Atlanta Braves Option Wes Parsons and Adam McCreery

Injury forced more innings on the Atlanta Braves bullpen this week. Today they option two pitchers to Gwinnett and brought two new ones up.

This afternoon the Atlanta Braves announced that they optioned Adam McCreery and Wes Parsons to Gwinnett. To take their places in the bullpen they recalled lefty Chad Bell and selected the contract of Chad Sobotka.

Parsons worked five emergency innings in the last game of the Nationals series when Anibal Sanchez left the game with a leg injury.

Parsons allowed four runs on six hits, walked three and struck out three while taking the loss Thursday. Most of his trouble came as he shook the nerves that come with a first major league appearance.

McCreery worked the eighth inning allowing two runs on four hits in his first major league appearance.

Chad Sobotka

The Atlanta Braves selected Sobotka in the fourth round of the 2014 draft. A back injury prevented him from playing in 2014 so he began his career working as a starter in 2015.

The Braves moved him to the bullpen in 2016 where he made 30 appearances in A, A+ and AA ball, threw 38 1/3 innings while posting a 3.03 ERA, striking out 45, walking 15 and earning three saves.

The 2017 season saw him take a step back. His ERA ballooned to 6.09 in 57 2/3 innings spread over 34 games. He continued to strike out batters – 52 –  but his walk total shot up – 32.

This season he rebounded with a vengeance. He started in A+ and posted a 2.21 ERA and struck out 28 in 20 IP. That earned him a promotion to AA Mississippi.

He appeared in 22 games at Pearl throwing 28 innings, striking out 37 and walking 13 while posting a 2.89 ERA. The Braves promoted him to AAA where he threw 6 1/3 innings in six appearances, striking out 10 and walking 8.

Sobotka’s initial scouting report from Baseball America (subscription required)  talks about both a two-seam and four-seam fastball thrown from a lot of different angles.

His two-seamer reportedly moves a lot making it hard to hit but also hard to locate consistently. He has shown the potential for a plus slider and will need to develop that pitch as well as a changeup in order to remain a starter at higher levels.

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Chad Bell

The Braves claimed lefty Bell off waivers from Detroit just over two months ago.  I included his history in a post at that time.

At Gwinnett, Bell appeared in 24 games, threw 36 1/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA, striking out 39 and walking 11.

His history suggests his best use would be as a LOOGY. We’ll have to see how manager Brian Snitker chooses to use him.

That’s a wrap

The Atlanta Braves continue to eschew the waiver wire in favor of in-house options. So far those options haven’t worked all that well.

Sobotka appears to have some promise but Bell’s history doesn’t inspire confidence.

Let’s hope we didn’t promote a couple of hanging chads.