10:51AM: In related Braves roster news, right-handers Nick Anderson and Michael Tonkin will both be in the team’s Opening Day bullpen. (Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was among those to report the news.) Anderson and Tonkin will take over the roster spots created with Wright and Raisel Iglesias slated to start the year on the IL.
8:59AM: The battle to decide the Braves’ fifth starter has ended in something of a draw, as now both Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd will be making early turns in the rotation. According to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (Twitter links), Kyle Wright is getting some “extra time” to fully prep for the season in the wake of some shoulder soreness, thus creating an opportunity for both Shuster and Dylan to make starts. Wright will go onto the 15-day injured list, The Athletic’s David O’Brien notes, but it seems possible that Wright will leave the IL when first eligible.
Wright’s usual offseason routine was interrupted in January when he received a cortisone shot in his right shoulder. That delayed Wright’s normal plan by roughly three weeks, and he didn’t make his first Spring Training start until last Monday. The Braves intend to give Wright an outing in minor league spring camp, and then a Triple-A start before bringing him onto the active roster. Counting the three days of IL backdating, Wright is seemingly in line to make his 2023 debut during the Braves’ series with the Reds from April 10-12.
Atlanta opens its season on March 30, has an off-day on March 31, and then has a game every day until April 13. This busy early schedule creates an early need for a full rotation, though Bowman writes that Dodd may not officially break camp, as the Braves will wait to call him up until his planned start on April 4 in St. Louis. That will give Atlanta a little more time in figuring out its 40-man roster maneuverings, as neither Dodd or Shuster are currently on the 40-man. (Other non-roster invitees like Jesse Chavez, Ehire Adrianza, and Kevin Pillar also look like solid bets to make the team, creating more need for extra space.)
Shuster seemingly has the slight edge over Dodd in the race to stick in the rotation, but now both southpaws will get a further opportunity to audition on the big league stage. It is a somewhat surprising outcome that didn’t appear to be on the radar when Atlanta started Spring Training, given that Ian Anderson, Bryce Elder, and Michael Soroka were the likeliest contenders to be the fifth starter. However, Shuster and Dodd both pitched so well that the Braves narrowed the field down to the two rookies, who will each be making their Major League debuts.
Couple solid lefty options
Rotation isn’t Wright, it’s Fried. Still may make Strides. Morton hears a pair of Pipps.
What Dodd I just read?
What are you Tonkin about now
It’s Sunday, guys, y’all should be in iglesias. (small “i”)
Maybe Fatlanta should kick the tires on Strasburg since all of their toys are breaking.
We keep hearing that Atlanta has traded away all of their promising minor league talent, but here they go again, finding two rookie pitchers talented enough to make the opening day roster. It’s pretty incredible how the Braves’ minor league system continues to churn out legitimate major league players year after year regardless of the ‘expert’s’ rankings of their system. It gives them such a competitive advantage over the other teams in their division and the entire NL as well. It’s no surprise that the two best teams in the NL at developing talent (Braves & Dodgers) are consistently making deep playoff runs and winning a couple of titles along the way as well. Knowing Atlanta, one of these two kids will probably pitch well enough to get some ROY votes and earn the team an additional draft pick. It’s a well-oiled machine.
I agree w/your point on the Braves strong development of prospects and that Schuster and Dodd may pitch well enough to get ROY votes, but the Braves won’t be gaining extra draft picks even if one of them wins ROY. That stupid rule MLB enacted last season requires a rookie to be on 2 of the 3 top 100 prospect lists of BA, ESPN, and MLB Pipeline to qualify for extra picks. Shuster and Dodd aren’t on any of those top 100 lists. Ridiculous to let the bias of prospect list compilers determine whether rookies will be eligible to help their organization garner extra draft choices. Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider didn’t qualify under that poorly conceived rule last season either even though they finished one two in ROY voting.
Harris wasn’t on 2/3 of prospect lists? If not, further proof why those are embarrassingly wrong.
No, Harris II wasn’t on the pre-season top 100 of 2 of those 3 prospect lists (needed to qualify for the draft picks). Read my comment again. My point is that I disagree w/the way the rule is structured that gives draft picks for ROY vote placement if a rookie is on 2 of those 3 lists. Imo, the biased opinions of prospect evaluators should have nothing to do w/the awarding of draft choices. Also, why should rookies that aren’t on the top 100 of those 3 lists not qualify for extra picks if ROY voting places them highly enough? Before demanding “further proof” of a comment I didn’t make, why don’t you provide “further proof” that you understand why the Braves aren’t receiving an additional pick in this summer’s upcoming draft. Again—-it’s because Harris II and Strider weren’t in the 2022 pre-season top 100 of 2/3 of those 3 (BA, ESPN, MLB Pipeline) lists. How does Harris II not being on 2/3 of the referenced lists mean that I said prospect lists are “embarrassingly wrong”? I neither said nor inferred that.
Wah wah wah, don’t cry it will be okay.
Dude, tone it down. Don’t get so agitated about nothing. Maybe you are the one that needs to read the comment again? He inferred (though not properly stated) that “those” [prospects’ lists] are “embarrassingly wrong”…, not your assessment that MLB’s rules for granting extra draft picks should be more inclusive to account for the accomplishments of players left out of the aforementioned prospects’ lists. Gosh, take your meds and chill. It’s baseball time. Enjoy it.
I, btw, agree with you that ALL players should be included, not only the ones in those three top prospects lists. Like you said, it seems highly biased and dumb.
@G-Force: You’re right. I totally misunderstood DMC’s comment about the lists being “embarrassingly wrong.” Your explanation makes sense. I owe him an apology.
@RunDMC: Hope you’ll accept my apology for what I said below DMC. Misunderstood your meaning. Real “Duh” moment by me.
No worries!
Like seeing the Mets doing whatever they can to put a quality product on the field and the Phillies are very good as well but I gotta say the Braves are the team to beat in the NL East. Doesn’t really matter who finishes first for the most part any longer but they get the flag. Well run organization.
I think it matters who finishes first. The wild cards spot is wide open. The west and East divisions look like takers for the wild cards
Still does somewhat you are right but it doesn’t mean what it used to is all I’m saying. The wild card was a good idea but the playoff field is to wide open now.
I think it absolutely matters who finishes first, and what the Phillies did was a rare exception. Just look at the AL where the division winners coasted. That’s the norm. The Phillies and Padres are just full of superstar talent, but really what they accomplished is tough to do.
Bottom line is about half the teams make the playoffs now. It’s been tremendously watered down. Your argument can also go the other way. Surprise team beats the favorite in the first round. It’s all who’s hot and clicking on all cylinders.
The playoffs are hardly watered down. What’s watered down is adding pitch clock, instant replay, making bases bigger, banning the shift, amongst other things. For what? Draw more fans in by creating more offense? Then later complain the game is taking to long? They are speeding up pitchers and hitters getting into the batters box. But added 30 minutes of instant challenges on plays per game. Creating more offense by banning the shift, adds another 30 minutes to an hour to the game. They told us they wanted to speed up the game and Draws it back to where they started before adding new rules and more technical side being implemented into the game. Very soon will be a computer calling balls and strikes during the game. So please, don’t talk to me about playoffs being watered down. The game is more watered down as a whole. It’s so watered down, breaking Bonds career or single season HR record is meaningless. Or Ricky Henderson career stolen bases being broken, mean very little now. With expanded bases, one of the slowest guys like Daniel Vogelbach can steal 15 bases in a season. Just to watered down while extending game play longer.
OMG I was talking about the playoffs! That was my subject! As far all that other stuff you ranted about alot of that is correct but you got WAAAAAY off topic. You can think whatever you want but the game started getting messed up when certain people tried fixing something that wasn’t broke. The more they try to fix it the worse it gets. Go back to the game of 30 or 40 years ago. Maybe not every bit of baseball 40 years ago but most. That’s what made the game successful. Not fip war or analytics. And sorry…..the playoffs are EXTREMELY watered down.
No they aint
Given all the injuries to the LOLMets & LOLBraves, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Marlins win the division this year.
Marlins offense will have to drastically over perform while the pitching remains in the top 10, very unlikely.
Yes they will be led by about a 70 home run season from their star hitter Jorge Soler. I heard the ball boy has a 98 mph fastball too.
lmao, Marlins will finish 4th again. They won 69 games and made almost no significant moves (Lopez for Arraez doesn’t make them much better). They’d need a 30 game improvement. Not going to happen. Wild Card? Maybe. But the Braves, Phillies, and Mets are all far too strong for the Marlins to squeeze in and take it.
Braves, Mets and Phillies are junk teams.
Oh, you’re trolling. Never mind.
Atlanta better get that shoulder feeling alWright soon or they may have to trade some prospects… ooh wait they don’t have any.
Sick burn bro.
Not sure why there’s a “need to figure out the 40-man”, because it’s very straightforward. Two open spots currently, Ynoa and Matzek can be put on the 60-day IL, and Tonkin can definitely be cut with very little consequence, and those five spots should be able to handle the starters, Chavez, Adrianza, and Pillar. Easy peasy.
Supposedly Allard is also going to the 60 day IL so there’s another spot. The active roster is the tricky part.
3 4 5 Morton Dodd and Schuster? Arcia on SS? Keeping Ozuna when his performance is so diminished? LF questions? What happened to the Braves? I get they are the reigning division champs and only a year removed from a WS title, but it seems like they could be a division winner or a 77-85 team in 2023
Elder, Soroka, and Anderson have all proven they can be effective starters. If Dodd and Shuster show they can early that’ll be incredible depth for the rotation. The offense will be fine, Acuna had a very unAcuna like season and a full season of Ozzie will also help. And hopefully Rosario isn’t blind anymore.
Ozuna has been really good this spring. If he can be like he was in 2020, the offense will be even better. The Braves starting pitching has more depth this year than last. Bench will be much improved too. In my opinion, this is a better team all around. Look for monster years from Olson, Acuna and Riley.
Acuña 40/40 possibility. Harris II legit mvp candidate. Olson 40/120 possibility. Riley 40/120 mvp candidate. Albies 30/100 Fried Cy Young candidate. Strider k machine…
See were I’m going with this? Two can play this game.
Despite all of that they’re still projected to be one of, if not the best teams this year. They’re deep and stacked.
Anderson leads the league in saves during the first half, then becomes an elite set up guy in the second half. Come back player of the year candidate.
And Jason Heyward somehow finds it again. Hits 35 HR, makes the all star team
I still don’t understand the Murphy trade. You could literally go with any catcher on a minor league contract. Michael Perez or something. You can sacrifice offense at catcher. Not like Contreras was terrible. You didn’t even need Murphy
It’s never a good idea to trade prospects for a catcher. Even Realmuto. They get injured, don’t play as much
It’s usually always a bad idea to trade prospects for anything. It’s better to keep the depth
But, when you know how to draft you don’t worry about it. You can replace prospects easily. Muller wasn’t really all that great a prospect. I get the thinking it’s just that after the Olson and Murphy trade they thinned out the system too much
Catcher is completely irrelevant.
Seriously, who from that trade would make the OD roster? a lineup of not Olson or Murphy and if there was a Pache there may not be a Harris II making the impact he did, since Pache would most likely be in CF. So you take away presumably 3 extended stars for what? 8-10 spots on farm rankings and the benefit of a Langeliers – who hasn’t proven anything yet, Muller would still not have the control to start (control being why Schuster is starting, not velo) and the other wild cards: Tarnok, Cusick, Estes, etc. If we gave up a Jordan Walker, Gunnar Henderson, etc you may have a point. If we hadn’t extended Olson/Murphy and they leave without compensation after 2+ seasons of service, you may have a point. This obsession to sacrifice from building a contender for a half-decade for a few unproven prospects that ATL knows better than anyone, is absolutely misguided.
William Contreras has entered the chat
Contreras is a very good hitter who may have the edge offensively over Murphy but he will never be the defender Murphy is. I hated losing him but potentially downgrading *slightly* at the plate to significantly upgrade defensively is a no brainer.
It tends to be overrated, catcher defense. They won 101 games with Contreras at catcher most of the time last year. I argued at the time of the trade that they were actually significantly better with Contreras behind the plate last year. The game logs show a much better winning percentage with Contreras
Trading prospects for Murphy, when you already have an acceptable catcher, is not an efficient deal
Maybe they think Murphy is the final piece they need to get another World Series or something
Muller was a decent sp depth piece. Not insignificant
@Camden453 – “They won 101 games with Contreras at catcher most of the time last year.” — Contreras was a C 60 games, d’Arnaud at C for 99 games. Their majority share was d’Arnaud.
“Acceptable catcher”? You’re higher on Contreras’ defense than most everyone else — and lower on Murphy’s defense than everyone else. And Contreras had only 60 games of it. To think he could be the majority C for the future is bold, and crazy in comparison to Murphy that has had multiple seasons doing it.
Muller has been given limited opportunities and never ran with it. To think that he’d have much of a snowball’s chance this year at SP5 with Schuster, Dodd, Anderson, Soroka (and eventually, Ynoa, returning from TJ) is blind faith. Schuster’s control is what gives him the edge, while Muller’s lack of control is what constantly got him in trouble. Nothing has changed but his uniform.
Can someone explain why Tonkin is here?
Tonkin’s already on the 40 man roster. Dodd isn’t. The Braves likely won’t use Dodd until April 4th in StL, so Tonkin will serve as an extra pen arm until Dodd’s needed. Tonkin gets the first 4 days of the season on the 26 man and then gets sent to AAA Gwinnett so Dodd can be added to the 40 man for his first ML start.
Possibly. Tonkin is out of options so he’d have to clear waivers. Regardless, he’s the obvious choice if someone gets DFA’d.
Mets dont have the pitching depth. You can’t really count on Megill with his shoulder to pitch much. Possibly Senga is out for a while. Senga looks like damaged goods to me, and even the medicals reprtedly showed it
Verlander, Scherzer, Peterson, Bundy, Lucchesi starts looking like not the best rotation
Bullpen is potentially very bad. There isn’t much depth there
Nothing in terms of pitching prospects. Mets continue to draft position players and ignore pitching. They need 3 straight pitching only drafts
Enough “drafting the best player at the position”. You need to stock up on pitching
LOL Braves. Strider’s innings will be capped and Wright’s shoulder will never be Wright this year.
Anthopolous clearly stated last season that the Braves don’t cap pitcher’s innings. He was asked dozens of times about the possibility of doing so w/Strider. They didn’t. Wright also says that this spring is the first time in the last 3 years that his “shoulder has felt this good.” Gives the credit for it to the cortisone shot he received in early January. Do you Met fans ever stop obsessing w/your fantasies about the Braves? Maybe you should be worrying about the creaky, oft injured old bodies on your roster—especially your starting pitching.
Man, Across the league many players are beginning the season on the IL. Cortisone shot in his throwing shoulder? Hopefully it helps to calm down that inflammation and he can get set for another strong year. I like the depth they have in Gwinnett. I said in other posts, The Gwinnett pitching rotation needs to not pout and be ready when the phone rings because it’s gonna ring. Let’s go Braves Country! Hope to meet and cheer with you all on Apr 6th!
I’ve heard Jared Schuster could be the next Bonds
I feel the big question for the Braves is SS. I feel LF is going to be ok. Rosario is going to be what he is. He’s not going to be anything great just average or a tad below average. I feel everything else is going to be above average except SS, I would have rather the Braves got a defensive minded SS, our offense could have handled it. I have heard it said many times, great team are strong up the middle.
A lot of teams would love to have the depth of Shewmake, Grissom. I’d think most teams would have anointed one of them (with their spring trainings) as OD SS, but ATL wants to get it right – almost opposite of what they did with Swanson, when there were gripes that they promoted him too early.