lined up for the Phillies and Mets series.
@nc. It appears Lee has been a relief pitcher for several years by looking at his stats on BBREF.
Why does Arcia keep getting called up?
Who cares? At least the Braves are not paying 300 mil to an overrated SS with ego.
*Looks at triple slash line and WAR of said egotistical SS
*strokes chins and nods
I’ll take “Things that don’t matter in third place” for $1000, Alex.
“I’ll take Tatis Jr over Swanson and Arica, for $30,000,000, Alex.”
Arica keeps coming up as the Braves have no good back up infielders. The ship has long shipped on Camago. I think the theory is to give someone a day off in the infield that the bats can over come a offense issue if the infielder can play defensive. Atlanta is going have to rest a infielder soon especially with the Friday finishing of the suspended game followed by the regular game
He seems pretty good for a guy that barely anybody has ever heard of. Will be interesting to see how he does at the MLB level.
Good luck, Dylan!