The Best Brave to Wear #78

See also: Best Brave By Uniform Number Index

The best Brave to wear #78 is the only Brave to wear that number in a major league game, one of the original “Baby Braves” of the mid-2000’s, right-handed reliever Blaine Boyer.

A third-round draft pick in the 2000 draft out of Marietta, GA’s Walton High School, Boyer made his major league debut on June 12, 2005, wearing #48 and getting a promotion straight from AA Mississippi to help out a beleaguered Braves bullpen. Likely expected to just provide a fresh arm for a short time period (he had posted a 5.03 ERA for Mississippi), Boyer kept getting opportunities in Atlanta and he kept answering the bell, and he finished the season with a 3.11 ERA in 43 appearances with the big league club.

Boyer was one of a wave of prospects to debut in 2005 as the Braves attempted to transition from the core squad that had helped the team maintain their 13-season streak of division wins but was starting to show decline. Also making their debuts were catchers Brian McCann and Brayan Pena, highly-ranked prospects Andy Marte, Kelly Johnson, Jeff Francoeur, and Kyle Davies, as well as relievers Anthony Lerew, Joey Devine, Chuck James, and Macay McBride. This infusion of youth did help continue the streak — one more season. The Braves would win the NL East once again in 2005 before falling to the Houston Astros in the NLDS.

Toward the end of the season, Boyer would experience some shoulder pain that he hoped he would be able to work through in the offseason. But the problems persisted in the spring and he only made two appearances in 2016 before having to shut down and get season-ending surgery; these two appearances would represent the only time he made appearances as #78. Boyer wouldn’t make the club out of spring training and wouldn’t return to Atlanta until June 2007, making five more big league appearances, this time back as his original #48. He was hit around fairly hard, and he returned to AAA Richmond for the rest of the season.

Boyer’s final full season with Atlanta was 2008. He made the club out of spring training and made 76 appearances, but early the following season was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for reserve outfielder Brian Barton. Boyer would then start the journeyman reliever phase of what turned out to be a long major league career, pitching in the majors through 2018 with St. Louis, Arizona, the Mets, San Diego, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Boston, and Kansas City. Boyer even was briefly reunited with the Braves, signing a minor league deal with a spring training invitation before the 2017 season; Boyer ended up not making the team and was released a week before the season started. Boyer would be a positive contributor on most of the teams he played on, but his best season would remain his rookie season of 2005.

It would have been interesting to see what would have come of Boyer’s career if the Statcast revolution in being able to measure players’ outcomes had come earlier in his career. Boyer was briefly a Statcast hero when the first data back in 2016 showed that Boyer induced the weakest contact of any pitcher that season. Despite his low strikeout rate, it would seem like analytically-inclined teams would be very interested in the right-hander if he were pitching in his prime today.

Mission Against Sex-Trafficking

All the above is to say that Boyer has had perhaps one of the most typical major league careers ever. Most players, even those with long major league careers, are not stars.

But Boyer’s best work likely is off the field. Teaming up with former Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche, in the offseason of 2016, Boyer went undercover on a mission on behalf of Exodus Road, a non-profit organization that works to identify and rescue underage victims of sex trafficking.  LaRoche and Boyer went to Southeast Asia brothels, identified victims, and reported on their status and location to local authorities, activities that were inherently dangerous. Boyer would call the mission “live-changing”.

Who Is the Best Ever To Wear #78?

Nobody in major league history has worn #78 for more than one season, and even then it’s been pretty much only reserved for guys making major league debuts. The best player retrospectively was Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Julio Urías during his major league debut on May 27, 2016, but his next appearance — and all subsequent major league appearances to date — have been as #7.

Given the lack of great historical #78s, then let’s give this one to the man nicknamed Grande Rojo (Big Red) and former Baby Brave Blaine Boyer.