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Braves Designate Jesse Biddle For Assignment, Recall Tucker Davidson

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The Braves recalled Tucker Davidson from Triple-A today while designating fellow southpaw Jesse Biddle for assignment, per the club.

Biddle, 29, is a former first round pick of the Phillies way back in 2010. He made his Major League debut for the Braves in 2018. He made 15 appearances for Atlanta the following season before also appearing for the Mariners and Rangers. Biddle made just one appearance in the Majors last season with the Reds. The left-hander’s bugaboo has been his control, and it haunted Biddle again this season in eight outings with the Braves. While walking 15.7 percent of hitters, Biddle struggled to a 8.44 ERA/5.10 FIP across 10 2/3 innings. He’ll now be exposed to waivers.

Davidson, 25, made his debut with just 1 2/3 innings of work last season. He’s done good work in Triple-A this season, however, allowing just one earned run on seven hits and three walks while striking out a batter per inning in 14 innings across two starts.

Braves Sign Jonathan Lucroy

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The Braves have signed catcher Jonathan Lucroy to a minor league contract, according to David O’Brien and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Lucroy will report to Triple-A Gwinnett.

The 34-year-old Lucroy had been looking for a team since the Nationals designated him for assignment April 12, though he was choosy in selecting a club. Lucroy reportedly turned down multiple minor league offers in hopes of scoring a guaranteed deal, but that was a tough sell when considering how the former star’s career has gone since his 2010-16 heyday with the Brewers and Rangers.

Lucroy spent parts of 2017-19 with five different teams – the Rangers, Rockies, Athletics, Angels and Cubs – but didn’t experience much success outside of Colorado during that span. He combined to hit .248/.315/.350 with 18 home runs and minus-0.1 fWAR across 1,263 plate appearances in those three seasons, and his once-ballyhooed pitch-framing ability eroded at the same time. As a result, he has appeared in just six games since last year (one with the Red Sox and five with the Nationals).

Lucroy will now lend some depth to a Braves team in need of it behind the plate. Starter Travis d’Arnaud underwent surgery on a torn thumb ligament earlier this month and won’t return until at least July. Likewise, Alex Jackson has been out all month with a strained hamstring. And Tyler Flowers, whom the Braves re-signed to a minors pact May 6, decided to retire Friday. Atlanta is now down to William Contreras and Jeff Mathis as its top two options at the big league level.

Tyler Flowers To Retire

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Just over a week after agreeing to a minor league deal to return to the field with the Braves organization, veteran catcher Tyler Flowers has now changed course and decided to retire, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (via Twitter). Bowman notes that Flowers has spent the past few seasons playing through a pair of degenerative discs in his back and has learned from doctors that he’s now developed a third. That unfortunate diagnosis has prompted him to hang it up for good, it seems.

Tyler Flowers | Adam Hagy-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a disheartening way to end what was a very fine big league career. Simply making it to the Majors after being a 33rd-round pick by the Braves back in 2005 is an accomplishment on its own, but Flowers went on to spend parts of a dozen seasons in the big leagues — all of which were spent with the White Sox or Braves.

Atlanta initially traded Flowers to the ChiSox as part of a package that sent Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan to Atlanta in Dec. 2008. Flowers would make his MLB debut the following season in 2009, and he spent parts of the next seven seasons as a backstop with the South Siders. His bat didn’t come around to the levels that the Sox had hoped when he was regarded as one of the organization’s top prospects, but Flowers’ defensive contributions were significant. Moreover, his top-of-the-scale ratings in the early days of pitch-framing metrics helped to shine a light on an element that is now widely accepted as a critical component of catcher defense.

That framing ability and a knack for hitting left-handed pitching no doubt contributed to the Braves’ interest when he reached free agency in the 2015-16 offseason. Flowers returned to his original organization on a two-year, $5.3MM deal with a third-year option, and he parlayed that into a pair of additional seasons donning a Braves uniform. His bat improved quite a bit in Atlanta, particularly in his first two seasons back with the club. While the degenerative condition in his back may have impacted him in his final years, Flowers’ framing remained sharp up through last year’s 60-game sprint — which will now prove to be his final season in the Majors.

All told, Flowers will retire as a career .237/.319/.391 hitter with 86 home runs, 111 doubles, five triples, 267 runs scored and 301 knocked in. He went 3-for-11 in limited postseason action with the Braves from 2018-20 and was part of three straight division winners in his final few years. Overall, Flowers took home more than $23MM in salary over a 12-year MLB career that was valued at 20 WAR by FanGraphs, largely on the strength of his work behind the plate.

Flowers had taken an off-field role with the Braves organization prior to re-signing that minor league deal, wherein he helped incorporate data from the club’s analytics department into game preparation. He’ll return to that role, Bowman notes, meaning the Georgia native will continue to try to help his hometown club achieve a fourth consecutive NL East crown and return to the World Series for the first time since 1999.

Braves Place Cristian Pache On IL, Activate Ender Inciarte

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The Braves have placed Cristian Pache on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain and activated fellow outfielder Ender Inciarte from the IL, manager Brian Snitker announced Thursday (via David O’Brien of The Athletic).

This is the second IL placement of the year for Pache, who previously missed time with a left groin injury. When healthy, it has been an abysmal season for the highly touted Pache, who has batted .111/.152/.206 with one home run in 68 plate appearances.

Inciarte, who suffered a strained hamstring April 16, has appeared in 12 games and logged a meager 20 trips to the plate this year. The once-reliable starter hit a horrid .190/.262/.250 with one home run in 131 PA last year, though he slashed a much better .294/.368/.353 before his IL trip this season.

The Braves’ best option in center this year has unexpectedly been Guillermo Heredia, but he has been on the IL since April 30 with hamstring inflammation. The absences of Pache and Heredia should clear the way for Inciarte to take over in center for the time being.

Mike Soroka To Undergo Exploratory Surgery On Achilles

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Braves right-hander Mike Soroka recently felt discomfort in his right Achilles and will have to undergo exploratory surgery, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports.

While it’s unknown how long this procedure will shelve Soroka, it’s yet another brutal injury blow to one of baseball’s most promising young hurlers. Soroka impressed during his first major league action in 2018 and was even better in 2019, when he logged a 2.68 ERA over 174 2/3 innings and earned an All-Star nod. Unfortunately, the 23-year-old has barely taken the mound since then.

Just three starts into the 2020 campaign, Soroka tore his Achilles and had to undergo season-ending surgery. Soroka wasn’t ready for the start of this season as a result, though the hope was he would make his 2021 debut sometime in mid-April. However, Soroka’s shoulder began to act up that month, and he has been slow in recovering from that issue. Still, indications before Wednesday were that Soroka would return in June; now, though, it looks as if this latest setback could prevent that from happening.

The Braves fared quite well without Soroka during a division-winning 2020 in which they advanced to the NLCS, but they haven’t carried that success over to this season so far. They’re just 17-18 and three games out of the NL East lead, thanks in part to a Soroka-less starting staff that owns the league’s eighth-highest ERA and sits fourth from the bottom in fWAR. Ian Anderson and Huascar Ynoa have done well to keep runs off the board across a combined 14 starts, though 2020 star Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Drew Smyly and Bryse Wilson have struggled in that regard.

Braves Claim Jay Flaa

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The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Jay Flaa off waivers from the Orioles, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. The move fills Atlanta’s 40-man roster.

Flaa, who’ll turn 29 in a month, was selected to the big league roster for the first time in his career last month. The Orioles’ sixth-round pick in 2016, he made his MLB debut on April 27, tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief with a pair of walks and a strikeout.

That was Flaa’s lone appearance before the Orioles designated him for assignment in order to open a roster spot for waiver claim Brandon Waddell. While Flaa has struggled in a total of 56 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level, he was excellent at both Double-A and Class-A Advanced while rising through the Orioles’ system. He’s tallied 260 1/3 professional innings since being drafted out of North Dakota State University, working to a 3.49 ERA with an above-average 26.7 percent strikeout rate but a somewhat bloated 11.2 percent walk rate.

Flaa’s fastball sat 93.2 mph in his lone MLB appearance, and he also showed a slider and splitter that day. Because he was selected to the MLB roster for the first time this year, he still has all three minor league option years remaining.

Braves Announce Roster Moves

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The Braves announced that they have released right-hander Nate Jones and outrighted infielder Sean Kazmar Jr. Additionally, righty Carl Edwards Jr. has elected free agency. The Braves designated him for assignment May 8.

The 35-year-old Jones was designated to make room for Edwards, who didn’t last long on the Braves’ roster. Edwards made one appearance and failed to make a good impression, as he allowed three earned runs on three hits in a third of an inning against the Phillies on May 7. Also a former, Cub, Padre and Mariner, Edwards will return to the open market with a 3.68 ERA and a strong 32.8 percent strikeout rate against a 13.8 walk rate over 181 major league innings.

Jones, another minor league signing, earned a spot on the Braves’ roster after an excellent spring training. But the former White Sox standout struggled in Atlanta across 9 2/3 frames, causing the club to go in a different direction. Jones allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits and eight walks against seven strikeouts as a Brave.

Kazmar, a fifth-round pick of the Padres way back in 2004, climbed to the majors for the first time since 2008 this season, though the 36-year-old made a mere three appearances and collected two plate trips to the plate. He’s a .259/.313/.371 hitter with 98 home runs in 6,619 minor league PA.

Braves Notes: Greene, Ynoa, Solak

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Shane Greene’s long free agent wait ended yesterday when he re-signed with the Braves on a one-year deal worth a prorated $1.5MM.  “It seemed early on that a return to the Braves was his preference,” SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson writes (Twitter link), as Wolfson notes that the Twins were willing to offer Greene more money.  This focus on Atlanta could explain why it took until May for Greene to land a contract, as David O’Brien of The Athletic estimated back in mid-March that the Braves were only willing to spend in the neighborhood of $1MM on Greene — given the prorated nature of Greene’s contract, he’ll end up earning around $1.1 or $1.2MM.

  • Another Braves/Twins link is explored by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, regarding how Atlanta acquired breakout star Huascar Ynoa from Minnesota back in 2017.  The Braves wanted to move Jaime Garcia at the trade deadline, and initially discussed a trade with the Yankees that would have sent Garcia to the Bronx for then-Yankees prospect Nick Solak.  Once those talks fell through, Atlanta pivoted and sent Garcia to Minnesota, and the Braves “did not do as much diligence on Ynoa as they normally would on a prospect” since their top priority was just to dump the rest of Garcia’s salary.  In fact, Ynoa wasn’t even Atlanta’s first ask from the Twins’ farm system, as Nick Burdi was initially part of the proposed trade.  From being a rather anonymous rookie ball pitcher and an apparent “plan C” type of pickup for the Braves, Ynoa has become an unexpected stalwart of the Atlanta rotation in 2021.  The righty has a 2.23 ERA/3.19 SIERA and an above-average 28.4% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate over 40 1/3 innings, plus Ynoa has augmented that pitching production with two home runs and a 1.267 OPS over 15 plate appearances.

Braves To Sign Tanner Roark To Minor League Deal

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The Braves are signing right-hander Tanner Roark to a minor-league contract, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). The veteran righty was recently cut loose by the Blue Jays.

After an extended run as a generally productive starter with the Nationals, Athletics and Reds, Roark signed a two-year, $24MM deal with Toronto during the 2019-20 offseason. That proved to be a poor investment for the Jays, with whom Roark tossed 47 2/3 innings of 6.80 ERA/5.36 SIERA ball in 2020. In the process, Roark’s already-middling strikeout rate fell more than three percentage points to 18.6%, while his typically strong walk rate spiked to a lofty 10.5%.

On the heels of that dismal season, the Jays didn’t give Roark much of a leash in this season’s early going. They designated him for assignment after just three uninspiring appearances in 2021. Roark coughed up seven runs in as many innings (five earned), while serving up three homers and striking out just five. His 6.9% swinging strike rate over that small sample has been the worst mark of his career, so the Toronto front office clearly didn’t envision a future turnaround.

Despite the surprise emergence of Huascar Ynoa, Atlanta’s rotation has posted some unspectacular numbers as a whole. Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly (both signed to free agent deals last winter) have gotten off to slow starts and Max Fried has spent some time on the injured list. Bryse Wilson, Kyle Wright, and Sean Newcomb are the club’s top depth option, though Roark has far more experience than any of those younger hurlers. While Roark might need some time at Triple-A to get himself back on track, he does represent at least an innings-eating possibility for the back end of the Braves’ pitching staff.

Braves To Re-Sign Shane Greene

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The Braves are in agreement on a contract with free agent reliever Shane Greene, confirms MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Talkin’ Jake of Jomboy Media was first to report the deal (via Twitter). It’s a one-year contract worth $1.5MM, which will wind up prorated in the $1.1MM – $1.2MM range given the amount of time in the season that has already passed, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (via Twitter). Greene will begin with Triple-A Gwinnett to build back up into game shape, per Rosenthal.

Greene will return to the team with which he’d spent the past year-plus. Atlanta acquired the veteran righty from the Tigers at the July 31 trade deadline in 2019, and he spent the next couple seasons in manager Brian Sntiker’s bullpen. Greene has logged 52 1/3 innings of 3.27 ERA/3.87 FIP ball since the deal, cementing himself as one of the team’s more reliable relievers.

The 32-year-old reached free agency at the end of last season, but his market moved incredibly slowly. He was linked to the Twins before Minnesota signed Alex Colomé, but there were no other clubs specifically tied to Greene in recent months. That lack of reported interest was a bit puzzling, considering Greene has been something of a bullpen workhorse over the years. After moving to relief in 2016, the former Yankee and Tiger eclipsed 60 innings in each season through 2019. Last year’s shortened campaign obviously brought an end to that streak, but Greene still appeared in 28 of Atlanta’s 60 contests.

Generally, Greene has paired that durability with quality production. He’s managed an ERA of 2.66 or lower in three of the past four years, with a 5.12 mark in 2018 standing as the exception. While he’s typically been adept at keeping runs off the board, Greene hasn’t racked up the gaudy strikeout totals of most high-end relievers. That was particularly true last season, when he punched out just 19.3% of opposing hitters, a far cry from the 24.1% league average for bullpen arms (and down from the 23-25% range in which he landed each of the four seasons before). Greene’s 7.5% swinging strike rate and 4.51 SIERA in 2020 were likewise below-average.

That discrepancy between Greene’s strong bottom line results and his downturn in whiffs could help explain why it took until May for he and a team to find a mutually agreeable term. It’s not especially surprising he’ll return to a place with which he’s obviously quite familiar and where he’s had plenty of success.

The Braves’ bullpen hasn’t been especially productive to this point in the season. Atlanta relievers currently sit 22nd in ERA (4.56), 19th in strikeout minus walk rate (12.9 percentage points) and 21st in SIERA (4.09). A.J. Minter, Will Smith and Tyler Matzek have each pitched fairly well, but Josh Tomlin, Grant Dayton, Jacob Webb and Sean Newcomb are off to tougher starts. Luke Jackson has a shiny 1.50 ERA but less inspiring peripherals.

Even with Greene re-signed and Chris Martin soon to return from the injured list, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Atlanta bolster the relief unit at the trade deadline. Despite an underwhelming 16-17 start, the Braves remain right in the thick of the National League East race. Even after factoring in Greene’s salary, Atlanta’s payroll commitments check in just shy of $133MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That’s about $25MM south of the mark the Braves were slated to spend last season (prior to prorating), so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Liberty Media ownership group gives GM Alex Anthopoulos and company some leeway to make further midseason additions.

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