BOSTON — The Braves off to a historically bad start to their season, and manager Fredi Gonzalez said the organization expected to be better than 4-17 because they feel as if they can compete as they rebuild.
But Gonzalez said he’s also heartened by the reports he gets every day detailing the progress of high-level prospects in the team’s restocked minor-league system.
“The reason I say I trust the process is I see the young players that we made trades for and got through the draft — they are getting closer,” Gonzalez said. “Last year they were so far away. Some of them weren’t even in this organization last year. This year you saw them in spring training and you read the minor-league game reports each morning and you go, ‘These guys are closer.’”
In the meantime, the major league Braves already have set a franchise record for losses in April. They rank near the bottom in nearly every statistical category in the majors, with their four home runs standing as the most glaring deficiency.
The Braves expected to have inconsistent pitching because Julio Teheran and Bud Norris are the only two veterans in the rotation. But Gonzalez noted that the Braves have plenty of experienced position players.
“We’ve got professional hitters in there, players that have been around,” Gonzalez said. “You look at our team, we are not young offensively other than Mallex Smith and (Daniel) Castro. Everybody else has a lot of time in the big leagues.”
Four touted prospects acquitted by the Braves over the past two years have debuted with the big-league club: Smith, third baseman Hector Olivera, and right-handers Aaron Blair and Mike Foltynewicz. Three more are at Triple-A Gwinnett: infielder Rio Ruiz and right-handers Lucas Sims and Tyrell Jenkins.
With the Braves already having set a franchise record for April losses, it’s not certain Gonzalez will still be around to manage those players when they make it to the majors. Gonzalez’s contract is up after the end of the season.
Gonzalez said likens the Braves to the Mets two years ago, when they had several young players on the way up. He said he remembers hoping Mets manager Terry Collins would get a chance to work with those players. The Mets stuck with Collins, while the Nationals went through several managers during their rebuild.
“You trust your people,” Gonzalez said. “You plan on it. We did it to ourselves. We felt like we needed to stock the pipeline and get better and get depth. We did it to ourselves. But we didn’t think we would ever be 4-17 to start off the season and I’m looking to turn that around and hopefully it starts soon.”
