The Atlanta Braves had no choice but to claim Ian Anderson off of waivers

The spot starter pool is even more sparse than the last time we pointed out how sparse it is

The Atlanta Braves are having depth issues in their rotation.

Short of trading away a fringe prospect to acquire Davis Daniel from the Los Angeles Angels and moving Grant Holmes to the rotation, the Braves mostly stood pat when it came to the rotation this winter. And when you think about it, it was ill-advised but at least defensible: Spencer Strider and Ian Anderson were both potentially returning to the majors after their respective elbow surgeries, while Grant Holmes, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Reynaldo López were all expected to take on larger workloads than last season. The thought here was that all of those added innings from those five names I listed above could help offset the free agency losses of Max Fried (Yankees) and Charlie Morton (Orioles).

About that.

Ian Anderson was traded at the end of spring training after suffering from pronounced walk issues during Grapefruit League play, Spencer Strider’s on the 15-day IL with a strained hamstring and Reynaldo López is on the 60-day IL after arthroscopic shoulder surgery, with the duo having combined for just two starts and ten total innings prior to their respective injuries.

This led to the Braves, somewhat predictably, reuniting with Anderson yesterday after he was DFA’d by the Los Angeles Angels last week.

Let’s talk about it.

Anderson won’t be the savior for Atlanta

The whole reason the Braves traded Anderson to Los Angeles after spring training was because of his walk issues - despite putting up a 2.25 ERA, he walked twenty batters in the same number of innings, resulting in a 1.40 WHIP. He frequently worked around the traffic, allowing just five runs on eight hits, but the terrible walk totals combined with the anemic strikeout total (ten punchouts) led Atlanta to cut bait and ship him to the Angels for another out-of-options arm, this one being reliever José Suarez.

Suarez pitched in just three games for Atlanta, with similar results to Ian’s spring: A 2.45 ERA in 7.1 innings but with seven walks. He was DFA’d by Atlanta and outrighted to Gwinnett over the weekend after he passed through waivers.

Ian’s time in Anaheim was significantly worse than Suarez’s time in Atlanta, however: an 11.57 ERA after his walk issues backed off a bit (seven in 9.1 innings) and his strikeouts right-sized (eight), but he allowed seventeen hits and thirteen runs (twelve earned). Working entirely in relief, he got blown up as both a traditional single-inning reliever and as a long man working on multiple days of rest.

There are some things to quibble about with LA’s usage of Ian, just so it’s been said. That first bad outing in relief on April 2nd, for instance, was a back-to-back, the first time he’d ever in his career been asked to throw on two straight days. The results were predictably poor: six hits and five runs (but only four earned) in one inning against St. Louis.

But as reported by the Braves beat in Arizona on Sunday morning, Ian Anderson’s going to be working out of the pen instead of the rotation after he meets the team in Colorado on Monday morning.

So, who starts this week versus Colorado?

Atlanta’s other roster move on Sunday morning was designating Jesse Chavez for assignment (again), replacing him with Gwinnett’s originally scheduled Saturday starter, Davis Daniel.

Chavez wasn’t burned, pitching just one inning against Arizona on Friday, but he also wasn’t very good. He allowed two hits and a walk, giving up one run in the 8th inning of what ended up being a blowout Atlanta win. He’s now allowed four hits and three walks in just three innings of relief this season, but he’ll likely pass through waivers and either accept being outrighted to Gwinnett or rejoin Atlanta on a minor league deal because that’s just what happens to Jesse Chavez at this point.

And so the Braves have a decision to make: With a potential roster spot needed for Anderson on Monday, what are the options to add him to the 26-man?

• Option someone back to Gwinnett

• Designate someone for assignment

• Place someone on the injured list

Let’s break down all three.

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1: Option someone back to Gwinnett

There’s a few options for being optioned, and we’ll take them in order of likelihood from highest to lowest:

Davis Daniel: Even if he wasn’t needed out of the pen on Sunday, Daniel’s the most likely to be sent back to Gwinnett simply because he’s the newest and most flexible option, especially if you’re not going to have him start for you.

Everyone else: I know this feels like a cop out, but we can take the options one by one and you’ll see why it’s Daniel or bust. Daysbel Hernández is your primary setup man, Dylan Lee is your go-to lefty out of the pen and got the save in Saturday’s extra-inning win, while Bryce Elder is the announced starter for Monday against the Rockies and Spencer Schwellenbach’s not going anywhere.

There’s really no one else you can option down from the pitching side to get an extra arm up outside of Daniel.

2: Designate someone for assignment

I’m watching for Rafael Montero on this one. The Braves used him twice against the Cardinals, letting him throw 41 pitches across both appearances.

He recorded exactly three outs, allowing three hits and walking three while recording only a single strikeout.

Remember, Atlanta’s not on the hook for most of this contract. Of the $11.5M in compensation he’s owed for this season, Houston’s covering around $8.5M of it. If you DFA him and he clears waivers, which is likely to happen because any claiming team would also inherit the contract, you might potentially be able to keep him in the organization. As a vested veteran, he’d need to decide if he wants to elect free agency or accept being outrighted to Gwinnett.

(It’s possible that he’s signed advance consent to be sent to the minors - the MLBPA has attempted to clamp down on that practice, but it still happens from time to time. Last came up for Atlanta with David Fletcher last season, if I remember correctly, although several of Atlanta’s late spring signings verbally agreed to head to the minors when they signed at the end of spring training.)

3: Place someone on the injured list

I’m watching Raisel Iglesias here. Although the commissioner’s office has cracked down on “phantom IL” stints, where a team claims a player is injured when they’re actually fully healthy just to get some roster flexibility, every MLB pitcher has soreness. It’s possible that the Braves convince Iglesias to admit he’s sore and accept a short stay on the IL to work on his mechanics. He’s leaving most of his pitches up in the zone, leading to his homer issues so far this season.

If Iglesias ends up getting fifteen days off to work on his mechanics and pitch a bit of “rehab” in Gwinnett, look for Daysbel Hernández and Dylan Lee to be the go-to options to pick up a few saves in Iggy’s absence.

Who are the ‘next men up’ in the rotation?

That is a very good question right now.

When we looked at this back at the beginning of April, we were hopeful that Spencer Strider would be back soon and you could bump someone out of the rotation, giving you a five-man MLB rotation and a 6th man for emergencies.

But Strider’s out again, sidelined indefinitely with a hamstring strain.

The organization has since released veterans Amos Willingham and Chasen Shreve, as well. While Willingham was a reliever that has been on the injured list for the last few weeks, Shreve made four mostly unimpressive starts for the Stripers: 1-2 record, 5.60 ERA, and fifteen runs (eleven earned) in just 17.2 innings. His three homers allowed and overall lack of stuff (88.8 mph average on his fastball, only twelve strikeouts) meant that he’d struggle to survive at the major league level similar to Allan Winans.¹

So here’s your rotation at the moment, ordered via next expected appearance instead of ranking:

Bryce Elder
AJ Smith-Shawver (not confirmed)
Chris Sale
Grant Holmes
Spencer Schwellenbach

This leaves your next men up from Gwinnett as Davis Daniel, followed by Nathan Wiles and eventually Hurston Waldrep. There are a few relievers down there you can stretch out, like Zach Thompson and José Suarez, but it’s pretty shallow before you start getting to the Dylan Dodd/Darius Vines tier of former prospects working in relief.

Atlanta needs health and innings out of their rotation, because there’s not a lot behind the current major league group down in Gwinnett. While there’s a trio of prospects in Columbus who could potentially factor into the mix in the second half of the year (Blake Burkhalter, Lucas Braun, and Drue Hackenberg), each of the three isn’t quite ready to make a leap straight to the majors.

Atlanta might not have a choice, though, if injuries keep popping up the way they have so far this year.

That’s why they had to bring Anderson back. If they can fix him (which is absolutely not a guaranteed thing, mind you), that’s adding another starter to their mix for the league minimum of $790,000, which is right up Alex Anthopoulos’ alley. If he makes it through the week to make it ten total innings on the season, which doesn’t feel like a guarantee at this point, we’ll dive into the advanced data and see if we can figure out how to fix him.

1. We’ll always have the Allan Winans Revenge Game against the Mets, though. That was fun.