MIAMI – A.J. Minter threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts in his first minor league appearance of the season Wednesday, an encouraging development for a top left-handed relief prospect who manager Brian Snitker thinks will be in the majors before too much longer.
Even more encouraging is the progress of Mauricio Cabrera, given the urgency of getting back the fireballer who is expected to be a top setup man this season. Cabrera, who missed the last 10 days of spring training with elbow soreness and began the season on the 10-day disabled list, was to throw a bullpen session Wednesday and, barring setbacks, could soon begin what’s likely to be a brief rehab assignment.
Minter, 23, missed several weeks of spring training with tightness near his pitching elbow from nerve inflammation. But he continued to do light throwing for most of that period despite not pitching in games, so he’s not as far behind as might have been expected.
He’s starting out the season at high-A Florida because the Braves wanted to assure that he’d pitch in warm weather initially.
“Real good last night I guess,” said Snitker, relaying reports he’d received on Minter’s Wednesday appearance. “Sounded like maybe just a little rusty. Struck out two, faced three guys I think. And Mo (Cabrera) had a bullpen today. I haven’t heard, just by (recent) reports he said he feels great. He probably couldn’t wait to get back on the mound. So that’s good. Those two guys back in the swing of things.
“I didn’t see the program for Minter — if he pitches and then gets two days off and pitches again, or a day off, pitch a bullpen — I don’t know what the actual plan right now is.”
With his upper-90 mph fastball and plus-slider, Minter was dominant at each level he was assigned in his first full minor league season in 2016, posting 16 strikeouts with nine walks in a combined 16 scoreless innings at low-A Rome and high-A Carolina, then 31 strikeouts with six walks in 18 2/3 innings at Double-A Mississippi while allowing 13 hits and five runs (2.41 ERA).
It worked out to a 1.30 ERA in 31 appearances with 47 strikeouts and 11 walks in 34 2/3 innings, and just a .149 opponents’ average and .398 opponents’ OPS. Another eye-opening stat: right-handed batters hit for an even lower average (.144 in 101 plate appearances) against him than lefty batters (.161 in 33 PAs).
It was his first season after more than a year of rehab from Tommy John elbow surgery that Minter had while at Texas A&M. The Braves made him a second-round draft pick in 2015 while he was recovering from TJ surgery.
His innings last season were limited because the Braves were cautious with him all season, giving him at least two days rest between each appearance and sometimes three or four days. So his was carefully managed dominance.
Minter came to spring training this year without constraints and Braves general manager John Coppolella said at the beginning of camp that the lefty would make an impact on the major league team at some point this season. The Braves still believe that despite Minter’s spring training setback.
“He was still throwing (during spring training),” Snitker said. “He started out on schedule, then had the forearm tightness. I saw him pitch an inning at spring training (in a minor league game). At the end of spring training he was fine, he was just behind a little bit. But he’ll be ready sooner than later, I think.”
