Should the Braves trade some of the pitching depth?
Frank Wren has said many times that he is not trading any of his core group of young pitchers (Minor, Teheran, Delgado, and Vizcaino) and I have pretty much agreed with that position. Pitching is probably the most coveted asset by any team, and the Braves by far have the most depth with starting pitchers. But do we really need 8 starting pitchers? Here are the starters that are on the team right now:
- Hudson
- Hanson
- Beachy
- Jurrjens
- Minor
- Medlen
- Delgado
- Teheran
Arodys Vizcaino could be a starter but as of right now he’s in the bullpen. I think that they want to make the move permanent for him and I think they should. Quality relievers are always nice and most teams undervalue bullpens.
But we still have 8 starting pitchers and only 5 spots for them. Before we trade some off we need to look at what’s going to happen. First of all Jair Jurrjens will be traded. He will probably be traded this off season and if not, he will go at the deadline. This is Tim Hudson‘s last year (unless the Braves want to use their club option for $9 million in 2013). Kris Medlen might be starting at the beginning of the 2012 season but I think this is because we have injury questions and don’t want to throw Teheran/Delgado into the bigs just yet. So I am going to assume Medlen goes back to the bullpen at some point this season.
In 2013 our rotation could look like this:
- Hanson
- Beachy
- Teheran
- Minor
- Delgado
Medlen, and Vizcaino would be quality bullpen arms along with Craig Kimbrel and our depth consists of Sean Gilmartin. So is trading some of our pitching a good idea? I don’t really think so. It works out nicely for the 2013 season which is really where things will get interesting in Atlanta. We will have $40 million to spend (hopefully on an outfielder, but there are two aces out there…) and the Phillies will have gotten another year older. People may think Frank Wren is being foolish for waiting around this off season but he knows how bright 2013 is looking, and he’s not going to give that up for anything.