Atlanta Braves Sign Carlos Torres With A Spring Training Invite

The Atlanta Braves have signed relief pitching Carlos Torres to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite according to 680 The Fan’s Kevin McAlpin.  Jim Seimas of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, is reporting that Torres decided to play in Atlanta over the Yankees and Dodgers.

The 33-year-old was DFA’d by the New York Mets when they signed Antonio Bastardo late in January.  Torres opted out of his Mets contract when he was removed from their 40-man roster.

Torres has pitched for three previous organizations and the Braves will make his fourth.  He’s spent the last three years with the Mets.  Over the last three years he’s had 155 relief appearances and 10 starts.  He’s totaled a 3.59 ERA with 8.2 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 46 percent ground-ball rate in the 241 innings pitched.

One reason the Braves probably think highly of Torres, is because he’s got a lifetime ERA of 1.34 against the Braves in 22 appearances.

He began his career as a starting pitcher, but moved to a reliever role in 2012.  He can be a pitcher that eats up multi-innings for the Braves as 11 of his 59 appearances in 2015 and 27 of his 73 games in 2014 were more than an inning pitched.

Torres will add one more name to the list of invited and non-invitees to the Braves 2016 Spring Training facility trying to compete for a job in Atlanta.

Unless the 6’1″, 180 pound righy impresses significantly, he’ll probably be pitching in Gwinnett to start the season.  There he’ll get the opportunity to prove he still has something left in the tank.  There’s always the chance though that he comes out blazin during ST.

The Braves pitchers and catchers report on February 19th and their first practice is February 20th.  Positional players arrive on February 25th and first practice is on the 26th.