In the shortened 2020 season, Colorado’s German Marquez led the National League with 81-2/3 innings pitched. On the Braves, only one starter stood on the mound more than 50 innings — Max Fried, 56 innings (7-0, 2.25 ERA) in 11 starts.
Baseball expects to play a full 162-game schedule in 2021. According the ESPN, from 2010 to 2019, only 18 pitchers in MLB had a 120-plus-innings increase from one year to the next.
Rotations and bullpens will be stretched to fill the 900 innings cut by the pandemic.
Five N.L. pitchers in 2019 completed more than 200 innings (four were from the Braves’ own division). Before the signings of Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly, the only Braves on staff to have pitched more than 150 innings in a season were Fried and Mike Soroka (Achilles).
It has been a few years since the Braves had an innings eater who would log more than 200 innings a season.
In the last 10 years only five Braves starters have surpassed 200 innings. They are:
- 2015: Shelby Miller 205-1/3 IP (6-17, 3.02 ERA) in 33 starts / Julio Teheran 200-2/3 (11-8, 4.04) in 33 starts
- 2014: Julio Teheran 221 IP (14-13, 2.39 ERA) in 33 starts / Aaron Harang 204-1/3 IP (12-12, 3.57) in 33 starts
- 2013: Mike Minor 204-2/3 IP (13-9, 3.21) in 32 starts
- 2011: Tim Hudson 215 IP (16-10, 3.22) in 33 starts
From 1993 to 2003, Greg Maddux threw fewer than 200 innings once — 199-1/3 in 2002. Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and John Smoltz routinely worked in 200-240 innings a season as starters.
But no Brave stood atop the mound longer than Phil Niekro.
Through his entire 21 years with the Braves, Niekro pitched fewer than 200 innings in a season just four times.
The Hall of Fame knuckleballer led the league three-consecutive seasons — from 1977 to ’79 — with more than 330 innings pitched (the last major leaguer to do so).
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