The Braves announced today that right-handers Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder have been optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. The club now has 50 players in camp.
The club is going into the season with four of its five rotation spots spoken for, with Max Fried, Spencer Strider, Kyle Wright and Charlie Morton firmly cemented. The only question was who would get the fifth spot. Anderson and Elder seemed like the frontrunners for such a job since they have some major league experience and are currently holding down spots on the 40-man roster. With players like Michael Soroka and Kolby Allard dealing with injuries, that seemed to only work in their favor. However, it seems that strong spring performances from Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd may have changed the calculus.
Anderson, 25 in May, seemed like a key member of the rotation at this time a year ago. Over 2020 and 2021, he tossed 160 2/3 innings with a 3.25 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate, 10% walk rate and 49.9% ground ball rate. Based on the fact that he was the third overall pick in 2016 and a highly-touted prospect, there was every reason to suspect he would just continue on that kind of trajectory for years to come. Unfortunately, he took a big step back last season, posting an ERA of 5.00 with all of his rate stats going in the wrong direction. He got sent down to the minors and was later recalled but finished the year on the injured list. Though his stock was down after that rough season, many still expected the club to give him another shot here in 2023. The results haven’t been especially strong here in spring so far, as he’s registered a 6.14 ERA in 7 1/3 innings.
In the case of Elder, 24 in May, he has less major league experience, just 54 innings last year. But he posted a solid 3.17 ERA in that time, continuing his groundball-heavy approach from the minors. 49.3% of balls in play allowed in the majors were on the ground, and he had slightly better rates on the farm. But like Anderson, he’s had a rough spring, posting a 6.17 ERA in 11 2/3 innings.
Shuster, 24, was the club’s first round pick in the 2020 draft and has been pushing his way up the minor league ladder since then. He tossed 90 2/3 innings in Double-A last year with a 2.78 ERA, but that jumped to a 4.25 ERA in 48 2/3 innings at Triple-A. He also saw his strikeout rate drop from 30% at Double-A to 19.4% at Triple-A. Coming into 2023, he was still considered one of the club’s top prospects, though it didn’t seem as though he was kicking the door down. But in 8 2/3 spring innings so far, he has a tiny ERA of 1.04, striking out nine batters while issuing just a single walk and allowing just a pair of hits.
Dodd, 25 in June, was selected in the third round of the 2021 draft and jumped three levels last year. Going from Class-A Advanced to Double-A and Triple-A, he tossed 142 innings on the year with a 3.36 ERA. He struck out 26% of batters faced and walked just 5.3%. He’s also had a strong showing here in camp, tossing 8 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run, striking out 11 against no walks and five hits.
Clubs will occasionally start a season with a four-man rotation, as the early parts of the schedule will sometimes have extra off-days that negate the need for a fifth. That doesn’t seem to be the case for Atlanta, as they have just two days off in the month of April, playing in 12 straight days to start the month and then a 17-day stretch without a day off that covers the end of the month and the start of May. They will certainly need someone to take the ball alongside their front four in that time.
Neither Shuster nor Dodd are currently on the 40-man roster. If one of them is eventually called upon to join the Opening Day rotation, the club will need to make a move to get them a spot. That should be fairly easy, however, as both Huascar Ynoa and Tyler Matzek are expected to miss most or all of this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery late last year. They will be moved to the 60-day injured list at some point and won’t count against the club’s roster number. There’s still a couple of weeks until the opener and the club could always change its plans, but it seems that signs are pointing to a surprise ending to the club’s rotation battle.
So Mike Soroka or Jared Shuster?
Soroka hasn’t pitched in a spring game yet because of his hamstring strain, so Shuster seems to be in the lead with Dodd as the dark horse.
Shuster or Dodd I guess.
Soroka won’t be ready.
Most would say that Shuster would have the upper hand, but I honestly wouldn’t be at all surprised if they kept Dodd at first, solely to use him as a multi-inning reliever since they technically won’t even need a fifth starter for awhile…
Sounds like a law firm. Shuster and Dodd LLC, your personal injury attorneys.
Maybe Soroka should give them a call?
Did you not read the article?
@justice it probably wasn’t complete when he posted that. Did you not know MLBTR posts pieces of articles and adds to them later on?
So long/Aqualong Ian.
I literally just clicked on the comments, expecting a Jethro Tull joke, and someone delivered. Thank you.
One day he’ll be a minstrel in the gallery.
or thick as a brick
No one wants the locker next to him because he has locomotive breath.
Braves drafted so many pitchers during their down years and not many have stuck. The best guy is Fried who came from a trade.
Crazy how all that plays out ! Soroko Anderson Wright. Those dudes are an endless roller coaster
Braves draft extremely well and win most trades. Gotta respect that
a lot of those guys were flame outs. Touki/Wilson/Allard/Anderson/Gohara
It looks like their recent draftees are the ticket. They’ve definitely figured something out.
& they’ve gotten these guys to the big leagues very fast. Not find a lot of teams that with 2020/2021 P draftees impacting the MLB team.
@ BStrowman
That’s because most GM’s are smart enough to know that pitchers shouldn’t be making a jump like that.
Yeah. Well if they pitch half as good as Strider—I’ll have to disagree.
Didn’t draft Touki or Gohara. Any pitcher you draft making it to the big leagues is a successful draft pick. It’s hard to get a pitcher to MLB
Correct but they developed both of them. It is very difficult to do. Was not saying that at all. They’ve been very successful recently.
Man, what happened to Gohara? He fell off the face of the Earth. He hasn’t pitched professional since 2018 according to Bref. You’d figure that a hard throwing left-hander would get some sort of shot by someone.
@mlb1225 Didn’t Gohara have ongoing issues with his weight? I recall one spring training where the Braves weren’t too pleased with his conditioning. I wouldn’t be surprised if he fell off because his weight ballooned to the point talent couldn’t overcome.
Dude was listed at 265lb but that always seemed generous. There were a few times toward the end of his Braves tenure that he looked around 325 at least.
Some of that weight-gain may have been depression related. According to an article I found, Gohara’s dad died unexpectedly in his arms in December 2017. Then his mom had to undergo heart surgery during the 2018 season. Then he was released two days after his birthday in 2019. Can’t help but feel pity for the guy.
Dang, that’s rough. I read the angels signed him in 2020 but he didn’t pitch in Cactus League and speculation was his weight.
Hopefully, he’s in a good place health-wise. Even if he doesn’t play professionally again.
That was Coppy with his quantity over quality strategy.
also a difference between AA and Brown’s draft strategies compared to the down years.
What happened to Ian Anderson? He was rocking it and then the bottom fell out. Too bad. I like him. Hope he gets his mojo back.
His fastball sucks.
Ian took the wrong fork in the road. Currently he is on the Folty-Newcomb Turnpike.
Soroka seems to be taking the Brandon Beachy expressway
The Mike Hampton Highway!
He’s a mental midget
Ian lost the feel for his fastball and can’t seem to locate it. He added a slider and if he can regain control on his fastball, he’ll be back. Too early to give up on him, but he needs to figure things out soon
I think he will get ack to AAA and find his release point and with the new slider be back strong.
Soroka could only pitch 100 innings tops….I believe they will bring him along slow and hope he can come in for the last 3 months.
Ian Anderson needs to add more flute.
They won’t need another starter until the 8th. At which point they could always use an opener or call someone up. The Braves Opening Day rotation will only have four players deep. Mark it Dude.
I don’t see that happening. I don’t remember any team coming out of the gate in a marathon, using a 4 man rotation. Book it dude 😉
Then you haven’t been paying attention the past 5+ seasons. A lot of tems start the season with a 4-man rotation because of the built in off days early in the season.
Exactly. It also allows for a deeper bullpen over the first couple of weeks so the starters don’t have to go as long.
The Braves have 2 off days in the month of April. A 4 starter rotation is NOT happening. Get real here!
Ian looks completely lost and I just don’t think Elder is that good.
Elder would be a serviceable long relief or spot start guy but not a starter.
Anderson’s fastball doesn’t move enough to get people out if they’re looking for it, his change up isn’t fooling people, and his control isn’t great. He really had hitters off-balance when he arrived, but they’ve figured him out. Here’s hoping he can add a few wrinkles to his arsenal in Gwinnett.
I don’t think it has anything to do with hitters “figuring him out”. He has lost control of his fastball (and change really) and is always pitching from behind in the count. I don’t care if you have Degrom’s fastball, if you have to groove one right down the middle in a 3-1 count to every hitter and they know it’s coming it’s going to get hit by a Major League hitter.
Andrew F. make a trade for this guy, Mark Prior can fix him.
Elder will come up in May and throw 6 innings of 1 run ball against my Nats lol
Unless they’re on opioids they seem like good pitchers.
Ballsy
I don’t understand what happened to Ian Anderson. And he was so great in the postseason! I still can’t believe with such a strong top 4 that they wouldn’t allow him to spend at least a couple of months as the #5. He only pitched a little over 7 innings this spring, and that’s all the rope he gets?
Nothing has changed with him so they know what’s gonna happen when he starts. He’s Newcomb 2.0
Anderson suffered a shoulder injury in 2021. He hasn’t been right since.
sticky stuff ban also happened last year when he started struggling more
The Braves are a top tier team. They are not going to place a guy in the rotation who has shown nothing last year or spring training. Rebuilding teams do that looking for low cost lightning in a bottle.
They see something they don’t like or I feel like he would stay up a bit. They’re sending him down is hopefully to correct the problem or they could have just given up on him
Team put feelings aside and made the visual decision. Both those dudes are pitching well and Anderson and Elder no so much. With the potential of injuries and lack of of days both will be needed. Both need to go down to Gwinnett and not pout and pitch every 5th day.
Ian Anderson… 3rd overall draft pick, high school teammate of Kevin Heuter, pride of Shendehowa H.S…. Total BUST as a mn MLB pitcher.
Nope. WTF? He is 24 and will be great.
Sure. Anderson will probably make Braves fans forget Greg Maddux, Warren Spahn, Phil Niekro, Smoltz, and Glavine. Pencil Anderson in for the 2023 CY Award and make him a reservation at the Otesaga Inn in Cooperstown in 2040 for his induction.
Dodd might have a zero ERA in the “real” games this spring, but he started against DR as a WBC warmup, and gave up 5 ER in two and two-thirds.
but still managed to shut them down the first time through the order. Not bad for a rookie.
Braves can still bring up Anderson mid season.
I’m guessing Soroka can head to the pen if the injuries keep piling up.
Im seeing a isringhousen here.
If the Braves go the trade route to acquire a #5 starter and/or OF depth, wouldn’t surprise me if Ian Anderson is used as bait. He’s still young, and every pitching coach believes they have the magic elixir to fix whatever is wrong.
JMHO, but I think Shuster gets 20-24 starts this year and does a commendable job.
Anderson the righty version of Newcomb.
I’d lean toward Shuster just because of his extra year in the system, but both have looked great (minus Dodd’s 3rd inning vs the DR).
And they have 1 open spot on the 40 man already, so Ynoa and Matzek to IL would bring it down to 37 – likely Pillar, Chavez and either Shuster or Dodd. They can always add the other pitcher whenever they’re needed.