The Braves moved three prospects — pitchers Max Fried and Lucas Sims, infielder Johan Camargo — to their 40-man major league roster Friday, protecting them from teams that could otherwise have poached them in the Rule 5 draft at next month’s Winter Meetings.
Major league teams faced a Friday deadline to protect eligible players from the Rule 5 draft, including any player who was signed by age 18 and had been in professional baseball for five years — regardless of whether they played or were injured — or any player signed at 19 or older with four years in pro ball.
The Braves’ 40-man roster is filled, for the time being, after the additions of Fried, Sims and Camargo, plus the recent signings of veteran pitchers Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey and Josh Collmenter and a waiver-claim acquisition Friday of veteran catcher Tuffy Gosewisch from the Diamondbacks.
Gosewisch, 33, hit just .156 (14-for-90) with three homers and a .513 OPS in 33 games for Arizona last season and had a .199 average with five homers and a .522 OPS in 416 plate appearances over parts of four seasons with the Diamondbacks. He adds depth and doesn’t end the Braves’ pursuit of a catcher to pair with Tyler Flowers.
If the Braves don’t add a catcher — free agent Jason Castro is among those they’ve talked to — they said they’d be content going into next season with the same pair who split duties most of last season, Flowers and Anthony Recker.
Fried, 22, was a first-round draft pick in 2012 by the Padres and had been rated as their No. 2 prospect and one of baseball’s most elite pitching prospects before the left-hander had elbow problems early in 2014, eventually undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing most of that season, all of 2015 and the early part the 2016 season.
The Braves got Fried along with Jace Peterson, Mallex Smith and outfield prospect Dustin Peterson from the Padres in a December 2014 trade for Justin Upton and minor league pitcher Aaron Northcraft.
Fried could move back into baseball’s top-100 prospect lists after returning to action early in the 2016 season and posting a 3.93 ERA in 21 games (20 starts) for Single-A Rome, totaling 112 strikeouts with 47 walks in 103 innings. He was dominant by season’s end, racking up 20 strikeouts with only three walks in 10 2/3 innings over his last two regular-season starts and 24 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings during the South Atlantic League playoffs.
Sims, like Fried, was a first-round draft pick in 2012 when the Braves selected him with the No. 21 pick out of Brookwood High School in Gwinnett County in suburn Atlanta. And like Fried, Sims was a consensus top-60 prospect in all of baseball before the 2014 season.
But Sims’ developed stalled when his ERA ballooned by more than 1 1/2 runs in the jump from low-A Rome to high-A Lynchburg in 2014. He’s had some promising stretches over the past two seasons in Double-A, but in his first exerperience in Triple-A Sims struggled to a 2-6 record and 7.56 ERA in 11 games (10 starts) in 2016.
While he had an impressive 159 strikeouts in 141 innings last season in Double-A and Triple-A, Sims was plagued by command issues and had an unsightly 92 walks. He has a 36-36 record and 3.91 ERA in 115 games (104 starts) over five minor league seasons with 539 strikeouts and 262 walks in 540 2/3 innings.
Camargo, 22, had been a mediocre-at-best hitter in the minor leagues, but he’s an outstanding defender who has played all the infield positions except first base. Last season at Double-A Mississippi, Camargo hit .267 with a .304 OBP and 36 extra-base hits (six triples, four home runs).
