Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: how will the roster be handled this week?

The kids are starting to find their way home this week, but the replacements have been playing well and the active roster is full.  What to do?

It’s one of those ‘nice problems to have’ for the Atlanta Braves… the new players brought in to fill holes have played better than all expectations.  Starting on Monday, though, the “starters” will begin to trickle back to the dugout as they get healthy.

The arrival dates may be scattered out a bit, but as of now, we’re expecting Dansby Swanson, Austin Riley, Brian McCann, perhaps Darren O’Day, Nick Markakis, and then Ender Inciarte.

First up will be the Braves shortstop:

It appears that Riley is going to be ready to go in short order as well… his rehab stint started a day later.

The decision process gets a bit easier for the rest:  active rosters can legally expand to the extent of the 40-man roster starting on September 1st (next Sunday) and it’s reasonably likely that McCann may not return until at least that date so the ‘who goes down?’ decisions could be limited to just 2 calls.

Let’s guess how each will be handled.

The Active Roster

As of now, here’s the 25-man roster:

• ROTATION:  Keuchel, Soroka, Fried, Foltynewicz, Teheran
• BULLPEN:  Blevins, Greene, Jackson, Martin, Melancon, Newcomb, Swarzek, Tomlin
• CATCHERS:  Cervelli, Flowers
• INFIELD:  Freeman, Albies, Hechavarria, Donaldson, Culberson
• OUTFIELD: Acuna, Duvall, Hamilton, Joyce, Ortega

(It’s still crazy how many of these names didn’t start the season on this roster)

1st DECISION – on Swanson’s return

A couple of possibilities here (in order of likelihood):

• Adam Duvall and his .136 batting average over the past 2 weeks is optioned back to Gwinnett to get the few remedial ABs that they tried to get for him before Inciarte’s injury.
• Adam Duvall suddenly develops a mysterious Quad tightness injury and spends 10-days on the IL.  Less likely because with choice 1 above, he could be recalled next Sunday.  This would be take more time.
• Rafael Ortega is given a hearty ‘thank you’ and placed on assignment waivers.  He has no minor league options, so this is the only way Atlanta can send him down… which means they could lose him.  This is probably the last thing the team wants to do, so this would be a ‘last possible resort’ choice.

2nd DECISION – on Riley’s return

Depending on the date, the Braves could opt to get really creative here:

• If he’s still not hitting well (he has 2 singles as of this writing at Low-A Rome through his 2nd Sunday AB), then the Braves could slow-roll him a bit – delaying his return until perhaps Friday (Thursday August 29th is an off-day).
  • In this scenario, Mike Foltynewicz is scheduled to pitch in Toronto on Wednesday.  He could do that and then be optioned to Gwinnett, returning on Sunday when the rosters expand.  His following start is slated for Tuesday Sept. 3 – also against Toronto.
• Riley could be held out until September 1st, in which case the question is moot – meaning that everybody else can stay.
• Depending on how the pitching requirements go over the next couple of days, a similar shuffle could be done with Sean Newcomb if he had to pitch 2+ innings along the way.

As noted, the replacements have been helping the Atlanta Braves maintain their advantage in the NL East, which includes their current majors-best 8 game win streak.

Here’s some of those (small sample sized) results – all within the past 2 weeks:

• Billy Hamilton:  2 for 5, RBI, 2 steals
• Francisco Cervelli:  3 for 5, 3 RBI
• Matt Joyce:  .310, 6 RBI, 5 runs scored
• Adeiny Hechavarria:  dropped from .286 to .214 after an 0-for-3 Sunday, but he’s had some surprising clutch hits.
• Rafael Ortega:  grand slam to beat the Dodgers

Hech has cooled out a bit, so there’s no expectation that his batwork will hinder the process of getting Dansby Swanson back into the starting grid on Monday, but he’s still earned himself a bench slot for the rest of the year:  having his glove out there will certainly help for late-game and extra-inning situations.

In fact, it’s arguable that the Atlanta Braves have assembled a bench crew that’s second to none in terms of defensive prowess… and they haven’t been bad at the plate either.

Overall, Alex Anthopoulos had made a point of acquiring and holding players who are defensive standouts – a strong advantage Atlanta will take into October.  He hasn’t swayed from that mantra, even with late acquisitions.

Now the trick will be in hanging onto them down the stretch… and the Braves should be able to make that happen.