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The Braves made two minor strikes on Monday to fill out their bullpen headcount, buying right-handed reliever Pierce Johnson from the Rockies and lefty reliever Taylor Hearn from the Rangers. Heading to Colorado are righty aid pitcher Victor Vodnik, our no. 13 Braves prospect a few months ago, and minor league starter Tanner Gordon. The return for Hearn is unknown as of press time, however it’s unlikely the Rangers might be getting a prospect of a lot significance.
The Rockies have traded RHP Pierce Johnson to the Braves for a pair of minor leaguers, per supply.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 24, 2023
If these change into the most important trades made over the past week of July, it might be a mighty disappointing deadline, however the Braves get what they wished right here. Their bullpen hasn’t precisely struggled this season — it’s second in FIP, WAR, and ERA — however including a little bit of depth whereas they nonetheless can has loads of attraction to it. By graduations and trades in recent times, the highest of their farm system is form of shallow in the meanwhile, so inner reinforcements can be a bit trickier. Not serving to issues is that they presently have 5 relievers on injured lists, 4 of them on the 60-day IL, and principally don’t have any further relievers on the 40-man roster left to name up in a pinch with out shoving a beginning pitcher in there.
Johnson might be the safer wager of the 2 pickups, and I don’t essentially imply to rattling him with faint reward contemplating the season he’s had to date. Even in a Coors Subject surroundings, an ERA of six is just not what you wish to see, and even the FIP within the mid-fours hardly screams “pitcher you’re going to make use of in high-leverage conditions.” Johnson took over the nearer position when Daniel Bard needed to step away from baseball briefly earlier this season. He solely blew a few saves earlier than dropping the gig final month, however his stroll fee this season — by no means his energy — led to loads of adventures such as you’d see from Fernando Rodney in a down 12 months. Johnson’s saving grace, and nearly actually the rationale the Braves valued him, is that he misses bats and throws onerous; if rigorously managed, he might be an asset to the ‘pen.
Lefties are a uncommon sight in Atlanta’s bullpen with Tyler Matzek (gone for the season), A.J. Minter, and Dylan Lee all injured; Lucas Luetge was principally the group’s southpaw choice in late innings, and he’s a pitcher that had already been outrighted as soon as this season. He was additionally the participant designated for task to make room for these offers, which suggests Hearn’s presence on the 40-man roster is sort of helpful proper now. Minter is scheduled to begin a rehab task quickly, and Lee pitched a bullpen this weekend, however with the deadline approaching, it might have been dangerous to depend on both getting again to the majors shortly with none setbacks.
The Rangers demoted Hearn after a few disastrous early-season aid appearances, and he’s pitched moderately effectively for Triple-A Spherical Rock this season, albeit with the same old lapses in command. As a lefty who can contact the mid-90s and fill various roles in aid, groups will proceed to need him round for at the very least the following few years. There’s additionally the profit that he can truly be optioned to the minors, not like a lot of the remainder of Atlanta’s aid corps.
As for the Rockies: I do know this sounds bizarre coming from me, however I believe they did effectively of their return for a aid rental who has struggled. The extra vital prospect is Vodnik, a hard-throwing, pretty uncooked righty whom ZiPS projected with an ERA round 4 earlier than the season. My colleague Eric Longenhagen has confirmed that Vodnik remains to be sustaining his early-season velocity spike:
Vodnik’s fastball velocity has vacillated wildly throughout his lifetime as a prospect however these days it’s completely booming. He sat 94-95 mph throughout most of 2021 and early in 2022, however final 12 months his velo steadily crept up over the course of the season and averaged 96.7 mph within the month of September. When he confirmed as much as 2023 spring coaching, Vodnik was averaging 98 and touching 100, and he’s carried that into the early goings of the Double-A season – a tiny pattern, to make certain, however a promising begin however.
ZiPS likes Vodnik as effectively, and although his Double-A numbers don’t come out at you, particularly the stroll fee, it has chopped a bit off his projected ERA for the reason that begin of the 12 months (3.86), although that comes with too many walks. That being stated, a dwell arm reliever who isn’t utterly hopeless within the command division is greater than a good return for a couple of months of Johnson’s providers. The opposite prospect, Gordon, is just not near Vodnik as a prospect; he’s a 25-year-old whose warmth doesn’t come out of the low-90s and who doesn’t miss all that many bats. ZiPS thinks that his path to the majors is probably going in a mopup/swingman position, as does Eric. Vodnik is the another prone to have a future in Denver, which might be welcome for a company that has a protracted historical past of signing free-agent relievers after their best-by dates.
I’d nonetheless wish to see the Braves make a transfer to herald an innings-eater for the stretch drive or improve from Eddie Rosario/Kevin Pillar, but when the group is inclined to try this, neither of those trades do something to stop that from taking place. Atlanta’s objective right here was to buttress the group’s bullpen depth, and that’s precisely what it did.
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