The Braves have added right-handers Brad Brach and Nick Vincent on minor league deals with invitations to big league camp, per Bill Shanks of SportsRadio WXKO. (Twitter links)
Brach, 36 next month, has pitched in the past 11 MLB seasons. However, his effectiveness has dropped in recent years, as he hasn’t posted an ERA under 5.00 since 2018. In the past three years, he’s appeared in 107 games, putting up an ERA of 5.77. His 24.4% strikeout rate in that time was above average, but he paired that with an unfortunate 14.4% walk rate. Last year, he threw 30 innings for the Reds, but was released in September with an ERA of 6.30 on the campaign.
Vincent, 36 in July, has pitched in each of the past ten MLB seasons, never finishing a campaign with an ERA higher than the 4.43 he had in 2019 and 2020. Last year, in 12 2/3 innings for the Twins, he got his ERA all the way down to 0.71. However, that was a tiny sample and largely based on an unsustainable .161 batting average on balls in play, leading every advanced metric to cast doubt on that ERA.
The Braves have been busy bolstering their bullpen in recent days, adding Kenley Jansen, Collin McHugh and Tyler Thornburg. The additions of Brach and Vincent give the club a veteran safety net, should they require one.
Great pick ups. No risk. Something else worth remembering, our minors are bleeding with talent. Very limited in terms of prospect and even after the few we have, the drop off from them and the rest is vast. A lot of these guys will not only battle for depth/bench roles, but will also help put a competitive enough team on the field in the minors to keep some fans coming to games. Sounds silly, but they are businesses at the end of the day
Good point. Do the mlb teams get any revenue from their minor league affiliates?
Or are the minors their own self sustained body that just operates as a talent development/pipeline for the MLB teams?
I assume the MLB teams get some kind of kickback for drafting & sending the talent there & basically building the minor league team’s roster.
They all fall under the mlb umbrella and their affiliated teams. That’s why it was a big deal when mlb eliminated some many teams a couple years ago. Mainly financial… so at the end of the day, yes. They are all a part of one big organization. Idk if it still exist, but occasionally, a 3rd party organization will contractually join an affiliate to bring a minor league team to their city/park. Think of the fire frogs. My explaining of that can be off, but there are exceptions to the basic overall concept
This seals our AAA championship this year.
And any franchise won the AAA championship and world series in the same year
It has happened 6 times but not in the last like 60 years I think.
In 1953 the dodgers and Yankees squared off in both AAA and MLB World Series.
We just might be cheering these guys late in the season.