Braves ace Max Fried strained his hamstring during his Opening Day start, and manager Brian Snitker has already indicated the southpaw is likely to land on the 15-day injured list. Atlanta hasn’t made that transaction yet — IL stints can be backdated as many as three days — and the rotation plans for next week remain uncertain. Mark Bowman of MLB.com unsurprisingly tweets that right-handers Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder are under consideration to take the ball next Wednesday against the Cardinals in what would’ve been Fried’s spot.
Anderson and Elder entered Spring Training as the presumptive favorites for the fifth starter job behind Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Kyle Wright. Neither ended up securing the job out of camp, as prospects Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd jumped them on the depth chart. Both Elder and Anderson were optioned out; Shuster and Dodd each were penciled into the season-opening rotation when Wright started the year on the IL.
With Fried likely to join him, the Atlanta front office could have to choose between Anderson and Elder to fill in. The latter got the Opening Day start for Triple-A Gwinnett today, allowing four runs in six innings. He’d be lined up on standard rest for Wednesday’s outing if the Braves wanted to go in that direction.
Dodd, meanwhile, is listed as the probable starter for Tuesday’s matchup in St. Louis. That’ll be his major league debut, and the Braves will have to make a roster move before then. Atlanta has yet to select the southpaw onto the 40-man roster, preserving some flexibility in that regard until he’s tabbed to take the mound. The Braves’ 40-man is at capacity and the club doesn’t have any obvious candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list, so they could be faced with a DFA decision early next week.
Deeper on the rotation depth chart, Michael Soroka is slated to take the ball for Gwinnett on Tuesday in what’ll be his season debut. The righty was optioned after getting a late start in camp thanks to a hamstring issue. Soroka hasn’t thrown a major league pitch since 2020 because of a pair of Achilles ruptures. His 2022 campaign consisted of 25 innings between High-A and Triple-A.
Soroka tells Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal Constitution he’s likely “to be limited to about three or four innings (per outing) for a little bit.” He’ll work both in the rotation and out of the bullpen with Gwinnett as he and the club explore ways to gradually build his workload. Soroka indicated he’d be open to pitching in relief to get back to the MLB level if the team felt that the best course of action. He noted the club doesn’t currently feel low-leverage bullpen work is the best way to get him back to pre-injury form. Soroka started 37 games between 2018-20, throwing 214 innings of 2.86 ERA ball before his 23rd birthday.
That minor league experimentation isn’t limited to the pitching staff. Atlanta is using Braden Shewmake at second base in Gwinnett, as Burns writes in a separate piece for the Journal Constitution. The former first-round pick has only started nine games at the keystone — all last season — in his minor league career. The rest of his innings have come at shortstop, where he was competing for the MLB job this spring. Both Shewmake and Vaughn Grissom lost out to veteran Orlando Arcia in the camp battle, leading the two younger players to be sent to Gwinnett.
Grissom will get the majority of the shortstop reps there. Shewmake is regarded by evaluators as the superior defender of the two, while Grissom has a higher offensive ceiling. The Braves seem comfortable with Shewmake’s glove at shortstop as is, reasoning that giving the tougher reps to Grissom will hopefully lead to him taking a step forward. Whether the 22-year-old is up to the task defensively was a storyline of the offseason once it became clear the Braves would look internally for Dansby Swanson’s replacement.
Where is Jonathan Villar these days?
All off-season I was hoping for a defense minded SS added to our team, our offense could have carried him. All great baseball teams are strong defensively up the middle.
I seem to remember a guy named Jeter that wasn’t very good defensively, yet his Yankees teams had one of the best runs of all time.
I remember Jeter refusing to move off short in favor of the vastly defensive (and offensive) superior A-Rod. “Team” player.
To be fair, neither was A-Rod. From one “Team Player” to another, right?
How was he not?
If you cheat and use PED’s, you’re not a team player, plain and simple.
Well that is a ridiculously bias way of looking at it and by that logic, the majority of yankee players during the “steroid era” were not “team players”.
Of course, steroids were not tested for and they helped you recover from injury, training sessions, made you a better player and by default made your team better but somehow that doesn’t make you a team player?
Also, players cheat all the time, “if you’re not cheating you’re not trying” ring a bell? All those pitchers using spider tack were not team players? The Astros were not team players? The YANKEES were not team players for stealing signs? Please.
There’s zero causal link between the two. A player can want his team to win while artificially adding to his own stats. How would those be mutually exclusive goals?
Tell that to all the players who don’t cheat and have success. The decision to cheat is inherently a selfish decision, whether you try to conflate it with helping your team or not. Also, steroids do not “by default” make a player or there team better. They still actually have to play.
Thats why pretty much every time a player gets caught for using PED’s, they always say something along the lines of in there apology statements “…I’m sorry for letting my team down…”, because they did it for the team.
Another thing, yes, sign stealing is not being a team player if you ask me. All those guys outperforming there actual baseball abilities because they can’t play fairly, and screwing the guys underneath them in the minors over out of opportunities in the majors, or at the very least prolonging there stay in the minors because of there inflated stats, isn’t being a team player.
Hahaha ok captain one point of view. You are correct. Bet you’re very political. You have a perfect user name, suits your personality perfectly.
The only reason baseball survived post strike is because of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Think about that next time you watch a game.
Of course, someone always has to interject “political” into something that has zero to do with that word, sure seems like a projection of your way of thinking. One of the, I’m sure many, differences between you and me, is that I don’t think my opinion is the one and only opinion and shouldn’t be. You’re entitled to your own, doesn’t mean its right. Same for me. I’m not going to go as low as you and resort to insults, and just stick with the topic as hand, baseball. I just prefer to follow the opinions of baseball players who are opposed to cheating.
Shewmake hit a game winning 3 run HR and Grissom had a hit and got 2 walks and a SB he had an error but both guys turned a DP. So these guys aren’t pouting they are working hard. Which is the best way to do things because Iron strengthens iron and the talent is there they just gotta work out the rough edges and become the finished product for October.
So if they had an o-fer, they would be pouting? Settle down. It’s only game one.
No but pouting people don’t get on base three times or hit game winning home runs.
Pissed off players do though
A hit and an error from Grissom is hardly a good game. On pace for 162 errors with this logic.
If he’s already making errors it’s just an obvious sign he has no business being the Braves SS and never did.
Nobody cares about errors anymore. It’s range that matters. This ain’t 1975.
Shewmake is on pace to hit 162 home runs, right? Cherry picking your slippery sloaps?
Shewmake also struck out 4 times. But please, draw conclusions from a single baseball game. There’s a reason the season isn’t 17 games like the NFL
Shewmake’s bat must just be terrible, if he is better defensively and the Braves have moved him to second base.
Shoemake bat not terrible but Braves know he can handle shortstop defensive; so when both in them minors they both need to play and Grissom needs to prove defensive that he can handle shortstop.
If I was making a wager I would guess that Shoemake has the better chance of being the every day shortstop and Grissom becomes a Chris Taylor type and plays 5-6 positions in a regular basis.
He may be able to play 5-6 positions in the field but he can’t hit like Chris Taylor. He started great but his eye isn’t MLB consistent. Some glimpses but the Shortstop for Atlanta I feel is gonna get a trade. A big trade, something has to happen. We will be lucky if Arcia, Shewmake or Vaughn can hold a .250 average. We have to have atleast a decent bat. Murphy better be catching 7 of 10 is that really was a fleece trade. I bet Milwaukee is so happy they picked up the phone. Was he hated that badly that they gave him and others away in that trade? I see atleast 5-8 players that I can only hope can at least sniff a .250 batting line. To many questions marks for what is still supposed to be a championship caliber team.
@Drew Waters Bat I hope Milwaukee isn’t mad at us when they find out Contreras is a DH and NOT a catcher!! All bat and no defense!!
Lol settle down Jr. Acuna appears to be back to pre injury form. We have a top 3 catcher both hitting and defense as well as calling a game. We have Riley at third, Albies at second, Harris in center. The only question marks are SS and LF. If LF gets sorted, I will take a light hitting SS with good defense. No team is without question marks but there is a reason the Braves are the odds on favorite to win the NL.
@advplee This IS by far the best Braves team that I’ve seen since I’ve been watching them in the last 23 years!!!
Not only a really stupid take, but also very long. No one cares about your manifesto.
Are you kidding me? I don’t understand why Atlanta had to give up Contreras at all. 1 or 2 other players added instead of him could have made that work. That was a massive over for Murphy, then they immediately overpaid him, himself. Contreras was in no way terrible at all behind the plate. Passed balls were better. AA gave away Contreras, for nothing. He didn’t need to be added to that trade. Why did he gun so hard for the trade after a year of “we aren’t pursuing him” blah. Mark my words. As long as he stays healthy, Contreras will hit .280 with 30 hrs while we will be lucky to see .250 and 20 hrs out of Murphy. Too many spots in the lineup are being held up, by hopefuls. We hope they are great but Vaughn Grissom not breaking camp shows just how volatile this thing is in some spots.
I can assure James J that in no way. Is Milwaukee upset about anything to do with that trade. They can’t believe how lucky they were to get a call and be asked to commit highway robbery on 2 teams. Normally the 3rd team that is called in to help get a trade accomplished, isn’t the team that walks away with 70% of that prospects that were involved in the trade. How many players did they get in the trade, either 6 or 7. We gave away an All Star for peanuts. The math wasn’t to far if we traded the 2 and like 4 million in cash for Murphy straight up. It must have been to even up for trading Pache to them so AA had to give away a All Star and others for a guy who wasn’t in the opening day starting lineup, not because of injury. If by the end of the season both Travis d and Sean M are healthy but Travis catches more innings, that’ll be some crap.
That’s funny Sid because for some reason you felt the need to comment and tell me what you thought about it. Even though I couldn’t care less about you or your thoughts on it. You seem to be incredibly stupid. A manifesto, a long paragraph maybe but a manifesto. How ignorant are you in your daily life? Where did I request or demand or lay out and guidelines for how I thought the team should be run? Not to mention it was nothing political. Do you just like trigger words because it makes you feel intelligent?
Fascinating. Your tales are still stupid.
And? Again, why do you think I care what your opinion is? Couldn’t help but notice you didn’t actually offer a counter point to anything I said, which would be incredibly easy but you either aren’t able to hold a civil conversation or you have issues. Either or, not my circus, not my clowns. Notice how non-intellectual people will say you are wrong but can’t seem to every give a reason why.
You don’t care yet you respond with 12 sentences every time and think the word “manifesto” is politically charged because you heard it on CNN. Cool story.
@DrewWaters Don’t worry,there’s a few holes in everyone else’s lineup as well…especially the Mets (who have a plethora)…and the Phillies who are without Harper & Hopkins.
Murphy was a 5 war player last year. There are not many of those. Murphy will show you over the year why AA mast the trade and it will be good value. I believe this trade will extend the years the Braves will be able to have Travis. If you have not seen Shewmake or Grissom play in spring—-it’s easy to be confused by them. Grissom’s defense has taken a big step forward and he can and will be a good very solid defensive player—add his bat and your looking at a very good SS. Shewmake is/can be a top type defensive SS and his bat is finally coming around to the swing change they asked of him 2 plus years ago. Both players can very very good. Either one has a possibility of being better than Dans. Grissom’s bat could easily be about 20/25 percent better than Dans career WRC and Shewmake could be almost equal to dans defensively and if his bat continues to advance have a WRC of about 115 to 120. Both of these players could turn into very good SS. If you have to see them play in spring it’s easy not to see the changes. Both players are doing very well and the sky is the limit—-both could regress — anything is possible. I feel both will continue to get better.
You realize that Orlando Arcia was a starting shortstop for 4 years and the brewers went to he playoffs multiple times? He has what it takes and maybe the best arm of anyone on Atlanta? I am not worried at all about him.
Drew: First, you’re not taking into account the difference in defensive ability between Murphy and Contreras. And second, stop obsessing over a 250 batting average. OPS is the one basic stat that includes all of a player’s offensive contributions. Doubles, triples, homers, and walks. Some of you are so stuck in the past with the old stats that it really affects your ability to evaluate the players.
Benjamin, hope you are right. We were not strong defensively at catcher last year. WC has a long way to go before he can call himself a catcher and was not unhappy we traded him. I value defense and myself I would not let Ozuna on the field except to hit, know we are stuck with him.
I don’t read CNN, but I’m sure you have atleast one type of subscription, you seem obident for others. As well maybe you should actually look up the definition of manifesto, before try to act like, well whatever you are attempting to pass yourself off as. Still no counter point, just continuing on being a tool. You do you.
CNN is generally considered a visual medium. Enjoy being muted. I’ve zero interest in reading your blog posts you’re throwing up on here.
Braves Country, at the end of the day we want the team to be successful. Watching this team the past 30 years I’ve done my best to remember it’s about the name and tomahawk on the front of that jersey! I get it, we get attached to the player especially if they produce and are a likable person based on the short perception we receive in the public eye. We were spoiled with Chipper who never left but that’s not the game any longer aside from a few outliers. Hell I like Olson and got his jersey but it still pains and looks weird to me seeing Freeman in that Dodger blue. How about we pull the “rope” as fans in the same direction and cheer on our 2023 squad? To much division in the world we live in today but at Truist, if you got a tomahawk across your chest we fam. See you at Truist on the 6th. Rep the A!
@bravesnation As a baseball fan overall, love to see the team spirit. You’re so very right about too much division in our society, and we need baseball to be a short refuge and vacation from all that…where nobody cares who you voted for as long as you’re showing up for your team. Love your comment,sir.
More people need this type of attitude, thank you.
Soroka is not a bullpen arm. I understand building him up, but he’s a rotation workhorse type arm…. All we need is his legs to agree
As a Nationals fan, Soroka would have been our Opening Day starter in his present condition. We’ll trade you Corbin for him and pay Corbin’s remaining years on the deal. Deal?
Grissom should be moved to the outfield.
Mets since 1962: 9 playoff appearances, 2 rings
Braves since 1962: 24 playoff appearances, 2 rings
Since 1987: Braves 2 rings and Mets NONE.
Is it a ring game? The marlins crush the Mets then—and many others. Would you rather have competitive baseball most years?
Rings since 1962:
Mets: 2
Braves: 2
Marlins: 2
Phillies: 2
Expos/Nationals: 1
Yes, it is a ring game
And yeah, technically by the same logic the Marlins have been better than the other NL East teams
Point is, even back to 1958 before they even existed, Mets have as many rings as Braves
The truth is the Mets have won titles and made playoffs at a rate that puts them in the top 10 teams
They just had 50 years less existence
Ignorant Sob, Richard DC. I appreciate your kind words. We are Braves Country! I don’t care if your White,Black,Asian, Latin, Democrat , Republican, or Independent! If you got Atlanta or Braves across your chest like I said we are family. Instead of pointing out our differences let’s ALL find out what we have in common? In this case OUR BRAVES. Other stuff will buff and I find that true fans have mutual respect for each other as a human being then a fan. For me, it’s different at Truist, I’ve been to multiple ballparks all over OUR country but I it’s nothing like a weekend series at Truist Park! Stand Up Braves Country and Chop On in unity for our Braves and for each other! See your on Apr 6th!
You should get an award for being the first POSITIVE comment to start with “Ignorant SOB”.
Dog on auto correct, sorry. Go Braves.
I tried Biff, I tried! Back To The Future I guess.