The Braves signed veteran right-handed starter Bud Norris to a one-year, $2.5 million contract on Wednesday, again following with their recent strategy of buying low on pitchers coming off injury or disappointing season.
In the case of Norris, it was a bad 2015 season in which he went 3-11 with a 6.72 ERA in 38 games (11 starts) for Baltimore and San Diego.
That career-worst performance followed a career-best season in 2014, when Norris was 15-8 with a 3.65 ERA in 28 starts for the Orioles, with 139 strikeouts in 165 1/3 innings.
“We feel that he will be a valuable part of our starting rotation in 2016,” said Braves general manager John Coppolella, who compared the signing to the team’s free-agent signing of reliever Jim Johnson a year ago. “Like Jim Johnson last year, this is an upside play.”
Johnson was coming off a career-worst 7.09 ERA in 2014 after consecutive 50-save seasons with Baltimore. He bounced back with the Braves to post a 2.25 ERA in 49 appearances before being traded to the Dodgers as part of the July deal that brought Hector Olivera to Atlanta.
Norris’ 15-win season in 2014 for the Orioles included an 8-2 home record and 2.44 ERA in 13 starts at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a single-season ERA record in a minimum 10 starts at the Baltimore balllpark.
Barring any changes – and changes certainly could happen with the Braves — Norris would join a starting rotation led by returners Shelby Miller and Julio Teheran, and possibly left-hander Mike Minor if the Braves make the arbitration-eligible left-hander a contract offer after he missed the entire 2015 season with a shoulder injury that required surgery.
The addition of Norris and a recent setback that forced Minor to halt his throwing program for 10 days could increase the likelihood that Minor becomes a non-tendered free agent unless the Braves work out a deal with him to avoid the arbitration process.
The remaining rotation spot or spots would likely be contested between a group rookies or second-year pitchers including Matt Wisler, Mike Foltynewicz, Williams Perez and lefty Manny Banuelos, with prospects Lucas Sims and Tyrell Jenkins possibly ready for call-ups at some point during the 2016 season.
Wisler, Foltynewicz and Perez each made at least 15 starts for the Braves as rookies in 2015, and Banuelos made six starts before he was shut down in September due to soreness in his surgically repaired elbow. Both Banuelos and Foltynewicz, who had season-ending surgery to remove part of a rib, are expectred to be ready for the start of spring training.
