The Braves signed veteran left-hander Eric Stults to a minor league contract that includes an invitation to big-league spring training, where he’ll join the every-growing field of competitors for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.
Braves president of baseball operations John Hart confirmed the signing and Stults’ status as a fifth-starter candidate.
Early in the offseason the Braves had only returners David Hale and reliever James Russell as candidates for their final rotation vacancy, but they’ve since signed or traded for a half-dozen other candidates including prospects Mike Foltynewicz and Manny Banuelos, veteran left-hander Wandy Rodriguez and former Cy Young runner-up Chien-Ming Wang. Rodriguez, Wang and Stults all signed minor league contracts with spring-training invitations.
The Braves traded for Cardinals starter Shelby Miller to join their incumbent trio of starters Julio Teheran and lefties Alex Wood and Mike Minor. A Braves official said the team has no intention of trading Minor, who is set to go to an arbitration hearing to determine his 2015 salary after not coming to an agreement with the team
Stults, 35, was 8-17 with a 4.30 ERA in 32 starts last season for San Diego, and had 111 strikeouts with 45 walks in 176 innings. He gave up a career-high 26 home runs, eight above the previous career high he set the previous season with the Padres.
He was 11-13 with a 3.93 ERA in 2013, when Stults set career highs in starts (33), strikeouts (131) and innings (203 2/3). He had never totaled more than 15 starts or pitched as many as 100 innings in a major league season before 2013.
Stults has a 35-43 record and 4.12 ERA in 126 games (104 starts) during parts of eight seasons with the Dodgers, Rockies, White Sox and Padres.
