Matt Marksberry was so excited about being called up from Double-A Mississippi by the Braves, the left-handed reliever couldn’t resist telling his Twitter followers that he was driving to Atlanta Saturday morning.
He didn’t have to say what for.
“Maybe to get a haircut,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, who got a chuckle over Marksberry social-media proficiency and the fact that he, in effect, announced he’d been called up hours before the team announced it.
Marksberry, 25, took the roster spot of right-hander Casey Kelly, who pitched three solid innings in his Braves debut Friday and was optioned back to Triple-A Gwinnett on Saturday.
He provides the Braves a third left-hander in the bullpen, to go with struggling veteran Eric O’Flaherty and rookie Hunter Cervenka, but that probably won’t last long: When the Braves bring up a starter from Triple-A on Sunday to pitch the series finale against the New York Mets, they’ll likely send down a left-handed reliever to open a roster spot
The Braves wanted a fresh arm in the bullpen for Saturday’s game, and preferred it be a lefty because O’Flaherty was unavailable after pitching an inning Friday in his third appearance in three days. O’Flaherty has an 8.10 ERA and .400 opponents’ average in 10 appearances this season, and lefties are 4-for-12 against him with two doubles and a homer.
“We wanted him to work on some stuff in his delivery that (pitching coach) Roger (McDowell) is working with him on,” Gonzalez said. “I’m glad that we got him to face two left-handers of the three hitters he faced (Friday), and he got both of them out. Having Marksberry here still gives us that option of having two left-handers in the bullpen.”
Marksberry, 25, had a 1.04 ERA and 0.577 WHIP in six appearances at Mississippi, allowing just three hits, one run and two walks with seven strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings.
“Just concentrating on throwing more strikes and working mainly on my mechanical errors, compared to, say, pitches,” Marksberry said of his time in Pearl, Miss., outside Jackson. “It’s more mechanical for me than pitches right now.”
He had a 5.01 ERA in 31 appearances for the Braves last season, after he was rushed from Single-A to the majors with only a brief stop in Triple-A. Trades and injuries had depleted the bullpen, and Marksberry pitched as well as anyone could have expected after being thrust into plenty of high-leverage situations so soon.
He showed flashes of his potential then, and again at spring training before the Braves sent him to the minors for a bit more seasoning.
“He’s got plenty of stuff,” Gonzalez said of Marksberry, a 15th-round draft pick in 2013 out of Campbell University in North Carolina. “His biggest thing for us, he got a taste of the big leagues last year; put him back in Double-A, make him work on his delivery a little bit, make him throw the ball over the plate. He did that. He’s earned the call back up here.”
After an extended stint in the major leagues last season, Marksberry didn’t take any negatitive vibe with him when he was assigned to Double-A out of spring training.
“I felt comfortable down there, got my work in, didn’t get down or anything, didn’t feel sorry for myself or any of that,” he said. “Because that can lead to you playing bad. So I kept a positive outlook and it helped me get back up.”
The Cincinnati native smiled and added, “The hospitality down there is amazing. I got to see a lot of states that I’d never been to, like Mississippi and Alabama. I’d never been to, like, the old South. I thought it was pretty cool.”
Kelly pitched well in a three-inning stint Friday in his Braves debut, allowing three hits and one run and allowing Gonzalez to avoid taxing the bullpen after starter Bud Norris lasted just four innings and gave up five runs in the 6-3 loss.
