Atlanta Braves News for Friday PM: Cunniff/Phillies/Mudcats
Atlanta Braves pitcher
Sugar Ray Marimon. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Call this a quick ‘Afternoon Chop’, as some Braves-related news items are accumulating this afternoon.
Cunniff to DL; Marimon Recalled
Brandon Cunniff was placed on the DL (groin strain) and Sugar Ray Marimon was recalled from @GwinnettBraves
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 26, 2015
Bowman also reports (via twitter) that Cunniff has had this nagging him for 2 weeks now – since the end of the series with the San Diego Padres.
The obvious question to ask here is “why Marimon and why not somebody else?”
Currently, the 40-man roster has 19 pitchers on it (+ 8 more that don’t currently count against that number) and 20 position players (+ Dian Toscano, who also doesn’t count against that).
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While that’s 39 overall, leaving one open spot, then Braves are certainly right to be mindful of the 40-man right now, as Arodys Vizcaino becomes “unrestricted” after next week… which means he starts counting toward that ’40’ number again. Andrew McKirihan likewise comes off his suspension about 2 weeks later, so there’s certainly some numbers crunching to be done soon.
Sure, you can DFA somebody off the list – but that risks losing the player for no compensation, and that’s generally a poor practice to get into. But as just mentioned, it does appear that somebody will have to be bumped soon – my best guess on that name is Elmer Reyes (due to his current legal entanglements).
So Sugar Ray Marimon was the easy, no-brainer choice. He may or may not be the right/best choice, but he’s the easy choice. He’s definitely a good choice if you need multiple innings out of the bullpen since as a starter, he could go 3+ if necessary. Nobody else on the 25-man roster is really equipped to do so.
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