The full squad has now reported to spring training and the first exhibition game is a few days away. Thanks to everyone who has followed along with this series, and hopefully it’s been a worthwhile look at the club as they roll into the major league and minor league seasons.
Unlike the previous installments, the relief pitcher look below won’t try to touch on all of the pitchers that will likely play in full-season ball at some point in 2020, as there’s around 60 players in that category. Instead, this is a look at the relievers who could have impact on the major league squad in 2020, as well as few of the more promising prospects.
First Base | Second Base | Third Base | Shortstop | Catcher | Left Field | Centerfield| Right Field | Starting Pitcher
ATLANTA BRAVES
RHP Shane Greene
Projected Role: Set-up
Acquired at the trade deadline last year from Detroit for prospects Joey Wentz and Travis Demeritte, Greene was having the best season of his career at the time, pitching to a 1.18 ERA and racking up 22 saves for a last-place club. Installed as the closer upon his arrival, Greene gave up 5 runs in his first three appearances, blowing a save and losing a game in extra innings. This prompted a switch to Melancon in the closer’s role and Greene working in set-up. In 24 more appearances Greene only allowed 6 runs and limited hitters to a .218/.271/.321 batting line against. He will return to the set-up role, but he represents one of several bullpen options with significant high-leverage experience.
RHP Luke Jackson
Projected Role: Middle relief
After allowing 4 runs on a grand slam in his season debut against the Phillies, Jackson reeled off 14 consecutive scoreless outings and was far-and-away the best reliever in a Braves bullpen that imploded early in 2019, and without Jackson’s emergence it’s likely the 2019 season would have gone in a very different direction. Jackson has one of the top sliders in baseball that allows him to rack up strikeouts, but he allows too many baserunners to be fully entrusted in high-leverage situations. This year the Braves have plenty of options for those roles, so Jackson can get comfortable being one of the top middle relievers in the NL.
RHP Chris Martin
Projected Role: Set-up
There’s no one way to make a major league career, and Martin’s odyssey demonstrates this. Forgoing signing with Detroit out of high school, Martin instead went to junior college, where he did well enough to be drafted by the Rockies, but hurt his shoulder enough that the Rockies elected not to offer him a contract. After a brief, failed attempt at independent baseball, Martin quit the game and went to work doing various warehouse jobs. Three years later, his shoulder felt better enough to try out for an independent team, and he made the squad and pitched well enough to attract the notice of the Boston Red Sox. In his third year of affiliated ball, he was traded to Colorado, where he made his major league debut. He was sold to the Yankees, where he made 24 appearances. After the 2015 season, he went to pitch for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan for 2 years. In 2018 he signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers, and he became one of the top set-up men in the American League, good enough for the Braves to part ways with former 1st-round pick Kolby Allard for him at the 2019 trade deadline and earn a guaranteed $14 million deal as a 33-year-old free agent. All that is a long way of saying — never write off talent.
Martin is one of the best right-handers in the game against left-handed batters, possibly a pivotal skill with the introduction of a rule that requires a pitcher to face a minimum of three batters before the end of an inning.
RHP Mark Melancon
Projected Role: High-leverage
Once one of the top closers in baseball, Melancon last season made over 60 appearances for the first time since the 2016 season, a year in which he was an All-Star. Since then a bevy of injuries have limited Melancon, but he shrugged them off and put together a strong enough season with the Giants to warrant a trade at the deadline that saw him join the Braves and take over the closer role in an impressive run at the end of the season. Even with the signing of former Giants teammate Will Smith, Melancon will enter the season getting a good chunk of high-leverage appearances.
RHP Darren O’Day
Projected Role: Right-handed specialist
O’Day has been with the Braves since the 2018 trade deadline, but you’d have to forgive fans for not noticing. O’Day was recovering from surgery on his left hamstring when the Braves acquired him along with Kevin Gausman, knowing he would not be able to pitch until 2019. Last spring another injury, to his right forearm, ended up costing him nearly the entire season, and he was not activated until September, whereupon he pitched 12 mostly effective outings between the regular season and postseason.
Before the injuries, O’Day had been one of the more reliable set-up men in baseball for Baltimore, and the Braves have long been impressed with O’Day’s veteran leadership in the bullpen. The Braves quickly re-signed O’Day this offseason. A sidearm reliever, O’Day has historically been much more effective against right-handed hitters and has been pulled before facing the toughest left-handers. It remains to be seen how the new three-batter minimum rule will affect O’Day.
LHP Will Smith
Projected Role: High-leverage
When it comes to total guarantee, no free agent signed by Atlanta this offseason got more of a commitment than Smith with a 3-year, $40 million contract, the second largest ever given by the Braves to a relief pitcher behind only the 4-year, $42 million extension given to former closer Craig Kimbrel in 2014. Widely regarded as the top reliever on the free agent market this offseason, Smith made his first All-Star appearance in 2019 as a Giant and ended up finishing out 52 games and tallying 34 saves. With the presence of other pitchers used to high-leverage situations like Melancon and Greene, manager Brian Snitker can choose use Smith situationally to stymie developing rallies if he wishes.
OTHER CANDIDATES:
LHP Grant Dayton
Dayton’s somewhat snakebit career continued in 2019 with his first season with Atlanta after being claimed off waivers from the Dodgers while he was recovering from TJS. After missing all of 2018 recovering, Dayton started the season with Gwinnett on an innings limit, but was quickly made a frequent part of the shuttle of relievers moving from Gwinnett to Atlanta and back again as the club desperately tried to find a reliable bullpen. Dayton pitched solidly for both teams, and as the season progressed he started demonstrating some of the strikeout stuff that made him a minor sensation when he first came up with the Dodgers in 2016. Then he suffered a broken toe while playing catch in the outfield, and when he finally returned in August, the Braves had made a slew of trades to fortify the bullpen and Dayton did not have a real spot. A fully recovered Dayton, two years after TJS, could be a real force if he avoid the snakebite.
LHP A.J. Minter
Minter finished 2018, his first full major league season, with at least a share of the Braves closer job. He finished 2019 on the margins of the Braves bullpen picture and not included on the postseason roster. In between was a long-lasting shoulder injury sustained during a traffic accident during spring training from which he rushed back, in part because of the overall poor state of the Braves bullpen in the early going due to injury and ineffectiveness to a large number of pitchers that the Braves were counting on. Instead of helping, Minter added his name to that list, eventually resulting in his being sent back down to AAA at two separate times during the season. A return of his slider, his primary out pitch that he used to shoot through the minor leagues, would be a welcome development.
LHP Chris Rusin
Rusin was one of the top left-handed relievers in the National League in 2016-2017 for the Colorado Rockies, but the magic has been missing the last couple seasons. Rusin has a fastball that sticks in the low 90s, but also throws a kitchen sink full of secondaries, and for several years he was able to utilize that arsenal to keep hitters off-balance. Rusin signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Braves and will hope he can rediscover what worked for him just a few years ago.
RHP Josh Tomlin
Picked up by the Braves late in spring training last season after being a late cut for the Brewers, Tomlin has successfully converted to relief pitching after a tough first season in that role with Cleveland in 2018. Pitching mostly in long and middle relief, Tomlin was largely effective thanks to avoiding walks and home runs, partially mitigating his lack of swing-and-miss stuff. Unable to secure a guaranteed contract this offseason, Tomlin has returned to the Braves on a minor league deal, but with a very good shot at making the squad.
RHP Jacob Webb
Starting pitcher Mike Soroka was obviously the Braves top rookie of 2019, but many fans would likely be stumped to name Jacob Webb as the second-most valuable Braves rookie of the year. This is because Webb crammed a lot of value into a relatively small body of work. After working the first two weeks of the season in Gwinnett, Webb was called up in the midst of the early season bullpen implosion. Nine consecutive scoreless outings to start his major league career was a tonic for the beleaguered bullpen. Webb continued to pitch well through the dog days until elbow pain sent him to the injured list in mid-July. The problem persisted in a rehab stint, and after allowing 6 runs in 2 innings for Gwinnett, the Braves shut him down for the rest of the season with what was termed an elbow impingement. Webb has been cleared to throw this spring without restriction, so he is one of the more interesting wild cards in the Braves bullpen picture.
RHP Jeremy Walker
After starting in the minors since his selection in the 5th round of the 2016 draft, Walker was eased into relieving by being Patrick Weigel‘s designated piggyback reliever in his starts with Mississippi as Weigel returned from TJS. Always a pitcher who works close to the strikezone, the shorter outings helped Walker put up the best strikeout rate of his pro career to match his typically excellent walk and groundball rates. Walker made his major league debut and made a good impression in limited work. Even if he doesn’t make the Opening Day roster for Atlanta, expect Walker to pitch significant innings with the big league club.
Please see the entry for Starting Pitching for write-ups on other Braves bullpen candidates like Sean Newcomb, Touki Toussaint, Kyle Wright, and Bryse Wilson.
SIGNIFICANT MINOR LEAGUERS
LHP Thomas Burrows
Projected Level: AAA Gwinnett
Burrows looked to be on a trajectory for the major leagues in 2019, but difficulties at Gwinnett saw him bounce back down to Mississippi. This was caused perhaps in part by the introduction of the major league juiced ball to AAA, as Burrows uncharacteristically nibbled around the zone, which caused his walk rate to skyrocket. This problem went away almost immediately when he dropped back to Mississippi. He did better in a second stint with Gwinnett, but he ended back in Mississippi thanks to a roster crunch late in the season. Burrows was Rule 5 eligible this offseason, but no other team bit on the two-pitch lefty reliver with the wipe-out slider.
LHP Corbin Clouse
Projected Level: AAA Gwinnett (IL)
Like Burrows, Clouse had strong momentum going into 2019 but he ended up not making the major leagues. In Clouse’s case, not only was he dealing with the juiced ball, but also a balky elbow that ended his season early and caused him to get surgery which will keep him out of action for at least the first part of the season.
RHP Daysbel Hernandez
Projected Level: AA Mississippi
A big Cuban righthander who spent all of 2019 with high-A Florida, Hernandez has the stuff to make fans sit up and take notice, striking out 12 batters per nine innings with a fastball/slider combo. Hernandez will work to improve his control, an issue that cropped up for him in the Arizona Fall League, but if he makes progress there, the 23-year-old could find himself on the fast track.
LHP Jake Higginbotham
Projected Level: AA Mississippi
Higginbotham was lights out for Rome in the second half, and the Buford native is likely good enough for a double promotion to Mississippi. Higginbotham is a lefty that can work multiple innings and is as effective against right-handed hitters as left, a trait that could be more valuable with the new minimum-three-batters rule.
RHP Kurt Hoekstra
Projected Level: AAA Gwinnett
One of the more fun stories in the Braves minors last season, Hoekstra was drafted as a middle infielder in 2015 but successfully moved completely to the mound in 2019. In his first year as a pitcher, Hoekstra rose through all four full-season affiliates and received a non-roster invite to big league spring training for 2020. As should be expected, Hoekstra has a basic approach on the mound, and his control sometimes abandons him, but a high 90s fastball and surprising change-up is worth noticing.
RHP Kasey Kalich
Projected Level: A+ Florida
Kalich was the first pitcher taken by the Braves in the 2019 draft, selected in the 4th round out of Texas A&M, where he was closing games as a sophomore. Kalich dominated in 13 appearances in Rome, and has a classic closer’s fastball and slider. If Kalich can improve his control, he will move quickly through the organization.
LHP Tyler Matzek
Projected Level: AAA Gwinnett
Matzek is a former 1st-round pick by the Colorado Rockies and made it to the majors for them in 2014-15, pitching to a respectable 4.06 ERA in 26 games (25 starts). In fact, his major league debut was a start against Atlanta where he threw 7 innings of 2-run ball to secure a win for his team. However Matzek was afflicted by crippling anxiety issues that eventually effected his control and his mechanics. Matzek ended up back in high-A ball before the Rockies eventually cut him loose.
The Braves picked him up from the Texas AirHogs of the independent American Association in August, and he got roughed up in 5 late season outings with Gwinnett. Matzek is still only 29 years old and has a live arm.
LHP Chris Nunn
Projected Level: AAA Gwinnett
A 7-year minor league journeyman, Nunn nevertheless has some notoriety after securing a minor league contract with the Rangers after a video showing him hitting 99 mph in a bullpen session was distributed on the @Flatground Twitter account, one of the first and most successful uses of that app. Nunn still has that fastball, and he also has a solid change-up and curve, all of which he uses to get plenty of strikeouts. What’s held him back so far is a lack of control. Nunn is in Braves camp on a non-roster invite.
RHP Trey Riley
Projected Level: A Rome
A 5th-round pick in 2018, Riley’s fastball and slider are two of the more impressive pitches you will see in the Braves minor leagues. If he can consistently throw them around the plate, he could be a force to be reckoned with, but he has yet to demonstrate that ability in pro games. He will likely return to Rome to start the season, but pitchers like Riley will always be worth watching in case they make a breakthrough.
RHP Ben Rowen
Projected Level: AAA Gwinnett
Rowen is a former 22nd-round pick in 2010 by the Texas Rangers, and he made to the big leagues with them in 2014, but was traded the following April to Baltimore. Despite pitching well, the Orioles released Rowen from their AA team mid-season 2015 and he was quickly snatched up by the Cubs, starting Rowen’s tour of several organizations culminating in signing with the Braves on a minor league deal before last season. Rowen was very dependable for the Stripers in 2019 pitching to a 3.48 ERA in over 77 innings, including even 6 emergency starts. Rowen was rewarded with a non-roster invite to spring training.
OFR TOP 10 RELIEF PITCHING PROSPECT RANKINGS:
- Kasey Kalich (OFR #25)
- Jeremy Walker (OFR #26)
- Corbin Clouse (OFR #33)
- Trey Riley (OFR #39)
- Thomas Burrows (OFR #40)
- Daysbel Hernandez (OFR #41)
- Jake Higginbotham (OFR #43)
- Kurt Hoekstra
- Bradley Roney
- Brandon White
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