The Braves, as expected, announced Tuesday that prized prospect Julio Teheran will make a spot start Wednesday night in Arizona in place of the injured Brandon Beachy, who is on the disabled list with a strained oblique.
Teheran will make his second major league start, and first since he made his debut in Philadelphia on May 7. He allowed three earned runs in 4 2/3 innings in that game, a 3-0 loss, but the Braves liked the way he handled himself and figure he can do more of the same with another spot start.
The Braves' fifth starter spot won't come up again until May 31 because of off days, so the team felt comfortable using Teheran for another spot start. He was scheduled to pitch Tuesday, which put him more on schedule with the Braves' needs than Mike Minor, who pitched on Sunday for Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Braves could have called on Gwinnett's Rodrigo Lopez, but the veteran is out of options and they would have had to put him through waivers and likely lost him had they tried to send him back down after a spot start.
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said the decision wasn't an indication that the Braves have lost confidence in Minor.
“It’s just the way it lined up,” Gonzalez said. “We know if you hold him back, it would have been seven, eight days from his last start. Minor has been pitching pretty decent, so it’s nothing about confidence.”
Minor is 2-1 with a 2.22 ERA in seven starts for Gwinnett. Gonzalez hinted that Minor could be called up on May 31 when the Braves likely will need a fifth starter for a longer period of time. They expect Beachy to miss at least a month after straining his left oblique Friday night against the Phillies.
Teheran was expected to join the Braves on Tuesday and travel with them to Arizona. The team hadn't announced a corresponding roster move.
Teheran made one start in Gwinnett after he pitched in Philadelphia, allowing two runs in 7 2/3 innings. He’s 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA in six Triple-A starts.
Brian McCann, who caught Teheran in Philadelphia, thinks the Braves will see more from their top-rated pitching prospect now that he's been through a big-league outing.
“I feel like I have a better idea what we can do with him, and I think the things that we talked about he went and worked on,” McCann said. “I like everything he does, it’s just a matter of throwing strikes and getting ahead and dictating the at-bat.”
Heyward set to return
Jason Heyward tested his right shoulder in batting practice on Monday and came away confident he can return to the lineup Tuesday night against the Astros as planned.
“Nothing held me back,” said Heyward, who received two cortisone shots in his shoulder on Thursday. “It feels a lot better. ... I felt like the shots have done what they needed to do.”
Heyward has missed six games with a sore right shoulder, and an MRI taken Thursday revealed some inflammation in his rotator cuff but no significant damage.
Eye on Kimbrel
Gonzalez said last week he wasn't going to use Jonny Venters to close games because rookie closer Craig Kimbrel was struggling. But Monday, now that Kimbrel has returned to form, he said he's considering doing it just to get Kimbrel some rest.
Entering Monday night, Kimbrel had pitched in four of five games and 20 games overall.
For that matter, Venters was tied with Logan Ondrusek of Cincinnati for the National League lead in appearances with 23.
“I got up this morning worried about that with Venters and with Kimbrel,” Gonzalez said. “We’re going to have to be a little bit more creative in the way we use them, but it’s a double-edged sword. You want to win games.”
Typically Venters is throwing fewer pitches per outing as a groundball pitcher than Kimbrel is as a strikeout pitcher. But by virtue of playing in so many close games, Gonzalez has found days off for each one hard to find.
“If Kimbrel wasn’t [available], we’ll close with Venters,” Gonzalez said. “If we run Venters three, four days, we’ll run Kimbrel. ... We need to look at that seriously, because, at the pace they’re going, they might both have 100 appearances.”
