Braves Trade for Pitcher Edgar Santana from the Pirates

In response to some recent injuries and ineffectiveness, the Atlanta Braves made a small trade for a right-handed reliever, Edgar Santana. 

We talked it about all offseason, but having tons of pitching depth will key for any team in 2021 — maybe more so than ever. The Atlanta Braves certainly recognize that are making sure they have plenty of arms to get through the season.

They added to that list of arms on Friday morning by acquiring right-handed pitcher Edgar Santana from the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash considerations.

Signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Pirates, Santana made his pro ball debut in 2014 at the age of 22.

He posted really good numbers in the minors with a 2.93 ERA in 199.2 innings with 184 strikeouts and a BB/9 of just 1.9.

Santana made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2017 posting a 3.50 ERA in 18 innings with 20 strikeouts. He followed that up with a good 2018 season posting a 3.26 ERA in 66.2 innings with 54 strikeouts and a BB/9 of1.6.

However, he tore his UCL in October of 2018 and had Tommy John surgery, which means he missed all of the 2019 season.

And then he got suspended 80 games for a positive PED test which ended any hopes of him playing in 2020.

The Braves say that his 80-game suspension has been served and he’s eligible to pitch right away. And with the Braves having an empty spot on their 40-man roster a corresponding move wouldn’t be necessary.

Although, Santana does have some Minor League options left if they want to keep that 40-man spot open.

He did not have a great Spring Training with the Pirates allowing 8 earned runs on 10 hits and 1 walk over 6.2 innings with 8 strikeouts. However, a bulk of that came in one outing where he gave up 6 runs on 5 hits and a walk while recording just 1 out.

Santana is essentially a two-pitch pitcher primarily throwing a sinker or slider 85 percent of the time. He has a whiff rate near 50 percent on that slider with a spin rate around 2,300.

He’s not a dominant reliever by any means with a K/9 of just 7.9 at the big league level. But what he doesn’t do is walk batters, and the Braves bullpen could use a little more of that right now, especially with Chris Martin out.

When Santana was effective back in 2018, he was getting a ton of groundballs (45.8 percent of the time) and not giving up a lot of hard contact (36.1 percent hard-hit rate against).

It’s been almost three years since he’s pitched in a big-league game, so who knows exactly how effective he can be. But this does add some nice depth and someone who has had success at the Major League level.