Braves: What We Need to See From Bryse Wilson This Time Around

The Atlanta Braves have recalled Bryse Wilson to make the start on Tuesday and to open up the series against the Toronto Blue Jays at home. 

Things did not go so well for the Atlanta Braves when they faced the Toronto Blue Jays a little over a week ago in Dunedin, Fla. as they got swept.

And the big reason for them getting swept was the pitching, which allowed 26 runs in that three-game series.

Drew Smyly, Charlie Morton, and Ian Anderson got the starts in that series. This time around it will be Bryse Wilson, Max Fried, and Morton.

We’ve already seen three starts from Wilson this year and the results haven’t been great with a 6.75 ERA and 1.92 WHIP in 12 innings with just 6 strikeouts.

Braves: What we need to see from Bryse Wilson this time around

I think most Braves fans — like me — are hoping that Wilson can regain the magic that he produced against the Dodgers in the 2020 NLCS.

Anyone who watched that game knows it wasn’t just luck, he was locating all of his pitches really well and keeping the Dodgers hitters off balance. It was honestly one of the best pitching performances I’ve witnessed in such a big moment.

But is it foolish to expect that type of performance every time out — probably.

Even the best pitchers in the game don’t have their best stuff every time out, but what makes them great is that they learn to get by with what they have in those starts.

Right now, if a pitch isn’t working for Bryse, it seems like everything falls apart. He has to do a better job of identifying what’s working for him that day, and with the stuff he has, it should be good enough to put together a really solid start every fifth day.

Looking at the metrics, his fastball velocity is sitting around 94. That’s not much lower than it was in 2020 at 94.2 MPH. But it is significantly lower than what he averaged in that NLCS start at 95.1 MPH — you could chalk that up to adrenaline.

One thing I do see is that he’s not getting as much horizontal movement on his fastball and sinker as he did in that playoff game. Not sure how you even begin to correct that, but certainly if the ball isn’t moving horizontally that makes it a lot easier for hitters to square up.

All the other analytics match up with his track record, and there has been some bad luck for Wilson with a BABIP of .341 despite a lower barrel percentage and exit velocity than he had last year. His xERA of 4.70 still isn’t great, but certainly shows things haven’t gone his way.

I also don’t know why he’s not striking out a ton of people with a K% of just 10.7 — compared to his career average of 16.9. Especially when you consider he’s faced the Chicago Cubs twice — a team that has the sixth most strikeouts in baseball.

Hopefully Bryse comes back with a new focus. I do hate that the Braves keep jerking him around from starter to the bullpen, back to the minors, and back to the big leagues.

There’s certainly potential there, and maybe this time around we get the Bryse Wilson that becomes a mainstay in the middle of the rotation.