Top Braves executives agree that building a (much) better bullpen is their No. 1 offseason priority.
Understandable, consider Braves relievers finished 29th in the majors with a 4.69 ERA, after consistently ranking at or near the top in relief ERA in recent years. The beleaguered bullpen, coupled with a low-scoring offense and a young starting rotation, was a recipe for woe in 2015.
President of baseball operations John Hart said the next two priorities would be finding a way to boost the offense, and monitoring the health of injury-rehabbing starters Mike Minor, Mike Foltynewicz and Manny Banuelos in the first part of the offseason, in order to determine if they should add another proven veteran starter to a young rotation.
The other option would be to go with the starter they have, rather than block the path of a young starter. That might work if they believe a significantly upgraded bullpen and return to health of some starters would be enough to improve the overall pitching staff.
“I think that’s something that we’ll determine here as we go through the next few weeks,” Hart said. “But I think the first priority really to address the bullpen. And we’ve got some guys (returning from surgeries), Shae Simmons, Chris Withrow – Withrow for sure is going to be ready in spring training. Shae Simmons is going to be close behind him; he might be early May.”
The Braves traded three relievers last winter, not having any idea what was about to ensue: They lost planned setup man Simmons to Tommy John elbow surgery the week before spring training; traded closer Craig Kimbrel to San Diego on the eve of opening day (to dump Melvin Upton Jr.’s onerous contract); lost Jason Grilli to season-ending Achilles surgery just before the All-Star break, and then, with the season already in free-fall, decided to trade relievers Jim Johnson and Luis Avilan in late July as part of the package to get third baseman Hector Olivera from the Dodgers.
Withrow, recovering from elbow and back surgeries, was acquired along with Juan Uribe from the Dodgers in a May 27 trade. Withrow had a 2.73 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 56 innings during 46 appearances with the Dodgers in 2013-2014. The Braves also hope to have Grilli back early in the 2016 season.
“We’re not going to get caught (like this season) where we just didn’t have any experience, any depth in that bullpen,” Hart said. “And that happened when Grilli was lost and Johnson was traded. We were in a difficult situation. It was difficult for Fredi every night, to take a young starter and we extend these guys (he has to decide) gosh, do we try to get him to the seventh, or is it better for us to pull him out in the fifth or sixth, experiencing good feelings? And we go to the bullpen with the lead or a close game, and the game gets away from them.”
