Who should be the Atlanta Braves 5th starter?

The Atlanta Braves already have four spots of the rotation claimed, so who will it be for that elusive fifth spot?

That is the question for the Atlanta Braves as they have a ton of inhouse options that could maybe be given the spot and stick there.

We know full well that Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Cole Hamels, and Mike Foltynewicz will surely have the 1-4 spots in some order yet to be determined.

However, as we all know, you need AT LEAST five starting pitchers to make a run at things. Sorry Tampa Bay and Colorado.

Obviously we are still in the middle of January and one would think that a ton of trades are about to be embarked upon, but it seems as if the Atlanta Braves will be in the trade market for another bat or two.

They could always surprise us and maybe try to trade for a player such as Jon Gray, Chris Archer, Jeff Samardzija, Danny Duffy, and Matthew Boyd. All of those pitchers could still be theoretically moved and perhaps the Atlanta Braves would have interest?

Luckily during the process of writing this, we got a juicy bit of information straight from Alex Anthopolous’ mouth about him still wanting to add to the rotation.

So with that being said, let’s look at pitchers who are still out there on the free agent market that could possibly be brought in.

• Danny Salaza r- He has been very injury-plagued the past few years, but the Atlanta Braves have shown a knack for rejuvenating pitchers careers
• Taijaun Walker – Everything about Salazar could be said word-for-word again right here
• Felix Hernandez – I personally believe his career is about done, and he is simply just listed here for the name recognition

As you can see, there is just simply not a whole lot left out there at this point in the offseason. So it stands to reason that the fifth pitcher will either come from within the organization or outside via a trade.

Let’s look a little deeper at the inhouse options the Braves already have.