Atlanta Braves roster ramifications: Wisler up, Adams out

With the injury to Anibal Sanchez, we knew that Changes Had To Be Made.  Today’s roster moves will prepare for both today and the future.

The Atlanta Braves have decided on a starting pitcher for tonight’s contest against the New York Metropolitans:  Matt Wisler.  However, multiple events have conspired together to require another corresponding move:

This actually comes in the wake of good news – great news, actually:

Had this not been the case, the Braves might have had the option of (shudder) placing Freeman on the 60-day DL to heal… thus allowing them to replace him without shedding a 40-man roster slot.  But with the need to add Matt Wisler today (though he was already on the 40-man), someone had to be removed from the 25-man active roster.  Lane Adams is that ‘someone’.

There are precious few Braves on that current active roster that can be sent to the minor leagues via options… well, few that aren’t called upon on a daily basis, that is… and the expectation has been that Adams might become a roster victim at some point.

Since having a fairly terrible Spring, he had gotten a bit better at the plate, though his .235 average is tainted a bit by including a lone home run that came off of a position player.

This does leave a bit of a hole in terms of defensive replacement options for the outfield.  Neither Charlie Culberson nor Ryan Flaherty have very much OF time in their careers.

So when that need arises, the newly returned Johan Camargo will most likely grab an outfield glove while Flaherty goes to third base.

What about Peter Bourjos?  I have no idea… best guess is that the team believed he was the better option to retain for outfield support rather than Adams… but I’ll still stick with the Camargo-in-the-outfield scenario over playing Bourjos out there as a first option.

Lane Adams is thus now removed from the 40-man roster and can be claimed via waivers by any of the other 29 major league clubs.  I would set the likelihood of this happening at maybe 15%, meaning that the Braves could end up retaining Adams – at Gwinnett.

Matt Wisler

In 2 starts with Gwinnett, Matt has 12 innings and a 2.25 ERA – striking out 11 while walking 1.  This is the kind of start he had in Spring training, though he faded down the stretch as more innings were added.

His backup tonight will probably be Lucas Sims, who was recalled yesterday.  Sims was fairly terrible in Florida, but has had one successful start in AAA thus far:  4 innings, no runs allowed, 7 strikeouts and 2 walks.

The opponent tonight?  The New York Mets, who are on a 13-4 roll to start the year.  So go get’em, boys.

Roster Status

Over the past few days, the Braves have now emptied 2 slots on their 40-man roster.  The knee-jerk reaction is that Mike Soroka and Ronald Acuna Jr would be the #1 and #1A candidates for those slots… and you’re probably right.

That said, with prospect such as these, you’re not going to jerk them around:  if either/both are coming to the majors, they will be coming to stay for an extended period of time.

In Acuna’s case, the path to left field is straightforward:  once his bat becomes both more selective and red hot, he will be called up.

In Soroka’s case, though Alex Anthopoulos referred to him as being “very, very close” yesterday, there has to be a ‘real’ rotation spot for him before the Braves promote him.

Today, the rotation is defined as Teheran, Foltynewicz, McCarthy, Sanchez, and Newcomb.  Matt Wisler is truly a ‘fill-in’ right now.  That’s not enough to justify bringing up Soroka just yet, particularly since the injury to Sanchez does not appear to be that serious:

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Once the Braves decide that Soroka is ready for the major league rotation, they will probably let teams know that McCarthy or Sanchez is available via trade and create a spot for Soroka while also adding him to the 40-man list.  But barring injury, that could still be some weeks or months away.

Why? Because of  Luiz Gohara.  While Gohara does not need a 40-man roster slot, he will be ready to rejoin the team and rotation within the next month… that date perhaps being dependent on the performance of the current group of five.

I won’t even discuss Jose Bautista right now since that complication is at least a full month away.

So you see that having 40-man roster flexibility is vital to the Braves’ decisions over the next 1-2 months, but unfortunately, Lane Adams is the victim today that helps that inadvertently makes that happen.

Next: The near-disaster from last night

Hopefully LA Swiftness will be back at some convenient point.  I like the kid.