Today’s trivia: Three pitchers in the history of the Braves organization have been named the (AAA) International League’s Most Valuable Pitcher, winning the award in 1982, 1994, and 2011. Can you name any of the three?
In this Brave Moves, we’ll cover the flurry of camp transactions since our last entry.
3/20: Optioned RHP Brooks Wilson to AAA Gwinnett
The 26 year old righty was Atlanta’s 7th round choice in 2018, and his improving velocity and mastery of the splitter earned him the 20th spot in MLB’s current organizational prospect rankings. While the scouting side of things still is unsold on Wilson, the PECOTA projection system looks at a player who was dominant in the minors and wonders why he couldn’t be similarly helpful in the majors. Wilson threw 50 innings last year across AA and AAA, walking 19 and striking out 84 with a 2.34 ERA. Only 6 of those innings came at Gwinnett, so even with an impressive 90 DRA- projection, which ranks 3rd among healthy Atlanta righty relievers, the Braves likely want to see Wilson succeed a bit more at the highest level before entrusting him with innings. He should be in line for his MLB debut at some point this season.
3/20: Optioned RHP William Woods to AAA Gwinnett
Scroll just past Brooks Wilson on that MLB Pipeline prospect list and you’ll find at #21 William Woods, a draftee from the same class, albeit 16 rounds and over 400 players later. Where Wilson has the results, Woods has the stuff. Only on the roster to protect his high 90s fastball from that Rule V Draft that never happened, Woods will just look for a full season in 2022. With just 10.2 innings last season, he still has less than 100 minor league innings to his name, and none of those innings were thrown above high-A. Woods hits the 40-man roster a bit earlier than you’d like, so it’ll be interesting to see if the Braves continue to develop him as a starter or try to quickly capitalize on his fastball/slider combo, which could be devastating in late innings. Either way, this is likely his only MLB transaction of this season.
3/21: Optioned RHP Freddy Tarnok to AAA Gwinnett
In 73.1 innings at A+ and AA last year, Tarnok posted a 3.44 ERA with 109 Ks and 28 BBs. That makes him a prospect that’s easy to buy in on, considering he has excellent stuff that scouts think he’s really just starting to master. He’s still on the starter path for now, and I’d imagine he starts the year in Mississippi with dreams of Buford, but there’s a non-zero chance he turns himself into a useful MLB option by late summer. I’m guessing the ETA is 2023, but the stuff can play, so it wouldn’t shock me to see him earlier.
3/21: Optioned RHP Alan Rangel to AAA Gwinnett
Rangel tossed 104.2 innings between A+ and AA last year, posting a 3.87 ERA and impressive 136:26 K:BB ratio. He’ll need to prove he can keep it up at the higher levels, but this is another prospect who doesn’t wow scouts with stuff but wows plenty of opposing batters with his ability to retire them. Like Tarnok, he’s someone the team would prefer to keep in the minors throughout 2022, but if there’s a pitcher who can guile his way into a September spot start debut, my money’s on Rangel.
3/23: Optioned RHP Touki Toussaint to AAA Gwinnett
You saw Touki at the MLB level last year. The MiLB results likely wouldn’t surprise you: he had very tough to hit stuff that was undone by his wildness. Now 25, with meager projections (112 DRA-), and unable to find a spot on a 28-man roster? What little optimism remains for his MLB future is drying up quickly. The Braves will need some roster space before next week, and Touki seems like an excellent trade candidate - there should be enough talent to draw interest in giving him a fresh start on a roster less concerned with title aspirations.
3/23: Optioned OF Drew Waters to AAA Gwinnett
Since his AAA debut in 2019, prospect watchers have waited for Waters’ bat, fairly impressive at every previous level, to show up. With a full season’s worth of 511 plate appearances at the highest MiLB level, Waters has slashed .247/.330/.380 with 13 HR, 31 SB, and a whopping 185 Ks. There’s plenty of time for the young outfielder to make it work; aggressively promoted, he’ll still be 23 when he finishes this season. But really, if he’s to make an impact in Atlanta’s OF carousel, he has to make better contact and hit for some power. Once he does, he’ll give the Braves a potential glove at all three OF spots, and probably a plus one in the corners.
3/26: Re-assigned RHP Brad Brach and OF Michael Harris II to minor league camp
As we discussed last time, Brach’s recent issues on the mound were significant enough it was hard to expect him to fully fix it all in a single spring. He’ll need innings at AAA to see if that mojo can be rediscovered.
Harris is Atlanta’s top prospect, but he’s not exactly knocking on the door just yet. He hasn’t taken a swing in AA yet, and he’d be unlikely to contribute to the Braves in 2022 in non-defensive ways. He’s someone you should pay attention to throughout this season, but I wouldn’t expect to see his MLB debut until 2023 or 2024.
3/28: Optioned RHP Jacob Webb to AAA Gwinnett
This option may have seemed a surprise to Brave fans, considering Webb’s often impressive MLB action over 2019-2021 and the paucity of proven righty relief arms this spring. Projections and statistical indicators like xFIP suggest that the real Jacob Webb is less the 2019-20 version (1.06 ERA) and closer to the 2021 edition (4.19 ERA). Don’t expect him to stay at Gwinnett all year.
3/28: Signed RHP Seth Elledge to a minor league contract
Atlanta snapped Elledge up quickly after his release from St. Louis, where he logged 23.1 major league innings over the last two seasons, pitching to the tune of a 4.63 ERA, 25 Ks, and 15 BBs.
Elledge throws a 94 mph sinker which he pairs with an 83 mph downward slider. As you probably guessed from the 15 BBs in 23.1 innings, he struggles to control these pitches. He’ll probably head to Gwinnett and wait for an injury to open a door.
3/28: Released RHP Kenny Wells
Wells threw 43.2 innings at A-ball Augusta last year, striking out 67 batters. That’s some unhittable stuff. Because he also walked 35 batters and hit 14, he allowed more runs (38) than hits (31). With a 7.21 ERA poisoning the scoreboard, his future status in this organization was far more predictable than the location of his next pitch.
3/28: Released RHP Andrew Church
Church’s Atlanta tenure lasted 12 days, so I’m guessing the Braves signed him as depth and quickly found better depth. The 48th pick of the 2013 draft hasn’t pitched since 2019, and he hasn’t had a MiLB season with a sub-5 ERA since the Obama administration.
3/28: Released RHP Jared Robinson
This release is a tad disappointing, as Robinson had 72 Ks in just 47.2 innings last season. Granted, he was 26 and in AA, so there likely wasn’t a lot of upside here, but it’s not like he was Kenny Wells out there.
3/28: Released OF Jose Palma
Last season, the 22 year old slashed .258/.378/.290 in the Gulf Coast League. His willingness to take walks was admirable, but his inability to affect the game when forced to swing likely dampened his future in the organization.
3/30: Optioned C Chadwick Tromp to AAA Gwinnett
Besides a name that is delightful to say out loud, Tromp also brings some insurance for Braves fans. With Tromp on the depth chart, the Braves won’t need to go look for Kevan Smith or Stephen Vogt. They will already have their catcher who can OPS .600 with unimpeachable defense if the injury bug rears its ugly head again.
3/30: Reassigned 1B John Nogowski to minor league camp
Nogowski has a .294/.400/.353 line this spring. The former FSU Seminole, at 6’0, 245 lbs, looks like a slugger. With a .308 career SLG in 147 big league plate appearances, looks are likely deceiving.
3/31: Signed IF Brian Klein to a minor league contract & assigned him to Augusta
Undrafted in 2020, Klein signed with the Nationals and made his debut last season, slashing .275/.415/.471 in 65 plate appearances in rookie ball. As a Texas Tech Red Raider, Klein hit .318/.408/.465 in his college career, earning 2nd team All-American honors from an entity called Diamond Sports in 2020. There’s very little info on him, so he’ll probably act as organizational filler, albeit filler with a good eye and some doubles power.
3/31: Released IF Brock Holt
Holt was informed he wouldn’t make the opening day 28-man roster, so he requested his release, which the Braves granted. I thought his glove would put him in the lead for that utility spot up for grabs, but that didn’t pan out. With his bat generally in decline, but a fairly solid spring to go on, Holt will try to strike while the iron’s hot and secure a MLB spot elsewhere.
3/31: Optioned LHP Dylan Lee to AAA Gwinnett
The Braves don’t have any World Series games in April, so there’s no need for Game 4 starter Dylan Lee just yet. Lee wasn’t exactly stellar this spring, which may or may not have played a role, but more likely this is due to Sean Newcomb’s option status giving him a preferred look out of the gate. Lee will likely be back and forth on the option train this season.
3/31: Optioned OF Travis Demeritte to AAA Gwinnett
For a bit, it looked like Demeritte might sneak onto the roster. Then the Braves signed a flurry of outfielders and Demeritte struck out 6 times in 17 spring plate appearances. There’s an organization where Demeritte’s presence on a major league roster would make some sense, but such an organization is not located in the Peach State.
3/31: Signed OF Preston Tucker to a minor league contract
Tucker OPS’d .714 for the 2018 Braves, so he’s back to try to recapture some of that magic. He’ll have to recapture it first in Gwinnett, because a crowded Atlanta OF doesn’t appear to have room for a Preston Tucker type. The Braves most likely just want to see it Tucker, who spent 2019-2021 in the KBO, is indeed a better player now than his last action stateside. In 2020, he hit .306/.398/.557 with 40 2B and 32 HR for the Kia Tigers, finishing 6th in the KBO in both OPS and homers. The KBO is generally seen as better than AA, but a tad below AAA, so don’t get too worked up over those impressive tallies.
Current State of the Roster
40 Man Roster: 40
Active Roster: 30
10 Day IL: 0
60 Day IL: 3 - RHP Jay Jackson, RHP Mike Soroka, RHP Kirby Yates
Optioned Players, including seasonal option count:
- Travis Demeritte (1)
- Dylan Lee (1)
- Alan Rangel (1)
- Freddy Tarnok (1)
- Touki Toussaint (1)
- Chadwick Tromp (1)
- Drew Waters (1)
- Jacob Webb (1)
- Brooks Wilson (1)
- William Woods (1)
Atlanta tweeted today that there are 37 players still in camp. Due to a mess of a website, it’s hard to know for sure who those 37 players are. Here’s my guess:
There are 30 members of the 40-man roster that have yet to be optioned or placed on an injured list. There are also 16 official Non-Roster Invitees that have not been publicly reassigned per a team tweet or a listed transaction. From there, it’s anyone’s guess as to how things are counted. Is Ronald Acuna Jr, who will start the season on the IL, among the 37? Is Luke Jackson?
Hopefully this gets easier to parse in the coming days, and it’s probably not of significant interest to most, but I do find the lack of information on this front to be frustrating and odd. It really shouldn’t be too much to ask to know exactly who remains on the Grapefruit League roster at a given time.
Odds and Ends
Trivia answers:
Craig McMurtry won the 1982 IL MVPitcher after a 17-9 season. The following season, he would be a rookie sensation, going 15-9, 3.08 for the Braves, finishing 7th in the NL Cy Young race and runner-up to Darryl Strawberry for NL Rookie of the Year. (The bespectacled hurler would go 13-33, 4.59 over the remainder of his comparatively disappointing career)
Brad Woodall took the 1994 trophy, going 15-6 with a 2.42 ERA. Woodall made his MLB debut that same year, pitched 10 innings for the ‘95 champs, but after a 6.50 ERA in 36 innings over 3 years, Atlanta let him leave via free agency. He made 20 starts for the 1998 Brewers, his most prominent MLB role.
The 2011 Most Valuable Pitcher went to a future two time Braves all-star who would go on to tie Warren Spahn’s franchise record by starting 6 consecutive Opening Days: Julio Teheran!
I’d like to delve into some extension ideas and projections for some of the arbitration-eligible players. That’ll come when I can write more frequently or if transactions slow down for a period. Both are likely once the season begins.
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share!