Since being brought up from Double-A to the majors in late June, Braves rookie reliever Mauricio Cabrera has impressed not just with his explosive 100-plus mph fastball but his secondary pitches and his demeanor.
So impressive, in fact, that Braves interim manager Brian Snitker didn’t hesitate with his response when I asked if Cabrera, who’ll be 23 in September, could be putting himself into position at least for closer-job consideration next season.
“Absolutely,” Snitker said. “With that stuff, I think you have to. And what he’s doing, what we’re doing with him right now, is just kind of letting him get his feet wet and trying not to abuse the kid. He’s a big, strong kid, but this is going to be the first time that he’s going to have to do this in September. But you’ve got to like what you see. You’ve got to like his presence, his poise, his makeup, all the intangibles that you look for out of a guy at the back end of your bullpen.
“I think absolutely, when you have what he has in that arm, you absolutely look at him like that, as a future closer probably down the road.”
Cabrera had a 2.55 ERA and .197 opponents’ average in 17 appearances before Thursday, with 16 strikeouts and six walks in 17 2/3 innings. After giving up three runs in two-thirds of an inning July 21 at Coors Field in Colorado, Cabrera allowed just two hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings over his past six appearances.
In the late innings of close games, hitters are 3-for-25 (.120) with two walks, eight strikeout and two double plays grounded into.
His fastball has been clocked as high as 104 mph and routinely sits in the 98-101 mph range, making him Cabrera of the two or three hardest throwers in baseball. But unlike some other triple-digit flamethrowers who’ve come down the pike in recent years, he also has a couple of solid secondary pitches — a change-up and breaking ball – that he can throw for strikes on a fairly consistent basis.
“That’s the beauty of this kid is, he can make a ball spin,” Snitker said. “A lot of guys like that, the secondary stuff is really foreign to them and they fight like heck to throw a slider, then you try a split-finger or something because their wrist doesn’t work (for the slider or curveball).
“But he’s got a good feel for a change-up, too. I mean, he’s got three pitches. He’s got a good feel for his secondary pitches, and he throws that 101-102 (mph fastball) like he’s in the backyard playing catch. He’s not over-exerting or out of control.”
Not that Cabrera has pinpoint accuracy and doesn’t occasionally uncork a wild pitch to the backstop. He does that.
“Sometimes one gets away from him, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing,” Snitker said, his knowing smile making it clear that hitters don’t like standing in the batter’s box facing a guy throwing 100 mph and not always certain where it’s going.
“He’s not a malicious kid, it just happens,” Snitker said. “Like I say, you hit the bull (throw one way wide of the strike zone) every now and then, it isn’t a bad thing.”
Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino got off to such a strong start for the first two-plus months of the season that he was a legitimate All-Star candidate until June, when he began to struggle. He went on the DL July 16 with an oblique strain, and hasn’t been cleared yet to resume throwing off a mound.
Vizcaino, 25, will be eligible for arbitration this winter for the second time, after being a “Super 2” arb player last winter. Unless the Braves trade him, Vizcaino would presumably be the leading candidate for the primary closer role again in 2017.
But if Cabrera keeps making strides, he could compete for the position or to perhaps split the duties. At the least, he could be a setup man in a potentially potent bullpen combination for the eighth and ninth innings, and the Braves have another potential back-end-of-rotation type, left-handed prospect A.J. Minter, who could arrive in 2017.
“We’ve brought (Cabrera) into high-leverage situations from the get-go, and he comes out of the bullpen and it’s just, ‘Alright, give me the ball,’” said Snitker, one of Cabrera’s biggest backers since the week the kid arrived in the big leagues. “His face is really good, (it says) that he’s confident and not overwhelmed by anything.”
