Braves Bolster Bullpen Sign David Aardsma
By Fred Owens
arrives in Atlanta. Photo by David Aardsma via Twitter
The Braves bullpen has been the worst in baseball in the last month, today’s signing should help stop the bleeding.
Right-handed reliever David Aardsma has signed a Minor League deal w/ the Braves. He'll join Triple-A Gwinnett tomorrow.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 6, 2015
As I wrote two days ago he appears a perfect fit. In 2010 David Aardsma saved 31 games for the Mariners then suffered a series of injuries including a torn hip labrum and TJ surgery that kept him out of the game for more than two years.
After the 2014 season he realized that he had screwed up his mechanics as a result of the injury costing him velocity. He enrolled in an off season program to correct his mechanics and it worked well enough for the Dodgers to sign him to a minor league contract.
At Oklahoma City Aardsma pitched to a 2.41 ERA, 1.018 WHIP in 18 2/3 innings posting an 11.09 K/9 and 3.38 BB/9 rate and leading the PCL with 15 saves on June first. Like most veterans his minor league deal included an opt out if the Dodgers didn’t add him to the 25 man roster at that time. They didn’t add him, he opted out and the Braves were waiting with a contract.
That’s A Wrap
I’ve seen questions about his assignment to Gwinnett instead of reporting to Atlanta immediately. We don’t yet know why they did that but it’s reasonable to assume they have good reasons for it, they know as well as we do how bad the bullpen has been.
Just in case you’ve forgotten the 16 arms we’ve used this season managed a league worst 5.03 ERA and their 1.42 WHIP puts them 27th. I could go on but it’s depressing. One of the reasons given by Skipper Fredi Gonzalez was the experience level of pitchers like Brandon Cunniff and Cody Martin. Aardsma certainly doesn’t have that problem nor will he be awed by any situation he’s inserted into.
Aardsma gives us three solid RHP in the pen should allow Nick Masset to be used in less high leverage situations until he rights the ship. This assumes of course that Cody Martin returns to Gwinnett to open a slot for Aardsma. Ideally we’ll add another lefty to the pen as well – Dana Eveland please – to take some of the pressure off of Luis Avilan. Today’s signing however signals that the front office is watching and trying to help, the players needed that.