When the Braves promoted 20-year-old pitcher Mike Soroka to the majors to start Tuesday night against the Mets, it mean that manager Brian Snitker had the three youngest players in the majors on his 25-man roster. Soroka falls between second baseman Ozzie Albies and outfield phenom Ronald Acuna age-wise.
Albies was the oldest at 21 years, 114 days as of Tuesday. The last time any major league team had three plays as young or younger than that in the same starting lineup also happened to be with the Braves when they started infielders Bob Horner and Glenn Hubbard and center fielder Eddie Miller on Sept. 24, 1978, in a 2-1 loss to the Reds.
But that was September, when it’s not uncommon to have call-ups on the roster. This was May 1, with the Braves (16-11) off to their best start since 2014 and leading the National League in most major offensive categories.
Coming off three consecutive 90-loss seasons during a major rebuilding project, it appears the Braves have turned a corner.
”It says a lot about our organization, where we’ve come and how they’ve put this whole thing together,” said Snitker, 62, who then fondly recalled another highly touted Braves pitching prospect making his debut three decades ago in New York against the Mets – John Smoltz, who allowed just four hits, one run and one walk with two hit batters and two strikeouts in eight innings for the win on July 23, 1988.
“But yeah, it says that the organization is going in the right direction,” he said, getting back on subject. “It’s kind of what we’ve been talking about for years, and now we’re kind of starting to see the fruits of the labor.”
Snitker didn’t have any big rah-rah speeches planned for Soroka, or much of anything in the way of a message. He was much the same with Acuna when he was called up last week and with Albie upon his arrival last August.
“Just let ‘em be,” Snitker said. “There’s nothing I’m going to tell them that’s really going to be a revelation or anything like that for them. To a man, I think they all have a lot of confidence in their abilities and where they’re at. It’ll be fun for them.”
