The Braves announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Carlos Carrasco. The move comes just days after Carrasco was acquired from the Yankees. Additionally, recently-acquired Tyler Kinley has reported to the club and is now active. A corresponding roster move wasn’t necessary to accommodate Carrasco after Atlanta traded right-hander Rafael Montero to the Tigers last night.
Carrasco, a 16-year MLB veteran, was brought in to help the Braves’ beleaguered rotation. The 38-year-old was picking up Cy Young votes for Cleveland a decade ago, but now he’ll serve as a placeholder for a Braves club that has been decimated by injuries. Carrasco’s bat-missing days are gone, but he has gone seven innings in each of his last three starts for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
Carrasco joined the Yankees in a minor league deal in February, making the team’s Opening Day roster given injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt. He made six starts and two relief appearances and was designated for assignment by the first week of May. The Yankees re-added him to the 40-man in June, but bumped him back off before he could make an appearance. Three days ago, Carrasco was flipped to the Braves for cash considerations.
Carrasco is set to start for the Braves tonight in Cincinnati, one of only three MLB games on the docket for trade deadline day. That Carrasco and other recent pickups Erick Fedde and Joey Wentz make up 60% of the Braves’ rotation speaks to the injuries the club has accumulated in a disastrous season. The Braves have a full rotation on the shelf: Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Grant Holmes, Reynaldo Lopez, and AJ Smith-Shawver. Smith-Shawver is out for the season with Tommy John surgery, and it’s unclear what the team will get this year from the others.
Cookie is not a Rookie!
Red Sox interested in Mookie
Clase, call your Bookie.
Anybody interested in Touki
Cmon Braves. Please take Paul Blackburn.
They have so many good young pitchers and theyre messing around with Carasssco
A lot of their best young pitching is up, hurt or a few years away. In a perfect world, this isn’t the move they make. I prefer it over rushing the prospects, though.
I didn’t realize they had so many pitching injuries. At some point it’s got to come down to the pitching coach and the GM (for picking up injury prone pitchers). I understand a lot of pitchers get injured these days, but it seems the Braves have worse results than other teams.
Pretty much every young Braves pitcher is a max effort,two turns through the lineup fastball/slider guy. This is not the way the Braves used to bring along pitchers. Maybe they got tired of having soft-tossers that could get them to the playoffs but not shut people down. The guys listed with arm troubles are just the ones that made it to the majors. I can look at the list of top 30 Braves minor leaguer’s and almost every pitcher has gone through some sort of arm surgery.
Maybe I am overthinking it, but it certainly seems like the organization has changed it’s approach over the last half-dozen drafts. I am not saying it’s a bad strategy if they have moved to it, but man, the Bravos can’t keep pitchers healthy.