While it wasn’t that much of a surprise considering he was essentially the 7th in line, AJ Smith-Shawver, aka A.S.S., was optioned back to the MiLB camp.
Assuming heath, Max Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, and Chris Sale are locked in for Opening day, leaving Bryce Elder and Reynaldo Lopez fighting for a job. But the real question is: Are they really fighting for a job?
Will Alex Anthopoulos Go With a 6-Man Rotation?
Alex Anthopoulos discussed a plan to keep his rotation healthy for 2024, but as is customary for him, he did not discuss specifics. While I’m not in the know, it feels as though a 6-man rotation, at least for the first month or so, could be on the table. With Chris Sale, Max Fried, and Charlie Morton all having injury woes in 2023, a good way to keep the arms fresh would be extra time between starts. However guys like Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder could very well want the ball every 5th start. In a sense, this could be feasible with a little bit of plug and play.
Reynaldo’s Role Will Save the Rotation
Reynaldo Lopez provides so much value with his arm, but also provides extra rest and flexibility in his role. When there’s a plug and play guy that’s part of a group of 6, it allows Brian Snitker to give added rest to his oldies but goodies, while not sacrificing quality, something he didn’t have the luxury of in 2023. With Reynaldo getting stretched out and both AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep in the mix at AAA, there are a lot of possibilities here, and none of them are Dylan Dodd, Jared Shuster, Yonny Chirinos, Allan Winans, or Kolby Allard.
I wish that when I went to publish a piece, my computer would yell “Turn on the comments, idiot!”
Well, you can program that in if you want to. You are the site manager.
Sure would be nice to get JD Davis on a cheap deal but he may want more playing time. Would not be a bad idea to have a backstop for Kelenic no matter how well we think he might do.
DOB has said multiple times that the Braves will go with a 6-man. I think Peanut has said the same as well. 6-man solves so many problems. Gives our guys rest, of course, but then it also allows for an extended audition for both Elder and Lopez. And then when one of our SPs made of glass inevitably get injured, the other guy can come back in the rotation. And the two candidates are made in heaven because one has options and one can go to the pen.
Elder was 74th in SP fWAR last year. 30 teams only had 73 guys better than him. He’s a 5th starter all day. The only question is whether he’s one of the 5 best SPs on the team, and to Ryan, DOB, and Peanut’s points, it doesn’t matter right now and actually may never matter.
I couldn’t feel any better about this team. We’ve got the best rotation in baseball, we may have the best bullpen in baseball, we have the best lineup in baseball, and we now also have a really good bench. AA is working with better resources than his predecessor has, but just put the guy on the Mount Rushmore of Cobb County already.
Yes, and to your regularly made points about not needing 100 wins, the difference between Elder and some constellation of 25 starts between Strider-Fried-Morton-Sale for a team with such a strong offense is probably a 2 meaningless wins. I have been bullish on a 6 man rotation for years, but the problem has generally been not having 6 quality starters. Now we have that and even more if Ynoa or Anderson is back.
Elder’s outing going sideways again. For a 5th starter he seems like a pretty good 7th guy.
The good news is that he and Kelenic will both be due when the season starts.
Adam Duvall is back with the Braves on a one-year, $3 million major league deal. The Braves have told reporters that he will be platooning with Kelenic in LF.
STOP THE PRESSES!
I thought my Duvall sense was tingling.
$3M strikes me as excellent value here. he might be done, but might also find some comfort and value in the short side of that platoon.
I don’t see why he would be done, other than being one year older. He had a typical Duvall year last season.
Duvall is going to finish his career with 200 homers, three 30-home run seasons, a gold glove, and an RBI crown, and he will never have made $10 million in a season and will earn less than $30 million in his career.
Some guys have all the luck. Some guys have all the pain.
This move just made too much sense. Gives us insurance in case Kelenic sucks or if/when Acuña’s knee acts up.
And I’m surprised they got him for only 3 million. Thought he was worth in the 8-10 million range.
Gotta agree about Duvall making a lot of sense. If you look at his numbers last year, he didn’t show much, if any regression. $3 million seems like a steal. Where does this leave Forest Wall?
I’m not arguing against this one way or another, but do we really know if 5 or even 6 days between starts helps pitchers avoid injury? Could the longer rest be too long?
Great question. I don’t know about injury risk, and I strongly doubt there is enough long-term data to say. Pitcher performance does positively correlate with number of days of rest, but I’m not sure if 6 days’ rest is actually better than 5. Injuries are too random and occur too rarely and 6 man rotations are too rare to study a relationship IMO
New thread.