Saturday seeds: Finally, an update on Ronald Acuña Jr.
Here's some of the news and notes you might have missed from this week
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Injury updates on Acuña and Strider
After a few weeks of silence, we finally get some updates on Atlanta's two injured stars.
For Spencer Strider, his hamstring issue is still being worked on. Per manager Brian Snitker, he’s been playing catch and receiving treatment, leading one to believe that he’s not too far away from a rehab assignment.
Ronald Acuña Jr’s update is more disappointing. Not only did he not hit his personal goal of returning by the start of the Dodgers series, but he’s not even ready for a rehab assignment yet. Snit told the media that Ronald’s still in North Port, doing drills and lower body strengthening exercises (quad work, apparently). While Snitker didn’t give a timeframe, folks close to the team believe he’s still a few weeks away from a rehab assignment, so we’re looking at late May or even June before he returns.
While the team never once gave a timeline for Acuña, seeing him taking live at-bats in March set an expectation among many in Braves Country that he’d be back sooner rather than later. Definitely frustrating, but rehab from a major surgery is never linear and with the way the outfield has been hitting (last night’s loss excluded), you’re okay with taking the time to ensure he’s 100% before he returns.
Why Chavez always re-signs with Atlanta
In case you missed it this week, veteran reliever Jesse Chavez was designated for assignment, elected free agency, and signed yet another minor league deal with the Braves. It’s the third time he’s signed a deal with Atlanta this season alone.
It’s become a joke/meme across social media, but there’s a legitimate reason for this: By technically leaving the organization and then rejoining on a new deal, he’s not beholden to the MLB transaction rules that prevent a player who was sent to the minor leagues from returning before a specific timeframe is up. The rule is 10 days for position players and 15 days for pitchers, and the only way around it is to either be replacing an injured player on the MLB roster or by officially leaving the organization and becoming a free agent before re-signing. In essence, he functions as a 41st-man on the 40-man roster.
I’m willing to be this exact same call-up/DFA/free agent process happens a few more times this season. They’ve successfully signed Chavez to a minor league deal in three separate months now - March 22nd, April 4th, and May 1st. Let’s get a few more in there and set some sort of record.
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Holding 40-man spots
With the recent roster moves by Atlanta of DFAing Ian Anderson and putting Bryan De La Cruz on waivers (where he was claimed by the Yankees), the Braves have two open roster spots on the 40-man roster, a rarity mid-season.
I have some thoughts and theories as to why that is.
The first is a potential veteran add. May 1st was the latest XX(B) opt-out date, and while there’s not a definitive list of guys who had the ability to opt out, I know several veteran relievers were potentially going to be available. My money’s on the Braves having pursued veteran lefty Andrew Chafin but losing him to the Nationals (who had a MLB spot open for him).
Chafin, 34, would have fit right in as a throwing partner for Grant Holmes, one that he could exchange hair care tips with, but was also not pitching that bad for Detroit’s AAA affiliate. He had a 2.13 ERA in 12.2 innings pitched, successfully converting all three of his save situations (two holds, one save) and striking out seventeen against just four walks.
I’m honestly really surprised the Tigers didn’t try and get Chafin with the big league club - they have seven optionable relievers, although they’re already carrying three lefties so mabe it’s a balance thing.
Either way, the Braves weren’t able to sign Chafin or Shintaro Fujinami (who didn’t opt out of hs deal with the Mariners) or anyone else, so those spots are still open. I’m expecting one to eventually go to Kimbrel, while the Braves also have a trio of lefty relievers they could look at adding if they want to get a third lefty in the major league pen. José Suarez looked good in his first start for Gwinnett, while Dylan Dodd has rebounded after being blown up in his first outing of the year to put up some quality relief innings and Hayden Harris has been dominating Double-A and is ready to move up to Gwinnett.
Pulling the plug on Waldrep?
There may be another pitcher joining Dodd and Suarez (and hopefully Harris) in the Gwinnett bullpen sometime soon, and that’s Hurston Waldrep.
One of the team’s top pitching prospects, Waldrep had a nightmare of a start for Gwinnett on Thursday, allowing three runs on two hits and three walks and being knocked out of the game in the first inning. The bad outing raised his ERA to 7.04 and there’s some worrisome trends here - his fastball either can’t find the zone (43.5% zone rate), which prevents his secondaries from reliably getting chase, or the fastball gets pounded when it does come in the zone (a .415 batting average allowed and a .500 slug).
While there’s a little bad luck here - his BABIP is .387 - it’s also not getting any better and hasn’t been for a while now. There’s undoubtedly going to be some conversations about how far the team takes the starting experiment, especially when it’s possible that there’s another vacancy or two in the back end of the Braves bullpen due to the pending free agencies of Pierce Johnson and Raisel Iglesias. Getting him relief experience down the stretch will pay off next season, but he likely stays in the rotation for now while the promising Double-A starters like Blake Burkhalter and Lucas Braun check off the rest of the Columbus boxes before they move up to Gwinnett.