Atlanta Braves: Reasons for Signing Dickey and Colon

The reaction from fans seems to be generally favorable toward the twin geriatric signings of Dickey and Colon this week.  But for the rest… there really is a good reason for doing this.

It you want to understand why the Atlanta Braves are doing what they are doing in signing R.A. Dickey and Bartolo Colon this week, you have to go back in recent history a bit.

It really comes down to one word:  stability.

• In 2013 the Braves used 21 pitchers for the entire year – that’s starters and relievers.
• 2014:  20 pitchers.
• 2015:  37 pitchers, including 10 starters.
• 2016:  35 pitchers, with sixteen different starters used.

It’s a stark contrast.

For the past 2 years, Atlanta has been trying to fill gaps and bring in cheap back-of-the-rotation guys while expecting that new prospect pitchers would shortly be ready to go.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out as hoped – only one of these prospects has stepped up to take a role in the majors (Mike Foltynewicz), and that has led to a seemingly endless commuter bus of pitchers going back and forth from Atlanta to AAA.

Consistenly Changing

In addition to providing inconsistent results, that revolving door is really messing with the development of these guys.  For instance, John Gant was called up something like six different times in 2016.  That make it extremely hard to gain any consistency at either level.

So now, while we still have a large batch of pitchers who could make the majors and be contributors, virtually all of them need a while to regroup.

On top of that, the organization decided that the lack of progress for these top-tier pitchers was the fault of Roger McDowell, and thus he has now been replaced by Chuck Hernandez.

So now the pitching program is in the process of being reshaped in Hernandez’ mold.  While necessary, it’s still a work that will be in process for a while – which will likely introduce yet another change in the routines for pitchers at all levels.