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Health Notes: Gray, Murphy, Flaherty, Soroka

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The Twins announced this morning that Sonny Gray has been activated from the injured list to start today’s game against the A’s, with Cole Sands optioned out in a corresponding move. Gray has been out of action since April 16, when he left a start in the second inning due to a right hamstring strain. Acquired from the Reds as the Twins’ biggest rotation pickup of the offseason, Gray has made just a pair of starts with his new club. Despite his three-week absence, Minnesota has gotten excellent production out of their starting staff thus far. Twins starters rank sixth in MLB in ERA (3.12) and eighth in strikeout/walk rate differential (17.1 percentage points). Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Archer, Chris Paddack and highly-regarded prospect Josh Winder each have an ERA of 3.26 or lower; Dylan Bundy is currently on the COVID-19 injured list, but the Twins could have an interesting call on how the rotation should be comprised once Bundy returns.

Some other injury updates around the league:

  • Mariners catcher Tom Murphy left last night’s game against the Rays after dislocating his shoulder on a tag attempt at home plate. After the game, skipper Scott Servais said Murphy will be out for a while (via Corey Brock of the Athletic). The team will presumably provide a more specific timetable in the coming days, but it’s all but certain he’ll head to the injured list before tonight’s contest. The M’s optioned Opening Day backstop Cal Raleigh to Triple-A last week, and it’s likely he’ll be recalled to pair with Luis Torrens behind the dish. Murphy had been off to an excellent start to the year, reaching base in 18 of his first 42 plate appearances.
  • Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty is set to throw a bullpen session before tonight’s game against the Giants, tweets Katie Woo of the Athletic. She notes that it’s Flaherty’s first bullpen work since he was shut down from throwing in Spring Training due to shoulder bursitis. It’s obviously a notable step in the righty’s recovery timeline, but manager Oli Marmol cautioned the club was prepared for a “pretty lengthy (rehab) progression” and still doesn’t have a target date for his return. Flaherty missed a month last season because of a shoulder strain (in addition to a longer absence on account of an oblique issue), so it’s wholly unsurprising the team is proceeding with caution. St. Louis has managed an impressive 3.15 rotation ERA — albeit with more pedestrian peripherals — in the absence of arguably their top starter.
  • Braves right-hander Mike Soroka hasn’t thrown an MLB pitch since August 2020, the result of successive Achilles ruptures that have sidetracked a fantastic start to his young career. The most recent of his surgeries occurred last June and came with an estimated year-long recovery timeline, and he opened this season on the injured list. Soroka remains on track in his rehab, he and manager Brian Snitker informed reporters yesterday (via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The right-hander has thrown off a mound without issue around five times, and he’s soon to begin pitcher-fielding practice. The club is still hoping he can make it back to the majors shortly after the All-Star Break, and Toscano notes they’re not considering transitioning him to relief to expedite his return.

Braves Avoid Arbitration With Mike Soroka

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The Braves announced an agreement with right-hander Mike Soroka on a contract for the 2022 season, thus avoiding arbitration.  Soroka will earn $2.8MM on the one-year deal.

The $2.8MM figure matches Soroka’s salary for 2021, which isn’t surprising since the Canadian righty didn’t pitch at all last season, and hasn’t set foot on a big league mound since August 3, 2020.  Soroka tore his Achilles on a fielding play during that game, and then suffered another tear last June that cost him a chance to participate in the Braves’ World Series-winning season.  It isn’t known exactly when Soroka might be able to return, though all parties are hopeful that Soroka could make it back by July.

As a Super Two player, Atlanta holds an extra year of arbitration control over Soroka, so he isn’t eligible until free agency until after the 2024 season.  There wasn’t any sense that the Braves would non-tender Soroka, both because of the extended team control, and because Soroka simply looked too good in his 2019 rookie to cut loose for nothing.  The righty posted a 2.68 ERA, 51.2% grounder rate, and 5.8% walk rate over 174 2/3 innings in 2019, earning a second-place finish in NL Rookie Of The Year voting and a sixth-place finish in Cy Young Award voting.

Unsurprisingly, Soroka’s arb situation was settled much more smoothly this season than last year, when Soroka gained his $2.8MM salary by winning an arbitration hearing.  With Soroka’s contract now settled for 2022, the Braves still have eight remaining arbitration-eligible players.

Braves Re-Sign Eddie Rosario

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The Braves have re-signed free agent outfielder Eddie Rosario to a two-year, $18MM contract with a club option for the 2024 season, the team announced. Rosario will earn $9MM in each of the next two seasons. The Braves didn’t announce the value of the 2024 option, but The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that it’s also at $9MM, with no buyout. Rosario is represented by Roc Nation Sports.

Eddie Rosario | Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Rosario, 30, landed with the Braves in a midseason salary dump after a generally unproductive start to the season in Cleveland. The longtime Twins left fielder had signed a one-year, $8MM there after being non-tendered by Minnesota but hit just .254/.296/.389 in 306 plate appearances before landing on the injured list due to an abdominal strain. The Braves acquired Rosario knowing he’d need some additional time to mend, but it’s doubtful even their most bullish projections could’ve foreseen what laid ahead.

Activated from the 10-day IL on Aug. 27, Rosario exploded with a .271/.330/.573 showing in 96 plate appearances down the stretch in Atlanta. He seven home runs, four doubles and a pair of triples during that hot streak — and that production alone would’ve made the acquisition well worth it. Rosario, however, carried that production into the postseason — at least for the National League Championship Series.

After a mostly nondescript three games in the NLDS, Rosario again stole the spotlight with a blistering 14-for-25 effort that included three home runs, a double, a triple and nine runs driven in. Following that showing, Rosario’s crowning as NLCS MVP was a foregone conclusion. His production dried up during the World Series (5-for-22), but Rosario’s overall production with the Braves and those postseason heroics resulted in a solid payday and what figures to be an everyday role in Atlanta.

The up-and-down nature of Rosario’s 2021 season wasn’t exactly anomalous in nature. He’s been prone to torrid hot streaks and pronounced cold streaks throughout his big league career, thanks in part to a hyperaggressive approach at the plate. Rosario has strong bat-to-ball skills, evidenced by a strikeout rate of just 14.7% across the past three seasons. However, he’s also walked in fewer than five percent of his big league plate appearances, and over the past three seasons he has the game’s 13th-highest swing percentage (55.8%) and 11th-highest chase percentage (43%). Rosario excels at making contact even on those pitches off the plate, but in chasing so frequently, he gives up some opportunities to capitalize on his above-average power by driving better pitches.

Defensively, Rosario is more of a mixed bag. He’s played all over the outfield but is best suited in the corners, where he has ample arm strength that led to some gaudy assist totals, particularly early in his tenure with the Twins. Defensive metrics have soured on his work in recent seasons, but there’s an immense gulf between the most bullish and most bearish measures of evaluation. Defensive Runs Saved, for instance, credits Rosario with a +2 mark in 2021 — but Statcast’s Outs Above Average grades him at -17, which is the worst mark among all Major League outfielders. Year-to-year looks at defensive metrics can offer great fluctuation, but taken in larger samples, each of DRS, UZR and OAA give him negative grades dating back to 2017.

None of that’s to say Rosario is a poor investment for the Braves, particularly at these terms. His approach at the plate has worked for him, as evidenced by a solid .275/.309/.473 batting line (105 wRC+) and 133 home runs through 3242 career plate appearances. He’s posted single-season home run totals of 27 (2017) and 32 (2019) in the past, so he has the potential to be a prominent source of power in the Braves’ lineup over the next couple seasons. His overall offensive production is curbed a bit by the frequent swings and lack of walks, but Rosario has been a generally above-average hitter who’ll pair with Adam Duvall, Marcell Ozuna and, once healthy, Ronald Acuna Jr. in what should be a productive outfield/designated hitter carousel in Atlanta.

In order to clear space on the 40-man roster, Atlanta placed starter Mike Soroka on the 60-day injured list. Soroka underwent a second Achilles surgery last June that was expected to sideline him into July, so it’s no surprise he won’t be ready for at least the first two months of the season.

Braves Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Braves announced a series of roster transactions, including the news that Josh Tomlin’s 2022 club option has been declined.  Left-hander Grant Dayton has been released, and outfielder Terrance Gore has been outrighted to Triple-A.  Joining the 40-man roster are outfielder Travis Demeritte and right-hander Alan Rangel, whose contracts were selected from Triple-A.  Ronald Acuna Jr. and Mike Soroka were also reinstated from the 60-day injured list as procedural moves.

Tomlin has spent the last three years with Atlanta, signing a pair of minor league contracts for the 2019 and 2020 seasons and then inking a one-year Major League deal last winter that paid him $1.25MM in guaranteed salary.  That money took the form of a $1MM salary for the season and then a $250K buyout of the team’s $1.25MM club option for the 2022 campaign.  The Braves therefore had a $1MM decision to make on Tomlin, and opted to not bring Tomlin back after a rough season for the 37-year-old.

Tomlin posted a 6.57 ERA over 49 1/3 relief innings last year, and was the victim of some bad luck — an ungainly .358 BABIP and a .346 xwOBA was well below his .377 wOBA.  That said, even his xwOBA was only in the 15th percentile of all pitchers, and Tomlin allowed more than his usual amount of hard contact.  With a very low strikeout rate and whiff rate, this lack of missed bats caught up to Tomlin in a big way.  On the plus side, Tomlin still delivered his usual excellent walk rate and spin rates on both his fastball and his curve.

Though a neck strain sidelined Tomlin for much of September, he likely wouldn’t have made the Braves’ postseason roster anyway.  The declined option doesn’t necessarily spell the end of his tenure with the club, as Atlanta could look to retain Tomlin via another minor league deal and see if the veteran has anything left in the tank during Spring Training.

Dayton has also been with Atlanta over the last three seasons, and was projected to earn $1.2MM this winter in his final year of arbitration eligibility.  The release allows the southpaw to get an early jump on a new job in free agency, rather than wait a few more weeks until the non-tender deadline (and the Braves also free up a roster spot in advance of the 40-man deadline on November 19).

Dayton pitched only 13 innings in 2021, as a shoulder injury kept him on the injured list for much of the last four months of the season.  Injuries have plagued Dayton for the last four years, as he missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery and he missed a big piece of the 2019 season due to a fractured toe.  The southpaw was pretty effective when he was able to pitch in 2019-20, though this year had a 6.23 ERA over his 13 frames.

Gore was signed to a minor league deal last winter and didn’t see any action for the Braves during the regular season, but was on the team’s roster for both the NLDS and the World Series.  Gore appeared in one game during the playoffs, pinch-running and being left stranded at first base in the Braves’ 3-0 win over the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLDS.  If he wishes, the 30-year-old Gore can decline the outright assignment and look for another contract elsewhere, and contenders might be interested in signing Gore for karma purposes alone.  The veteran pinch-running specialist has been a part of the last two World Series championship teams, and has three Series rings in total over his career, despite appearing in only 102 regular-season games from 2014-20.

Injury Notes: Nationals, Twins, Braves

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Nationals catcher Yan Gomes left yesterday’s ballgame in the second inning with what appeared to be a strained oblique, per Bobby Blanco of MASNsports.com. Losing Gomes would be a significant blow for the Nationals, who already placed his backup, Alex Avila, on the injured list earlier this week. Yadiel Hernandez would currently be the Nats’ emergency catcher, though a roster move could come later today if Gomes is expected to miss any amount of time. Tres Barrera is the other option currently on the active roster. He figures to start today’s ballgame at the very least. The Nats could try to get by with just Hernandez backing up Barrera for the next couple of days with the All-Star break starting on Monday.

Now, let’s check on a couple other injury updates from around the game…

  • Twins catcher Mitch Garver caught a bullpen session on Friday. Both Garver and Jake Cave could begin rehab assignments in Triple-A next week, writes MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park (via Twitter).Cave’s return would be particularly notable for the Twins, so long as Kyle Garlick, Rob Refsnyder, and Byron Buxton all remain on the injured list. Rookies Gilberto Celestino and Nick Gordon have been pushed into action in centerfield, where the 28-year-old Cave has seen the majority of his playing time over his four years with Minnesota. Cave started slowly at the dish this season, slashing just .167/.239/.262 in 93 plate appearances before a back injury sent him to the injured list on May 15th. He will be eligible for activation after the All-Star break.
  • Speaking of Refsnyder and Garlick, manager Rocco Baldelli touched on their progress as well, Park adds. Refnsyder could be nearing a return from a hamstring strain, but Garlick hasn’t made much progress. He could still be facing surgery. Garlick has been out for the past month with a sports hernia after logging a perfectly average 100 wRC+ in 107 plate appearances.
  • Braves right-hander Mike Soroka recently underwent successful surgery to repair a torn Achilles for the second time since he last appeared in the Majors, per The Athletic’s David O’Brien (via Twitter). It was Soroka’s third surgery in total. Soroka figures to be out until at least July 2022, though an official timetable for his recovery has not yet been made public.

Mike Soroka To Undergo Season-Ending Achilles Surgery

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11:53AM: While an official recovery timeline won’t be known until after the surgery, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter) estimates that Soroka will be out for a full year, until July 2022.

11:11AM: Braves right-hander Mike Soroka will undergo surgery to fix a torn Achilles tendon, the team announced (Twitter links).  This will be the second season-ending Achilles procedure in as many years for Soroka, as according to the Braves’ announcement, he suffered “a complete re-tear of the tendon” while walking to the team’s clubhouse on Thursday.

It is another brutal turn of events for Soroka, who already underwent exploratory surgery on his Achilles back in May.  Atlanta manager Brian Snitker initially thought Soroka would be done for the season after that surgery, though more recent reports had the team hopeful that the righty could return to action some time in August.

The 23-year-old Soroka was a breakout star of the 2019 season, posting a 2.68 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, and 51.2% grounder rate over 174 2/3 innings en route to finishing second in NL Rookie Of The Year voting and sixth in NL Cy Young Award voting.  Just when it seemed as though Soroka had established himself as one of baseball’s top young arms, however, he tore his Achilles while covering first base on a fielding play during a game on August 3, 2020, ending his season after just three starts.

Between some shoulder inflammation and the May surgery, Soroka hasn’t pitched since that fateful August 3 game, and in the wake of these repeated major Achilles injuries, it is fair to wonder just when he might able to get back to action.  A return by Opening Day 2022 doesn’t seem likely, as an increased amount of rehab and recovery will undoubtedly be required after this second surgery.

Soroka is under team control through the 2024 season, as he still has three years of arbitration eligibility remaining due to earning Super Two status.  Despite tossing only 13 2/3 innings in 2020, Soroka still won an arbitration case with the Braves this past offseason, earning him a $2.8MM salary for 2021 in his first time through the arb process.  He’ll be projected to earn that same salary for 2022, so there isn’t much of a chance Atlanta would non-tender Soroka given the low price tag and his big upside if he is able to stay healthy.

In the shorter term, the Braves now know they won’t be getting Soroka back as a late-season rotation boost.  Charlie Morton, Ian Anderson, and Drew Smyly comprise Atlanta’s current top three, with Max Fried expected to return this week from a blister.  Huascar Ynoa (broken hand) and Tucker Davidson (forearm inflammation) are both on the 60-day IL and won’t be back until August, while the likes of Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, and Kyle Muller haven’t distinguished themselves in starting roles.  It’s safe to assume Atlanta was looking for starting pitching help even prior to today’s news about Soroka, though with a 36-39 record, the Braves will have to start stringing together some wins over the next month to ensure that they’ll be buyers whatsoever at the trade deadline.

GM: Braves Can Add Payroll At Trade Deadline

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During a wide-reaching interview that any Braves fan will want to check out in its entirety, Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos confirmed to Jeff Schultz of The Athletic that he’s been told by ownership he’ll have the ability to “add payroll at the deadline.”

It’s common for teams to leave room for in-season maneuvering when making their offseason transactions, but this sort of direct acknowledgment from a baseball operations leader is still of note — particularly on the heels of an offseason where virtually every club in the game had to work with more budgetary constraints than usual. The Braves were no exception, as they spent heavily to address the rotation and to re-sign Marcell Ozuna but appeared to be on a rather strict budget beyond those moves. The bullpen went largely unaddressed, though the team did ultimately bring Shane Greene back into the mix on an affordable one-year deal in early May.

There’s a vast array of directions the Braves can choose to go as they look to bolster the roster, though as with most clubs, they’re likely several weeks away from making any actual transactions. Sellers often prefer to wait until the market has more competition, and the Braves themselves right now probably want to take more time to evaluate the roster. Atlanta is five games out of first place at the moment and three games under .500. They’ll presumably operate as a buyer, given the generally underwhelming performance of the entire NL East, but a prolonged losing streak could send them in another direction, of course.

It’s also quite likely that the Braves want to gather more information on internal reinforcements before spending what still figures to be a limited amount of available resources. To that end, Anthopoulos notably reveals that he’s optimistic the Braves will get each of Mike Soroka, Travis d’Arnaud and Huascar Ynoa back at some point in the month of August.

The general assumption has been that Ynoa, who fractured his hand after punching the bench in the dugout after a poor outing, would make his way back in the season’s second half. But that hasn’t at all been clear regarding d’Arnaud and particularly regarding Soroka. The veteran d’Arnaud has been out since May 1 after tearing a ligament in his thumb that required surgery.

Soroka, meanwhile, opened the year on the injured list while wrapping up rehab from the Achilles tear that limited him to just three starts in 2020. But he felt some discomfort in his right shoulder that slowed his rehab, and once he ramped up in earnest, he experienced discomfort in his surgically repaired Achilles tendon, which prompted exploratory surgery. Anthopoulos declined to go into much detail but noted that the Braves received “good news” on the right-hander.

With d’Arnaud out, young William Contreras has stepped up with a .240/.313/.460 showing in 112 plate appearances. His bat has cooled since a hot start, but that production tops the output from d’Arnaud in the season’s first month. Of course, the veteran was brilliant for Atlanta in 2020 — the first season of a two-year, $16MM deal.

If the team feels confident that Soroka, d’Arnaud and Ynoa can return at some point in August, that could lessen any temptation to allocate some of the prospect capital and financial resources to rotation upgrades or catching help. That’d make the bullpen and the outfield far likelier targets for outside additions. Braves relievers have a collective 4.77 ERA, which ranks fifth-worst in the Majors. Atlanta outfielders, as a group, rank 10th in the Majors with a 104 wRC+ at the plate, but nearly all of their production has come from Ronald Acuna Jr. Non-Acuna Braves outfielders are batting a combined .215/.294/.356.

The trade market out to feature various outfield and bullpen options — you can peruse our initial Top 40 trade candidate list for some ideas — but Anthopoulos generally hasn’t been shy about making upgrades on the trade market in the past. With the Braves, he’s made midseason deals to acquire Greene, Chris Martin, Adam Duvall, Kevin Gausman, Darren O’Day, Brad Brach and Mark Melancon. Last year was an unusually quiet deadline for Anthopoulos, but the Braves had a rather comfortable division lead and may not have wanted to expend many resources with only one month of games post-deadline and with an expanded playoff field.

Again, we’re probably weeks away from the Braves or any other club beginning to pursue truly meaningful additions to the roster — a reality Anthopoulos himself acknowledges while discussing a generally open-minded approach to this year’s deadline. The whole interview, which also covers Freddie Freeman, some early thoughts on Contreras’ play and myriad other roster issues, is well worth a full look. But the general takeaway that the Braves will have some financial leeway is an important one, particularly at a time when many other teams won’t have that luxury.

The Yankees, Astros and Red Sox, for instance, are all within $4MM of the luxury-tax barrier. The division-rival Phillies are just shy of $5MM away from the $210MM threshold, while the Padres clock in at about $6MM from the tax line. The Indians and Reds both made substantial payroll cuts over the winter; it’s not yet clear how much (if any) additional salary they’ll be willing to take on.

We likely won’t know the extent to which Atlanta can increase its bottom line. Anthopoulos, like an GM or team president, would never directly tip his hand. However, the very presence of extra resources and the fact that they’re nowhere near the luxury barrier ought to give them some advantage when looking to pry veterans away from other clubs.

Latest On Mike Soroka

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1:10 pm: Despite Snitker’s assertion that Soroka is “down for the year,” the Braves haven’t yet officially ruled out Soroka this season, O’Brien hears. He’ll be reevaluated in two weeks to define a potential timetable for his recovery.

12:46 pm: Braves manager Brian Snitker confirmed this afternoon during an interview on the MLB Network that right-hander Mike Soroka is out for the remainder of the season (h/t to David O’Brien of the Athletic). Soroka underwent exploratory surgery on his right Achilles a couple weeks ago.

It’ll go down as a completely lost season for Soroka, his second consecutive injury-wrecked year. The 23-year-old originally tore his Achilles last August, just three starts into the abbreviated campaign. While there had been hope Soroka would return to the rotation relatively early in 2021, further health woes prevented that from happening. He was shut down from his rehab process in early April due to shoulder inflammation before renewed trouble with the Achilles resulted in the aforementioned surgery.

That series of injuries has stalled a brilliant start to Soroka’s MLB career. The former top prospect held his own in his first seven MLB starts in 2018 before an All-Star 2019 effort. Soroka tossed 174 2/3 innings of 2.68 ERA/4.28 SIERA ball as a 21-year-old that year, finishing second in NL Rookie of the Year balloting and sixth in NL Cy Young award voting. He’ll now unfortunately miss nearly two full seasons of action, although he’s certainly still young enough to regain his prior form if he returns to full strength in 2022.

Soroka had already been placed on the 60-day injured list. Players on the MLB injured list accumulate service time, so he’ll be credited with a full year of service for the 2021 season. Soroka will reach arbitration eligibility for the first time this winter and is under team control through 2024.

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 Activate Sean Newcomb, Transfer Mike Soroka To 60-Day IL

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The Braves announced this morning that lefty Sean Newcomb has been reinstated from the Covid-19 injured list. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Mike Soroka was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Atlanta also recalled righty Edgar Santana and optioned both Bryse Wilson and Johan Camargo to their alternate site.

The Soroka portion of the announcement may cause some alarm among fans, but that 60-day term refers to the total number of days he must spend on the injured list — including days already spent there. In other words, it’s 60 days from his initial placement on Opening Day — not 60 days from today. Soroka will be eligible to return at the end of May, but the latest reports out of Atlanta suggest he’s not likely to be ready to return to the roster until mid-June anyhow. It’s a largely procedural move.

Newcomb, 27, got out to a fast start this season but has been sidelined since being placed on the Covid list back on April 17. The starter-turned-reliever has pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed just one run while striking out a whopping 12 of the 22 hitters he’s faced. Granted, he’s also walked four batters and hit another, but the early uptick in strikeout rate, average fastball velocity (95.2 mph, up from 93.6 mph in 2020) and swinging-strike rate (14 percent, up from seven percent in 2020) are intriguing small-sample things for Braves fans to keep an eye on.

The 23-year-old Wilson started last night’s game, so he’ll head down to the alternate site as a means of getting some fresh arms into the ’pen. Santana will be making his club debut when he first gets into a game. The former Pirates righty missed the 2019 season due to an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery. He didn’t make it back to the big leagues in 2020 due to that surgery and an 80-game PED suspension. The Braves picked him up earlier this month in exchange for cash. Prior to surgery, he sat 95 mph with his heater and carried a career 3.31 ERA with a sub-par 21 percent strikeout rate but a 6.8 percent walk rate that was much better than the league average.

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