There is “a chance” that right-hander Shane Greene will be back in the Braves’ bullpen in the coming days, manager Brian Snitker said Wednesday. The Braves conclude a series with the Nationals on Thursday and begin a three-game series against the Dodgers at Truist Park on Friday.
Greene, 32, logged another scoreless inning for Triple-A Gwinnett on Tuesday. He’s pitched 3-1/3 innings for Gwinnett, with whom he’s been building himself back into game shape after re-signing with the Braves in early May. Physically, everything has gone accordingly with Greene, Snitker said.
“We’ll see where he’s at at the end of (Wednesday),” Snitker said. “We need to get him to the ballpark. He felt good, but he hadn’t thrown. That was before he got there, ran around and played catch, that kind of stuff. So we’ll see how it is at the end of the day.”
Greene, an All-Star in 2019 with the Tigers, has a 3.27 ERA across 55 appearances over the past 1-1/2 seasons with the Braves. He should be a major boost as an experienced righty who can handle the later innings.
The Braves’ bullpen has been heavily criticized throughout the season, but the group will be deeper when Greene joins the mix. Chris Martin and Greene are two reliable right-handers for tight games. Will Smith, Tyler Matzek and A.J. Minter have had their unwanted moments, but give the team a trio of high-leverage lefties. The bullpen will count on those five performing to their standards.
“He’s a great human being, a great teammate,” Matzek recently told the AJC about Greene. “Brings a lot of excitement and energy into that bullpen. He has that veteran mentality where he calms everybody down in there. It reminds us that it’s just a baseball game, go out there and have fun and do your thing. He’s going to eat some innings for us. The man loves throwing the baseball, and he’s very good at it. So we’re more than happy to have him out there.”
