These past few days, there have been a handful of roster updates that are quite important to the beginning of the Braves season. Today’s piece will cover all of the Braves roster updates and discuss the impact on the Opening day team.
Braves Add Top Talent to the Player Pool
In a pure developmental move, the Braves have added 19 year old, toolsy OFer, Michael Harris to the player pool. There are many people, David Lee included, that are very high on Harris. Here’s an excerpt from one David’s latest paid pieces on Harris:
I shy away from calling someone a five-tool prospect when the tools aren’t above-average potential across the board, but Harris does have multiple above-average potential tools and shows all five.
David Lee
Braves Lose Yasiel Puig to COVID Positive
This was a tough one. Puig, a player with reverse splits, was brought in to help fill the void left when Nick Markakis opted out of the 2020 season. As noted in other pieces, the Braves will be facing some of the best RHP in the game and Puig would’ve been a welcomed addition to the team. It’s still 100% possible that the Braves revisit the signing after Puig, who’s asymptomatic, tests negative to the required 2 tests.
Braves Select 2 Veterans to MLB Roster
While Josh Tomlin seemed a foregone conclusion, Yonder Alonso was a bit of a surprise and goes to show that the Braves had reached desperation in regards to a LH bat to combat elite RH pitching. The Braves did not have to make any 40-man moves as there was already a space for both with Jeremy Walker on the 45-day IL and the open space that Markakis’s opt-out opened.
Freddie Freeman and Touki Toussaint Return!
Man…we needed this. While Will Smith is still on the COVID shelf, both Freddie Freeman and Touki Toussaint returned yesterday, providing a spark that the Braves needed after the loss of Yasiel Puig. To the surprise of no one, Freddie expects to be in the the lineup on Opening Day.
A LH bat Available?
In a bit of a surprising move for those in the know, Matt Adams opted out of his deal with the Mets after he was informed he wouldn’t make the 30-man roster. While Adams isn’t what he was the last time he was with the Braves, he can still smash RHP and likely would be a better option than any internal choices.
Thanks for reading Braves Roster Updates! If you enjoyed this piece, check out our piece on player options for the season, as it will be very important when determining roster moves.
Thanks for the summarized update, Ryan.
Is the DH here to stay now? No more Faulty at bats?
@1
I can’t imagine they’ll go back for a year only to have it implemented in 2022.
I’m thinking about running a Braves Journal watch party once a week via Zoom call. Who would be interested in catching a game at home together?
@3 fun idea. Almost always middle of the night for me unfortunately.
Watched a little bit of yesterday’s scrimmage. Soroka looked awesome. Striking out Acuna Jr. on a heater and on a breaking ball. Culberson went yard against Tomlin, who got knocked around. FF5 with a single and a triple off the wall.
Having the white noise is certainly better than German soccer, where you could hear a lot of what managers and players were yelling. Not very pleasant to listen to.
@2 – I actually think they will, for no other reason that the owners and players will find it better to just let that happen than to come to some sort of minor agreement on extending the DH into the interim year. The default for right now is that the DH is going away again in the NL for next year, so to stop that, they’d actually have to do something.
@4 – If you had asked me coming into the restart of sports if I’d have preferred silence/field chatter or canned crowd noise, I’d have strongly assumed that I’d have preferred the former. Somewhat suprisingly, however, I’ve found myself gravitating towards the latter as the games have actually started. The silence and being able to hear everything everybody says is just too weird. The canned crowd noise, while kind of silly, does provide the sort of background noise you’re used to when watching sports.
I loved hearing the players and coaches interact in the Bundesliga. Would be up for a watch party or 3
It’s my understanding that Puig was well onto his way to being a Brave, and only COVID stopped that. So one would presume that once he tests negative, he passes his physical, and he’s good, no?
Zoom, huh? What hath God wrought?
Rob, I was looking forward to Puig being a Brave, or Peach, or whatever PC name we will wear.
Y’all know those humongous yellow, orange and black grasshoppers that used to be everywhere in those halcyon days of yore? They were called Georgia thumpers. Now that’s a fine name for a baseball team.
Hey, if being a Peach was good enough for Dottie Hinson, it’s good enough for me.
And all you people were hating on my man Newk.
Why not split up the lefties in the rotation? That seems to be on par with not giving your best pitcher two starts in a playoff series. Oh wait…
@14
Call me when the Braves add Rickie Vaughn.
Do you want Rickie from the first one, the first half of the sequel, or the second half of the sequel?
I’ll take the Rickie with the 102 heat from the sequel.
13 — Yeah, Soroka not starting Game 1 and especially Game 5 still smarts.
It was Frediot-level.
The Braves will add Rickie Vaughn when the Mets reactivate Mo Vaughn. Astonishingly, that contract was deemed only the 4th worst in Mets history. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/998790-new-york-mets-free-agency-the-five-worst-contracts-in-franchise-history
AJ Minter has no business making this roster.
Thank you for your time.
@18
That and the insanely stupid usage of Max Fried in the series, in which he could’ve been kept in when he was dealing in Game 1 and lined up to start Game 4, but instead was taken out so we could keep him in the bullpen for the whole series, where we got a good-but-easily-attainable-through-other-means inning in Game 2 (which wouldn’t have meant so much if we’d won Game 1 in the first place) and a third of an inning in which he walked two batters in Game 3.
I’m guessing Yonder Alonso’s stint is short lived.
So now I project Ozuna in LF and Adams at DH vs. RHP more often than not.
My last comment, of course, is subject to the Furcal Rule.
@24, unless I’m mistaken, I think a tweet from the Braves official account satisfies the Furcal rule.
Riley just struck out against Minter twice in one inning. In between Duvall and Dansby walked, and Albies doubled them in.
Freddie just hit a 3 run homer to left center off Newcomb.
Newcomb pitched 4 good innings but appears to be out of gas in the 5th.
Tucker Davidson pitched 3 shutout innings.
Tucker Davidson is a freaking monster
@23, I like how AA works. He’s just not messing around.
New post on the Big City signing and the 230 lb. obstacle in his way.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2020/07/21/matt-adams-back-with-the-braves/