Atlanta Braves add Yonder Alonso and Josh Tomlin — more changes coming
By Fred Owens
The Atlanta Braves added a pitcher and a lefty-hitting first baseman on Saturday, but the roster will change often over the spring to October.
After the loss of Yasiel Puig before he had a chance to pick up a bat, the Atlanta Braves add two journeyman players to the Major League roster ahead of Saturday’s intrasquad game.
Josh Tomlin rejoins to the staff he supported from the bullpen last season. Now 35, the Braves appear to have Tomlin penciled into the fifth-starter spot. He was an integral piece of the Indians’ rotation from 2014 through 2017, before pitching most of 2018 out of the pen.
Last season he appeared in 51 games with only one start, but threw five innings once and four innings in two other games last year. In a 60 game season, his experience and ability to pitch in any role makes the staff stronger.
Yonder Alonso seems the default, lefty bench-bat, at least for now. He isn’t the power threat they hoped for, but he does provide an experienced Major League first baseman if Freddie Freeman needs a rest.
In the six seasons from 2012 through 2017, Alonso batted .264/.335/.406/.742 and averaged a dozen homers a year. However, he did hit .271/.345/.422/.766 against righties from 2012 through 2018 and graded out as an above-average defender at first base.
The White Sox signed him last year, but he never looked comfortable in Chicago, and they released him in July. The Rockies picked him up a week later and he finished the year looking more like the guy from 2018 than whoever that was playing for the Sox.
Bright lights Big City
Players are becoming available as teams tell them they aren’t going to make the Major League roster, one of them an old friend who earned a World Series ring last year, Matt Adams.
In 2017 the Cardinals had a rush of blood to the head and released the big first baseman because he wasn’t a left fielder. The Cards move worked out well for the Atlanta Braves, who acquired him to fill in for Freeman while he was out with an injury.
Adams did the job so well –he batted .271/.315/.543/.858 and hit 19 homers in 291 AB – that the Braves played Freeman at third base for 16 games.
He started 2018 with the Nationals, but they had no room for him when Ryan Zimmerman returned, and Adams finished the season back with the Cardinals.
The Nationals grabbed Adams again after the 2018 season and kept him throughout 2019. In 333 AB spread over 111 games for the Nats, Adams batted .226/.276/.465/.741 and hit 20 homers.
Adams signed a minor league deal with the Mets this year, but they told him he wouldn’t make the Major League roster, and he decided to opt-out of his contract.
In his career, Big City bats .273/.325/.491/.816 when facing RHP with 99 homers, and .253/.290/.452/.742 with 11 homers in 217 pinch-hit at-bats.
Yesterday Alan suggested adding an outfielder, but Adam’s history of big offensive number from the left side and knowing his love of hitting at Truist Park, I wouldn’t be surprised to see big Matt back in Atlanta.
Adams has the advantage of being in a big-league camp under MLB testing protocols and should be ready to go now.
That’s a wrap
The Atlanta Braves really need a better bat than Alonso off the bench, and Adams seems to fit that need. Whether the team will move that quickly after adding Alonso to the roster is another question.
The roster we see today will change a lot over the next few weeks. Adding Big City is a good place to start.