There are eight Braves pitchers with at least one save this season, which gives the team a measure of flexibility in how they handle the return of oft-times closer Arodys Vizcaino.
Vizcaino, whose last appearance came July 11, was activated from the 60-day disabled list and returned Friday to the Braves’ bullpen. Not that he’ll be thrown immediately into a high-leverage situation.
“We’ll pick a spot here and there, try and see where he’s at. Who knows? We’ll see,” manager Brian Snitker said.
“Don’t know that we’ll put him in the eighth inning with the lead yet, or anything like that. There may be a spot we can put him in and try to get him as regular as we can.”
The hard-throwing Vizcaino, who still leads the team in saves this season, with 15, one more than A.J. Minter, has missed nearly half a season with shoulder issues.
In a corresponding transaction, the Braves put starter Luiz Gohara, his minor league season concluded, on the 60-day DL.
Whether Vizcaino will be able to work his way back into a prominent, late-inning role will depend upon both how he performs in spot duty and how his shoulder responds.
Asked if it was realistic to expect Vizcaino back in the closing mix anytime soon, Snitker said, “I don’t know about anytime soon. That’s why we activated him, to see where he’s at. He’s definitely a guy who has been through those wars, it’s just going to take a while to see where he’s at physically.”
In the meantime: “We have some options. At this point we have three or four guys who have experienced it,” Snitker said, mentioning Minter, Brad Brach, Jesse Biddle, Dan Winkler and Jonny Venters, who closed out the most recent San Francisco series with his second save of the season.
“It depends pretty much how we get there and what the prior day’s been and how the workload has been on certain guys. That’s going to determine it as much as anything, probably,” Snitker said.
In other return-from-injury news – this absence much briefer – Snitker said that while Johan Camargo (groin) was not in the lineup for Friday’s game against Washington, he would be available to pinch-hit.
“He’s good,” the manager said. “He got treated yesterday and it felt better. We’re going to work him out (Friday). I wanted to get him back on the field before we just put him back in there. So, I don’t think there should be a reason he couldn’t pinch-hit tonight.”
Neither Vizcaino nor Camargo were deployed in Friday night’s 10-5 victory over Washington.
