JUPITER, Fla. — Instead of taking their regular rotation turns in Grapefruit League games, Braves projected opening-day starter Julio Teheran and No. 2 starter Alex Wood were assigned to pitch in minor league games Friday and Saturday.
The reason: The Braves still had several pitchers competing for jobs, and Gonzalez said they wanted to see those candidates against major league teams, particularly the rotation hopefuls. Wandy Rodriguez started Friday night against the Marlins and rotation candidates Chien-Ming Wang and Eric Stults will start Saturday’s split-squad games.
“It’s so we can be able to accommodate (those competing for spots), to kind of say, OK, here’s your chance,” Gonzalez said Thursday. “I’m not a big fan of having our (regular) starters pitch in minor league games because it seems like it never works. But you have to do it because we want to see those guys pitch up here (in Grapefruit League games).”
A day later, Gonzalez said Rodriguez was all but assured of the fourth spot in the rotation even before Friday night’s game. That would leave Stults, prospect Mike Foltynewicz, Cody Martin, Wang and Banuelos to compete for one rotation spot or a long-relief role.
For the same reason that established starters Teheran and Wood were sent to pitch in minor leagues games, Gonzalez had closer Craig Kimbrel and veteran setup men Jason Grilli and Jim Johnson pitch in a minor league camp game a few days ago. Again, Gonzalez said he preferred not to do that because major leaguers often aren’t as sharp in minor league games.
As an example, Gonzalez said Kimbrel hit outfielder Joe Benson in the head with a fastball in the minor league game. Kimbrel raced to the plate to make sure Benson was OK. Kimbrel and the Braves were thankful that the hitter was wearing one of the bigger, more heavily padded helmets that minor leaguers are required to wear.
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