Atlanta Braves GM Says Pitching to Get Younger
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves GM Says Pitching to Get Younger – More Veterans Will Find New Homes Soon
After trading Jason Grilli to Toronto GM John Coppolella laid out one reason why the trade was made.
"“We want to go with young pitching,” said Braves general manager John Coppolella. “What we’ve tried to do in a year like this is find out what we have with the young arms that we have here.”"
The unspoken reason was that the Braves were likely going to release him pretty soon and this at least saved them $300K and brought in a warm body while giving Grilli a chance with the team his dad played for and he grew up supporting,
If we take the GM at his word we could see more movement among the pitching ranks but will we?
The Old Men in the Pen
The Braves pen contains four arms over 30 that might be on the list to be moved; Jim Johnson (33), Alexi Ogando (32),Bud Norris (31) and Eric O’Flaherty (also 31).
Johnson is currently on a rehab assignment after a DL stint for an aductor strain. Johnson rebuilt his reputation early last year only to see it go up in a puff of smoke after his trade to the Dodgers. The Braves brought him back this year on a one year, $2.5M deal hoping to catch lightning in a bottle again. Before his injury JJ appeared in 15 games and threw just 13 2/3 inning with a 7.90 ERA, 4.51FIP, 1.390 WHIP so whatever was in the bottle early wasn’t lightning. If he can come back healthy and pitch a few innings of good ball he may have some value but not a lot.
EOF is just not the same guy fans used to wish for in a leverage situation in his 24 games covering just 15 2/3 innings he’s pitched to a 6.32 ERA, 4.01 FIP and 1.532 WHIP. In his first tour with the Braves he was harder of RHH than LHH, this time around LHH handle him –.275/.293/.475/.768 – and RHH are killing him – .360/.429/.560/.989. His best use is against a LHH that the other team can’t pinch hit for which is really not much use at all. If I was betting, he’s the next to go. He’ll bring back less than Grilli.
Norris seems to have won Brian Snitker’s heart, he’s used him as a middle inning reliever for multiple innings and even inserted him into eighth inning leverage situations. His future looks to be in the bullpen and in his 11 appearances over 17 1/3 innings he’s posted a 2.08 ERA, 1.269 WHIP striking out 14 of the 70 batters faced while walking nine.
Ogando has very good so far, the former Red Sox and Ranger reliever’s thrown 22 1/3 innings in 24 appearances with a 2.82 ERA, 3.61 FIP and 1.701 WHIP and striking out a man an inning. Ogando and Norris probably have the most value of the quartet.
Next: Other Old Guys Too?