LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Braves released veteran reliever Blaine Boyer on Saturday as the field narrowed for the final bullpen spots and the Atlanta native’s bid to make the team as a non-roster invitee ended.
Boyer, 35, had a 10.00 ERA and .371 opponents’ average in eight Grapefruit League appearances, allowing 13 hits, 10 runs (nine earned) and three walks with five strikeouts in eight innings. Most of the damage came in one outing March 9 against the Yankees, when recorded one out and was charged with five hits and five earned runs.
In four appearances since then, Boyer allowed three hits and one walk with three strikeouts in three scoreless innings. But the Braves faced some difficult bullpen decisions, and Boyer was an odd man out in his bid for a second go with his original major league team.
If he doesn’t land a major league job elsewhere, the Braves would welcome him back for their Triple-A team and have him as an option for a midseason call-up.
Boyer and left-hander Eric O’Flaherty came to camp as a non-roster invitees who needed to pitch particularly well in spring training to have any chance of making the opening-day bullpen, considering the number of incumbents and out-of-options bullpen candidates the Braves had on the spring-training roster.
O’Flaherty, 32, has presumably earned a spot with consistently strong performances that surprised many, considering how much he struggled in 2016 before another elbow surgery in September. O’Flaherty had two strikeouts in a perfect inning Friday to lower his ERA to 1.86 in nine appearances, with 14 strikeouts and two walks in 9 2/3 innings.
Like O’Flaherty last season, Boyer was returning for a hoped-for second stint with the Braves. Boyer was out of baseball in 2012 and pitched in Japan in 2013, then revived his major league career and had his best three-year run.
He had a 3.95 ERA in 61 appearances for Milwaukee last season, after posting a career-best 2.49 ERA in 68 appearances for Minnesota in 2015 and a 3.57 ERA in 32 games with San Diego after a midseason call-up in 2014.
A third-round draft pick by the Braves out of Walton High School in 2000, Boyer pitched parts of six seasons in the minors before making his major league debut with the Braves in 2005 and producing a 3.11 ERA in 43 appearances with 33 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings.
