Those worried about the courage to enter spring training without defining who will be closest will probably forget that the 2018 and ’19 seasons began with Arodys Vizcaíno in that role. Each of those years ended with Atlanta winning an Eastern National League title.
Mark Melancon certainly played a key role when he became closest to the Braves shortly after he was acquired by the 2019 deadline. The fact that Melancon is now a member of the Padres bullpen does not mean that the Atlanta closet will be dry as the club tries to win a fourth consecutive division title.
“We have a lot of good options out there,” said manager Brian Snitker. “We have a lot of guys who have done this before. I think that’s something about bullpens in today’s game – you won’t have much consistency. I think this is just the nature of the business and the way the industry is. There will be a lot of turnover in bullpens. ”
The Braves Bullpen will look different with Melancon in San Diego and Darren O’Day with the Yankees. The two experienced veterans served as trusted helpers and valuable mentors during their time in Atlanta.
But the Braves still have some capable veteran rescuers in Josh Tomlin, Chris Martin and Will Smith. Tomlin seems to have an excellent coaching career, and Smith is just a year away from establishing himself as the All-Star closer to the Giants.
“This guy was an All-Star closer two years ago,” Snitker said of Smith. “I think we have some good options in our pen to close the games. How do we do that, we’ll just have to see how we get there. But we have two or three guys out there who have been through this and experienced it. We’ll see how it develops. ”
Including the postseason, Smith limited his opponents to an average of 0.165 and hit 29.1% of the fights he faced in 2020.
How do you meet such bad luck? Well, some of Smith’s misfortunes were a product of his usually very reliable slider. Its inconsistency with the terrain was probably the result of spending the entire July in quarantine awaiting the negative test for COVID-19. He gave positive results at the beginning of the summer camp, but never developed symptoms.
If Snitker wants Smith to face a tough left-hander in the seventh or eighth inning, he could give Martin the closing duties. Another candidate is AJ Minter, who took over the role in 2018. Minter certainly showed a capable close-up when he recorded seven shots in three innings without a score, while starting a spot in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. last year against the Dodgers.
Training decisions
While using the hitter designated last year, Snitker saw the value in putting Freddie Freeman in second place in the group. But now, it looks like his players will hit again this year, the veteran manager is thinking of moving the most valuable player in the NL to 3rd place in order.
Snitker started the 2019 season by giving Josh Donaldson the desire to beat second, as he did in his peak days with the Blue Jays. But Donaldson proved to be more productive as he knocked on the cleaning spot behind Freeman.
Snitker’s feeling is that with the player hitting the bottom of the line, Freeman would get more RBI opportunities while hitting the third. That being said, the captain added that he did not completely give up the idea of starting his team again with Ronald Acuña Jr., Freeman and Marcell Ozuna occupying the first three places.
“I think I’ve seen in that line, it’s a totally different animal when players hit,” Snitker said. “It simply came to our notice then. We’ll talk about it and analyze it and see. But I think it’s real. I think when the players hit, that place doesn’t have the opportunities that they say they hit the third. ”
Backup
Once the Braves felt better about their financial situation, there was reason to believe they could try to bring Tyler Flowers back with a short-term economic deal. But as time went on, there became more reason to believe that reserve taxes could be given to Alex Jackson or William Contreras.
Contreras, Atlanta’s No. 7 prospect, looks set for a brighter future. But the desire to give him the chance to develop as a daily player in the Minors could leave the secondary role of Jackson’s big league, which scored 28 goals for Triple-A Gwinnett in 2019.
“[Contreras and Jackson] they’ve both come a long way, “Snitker said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had depth or grip options in our Minor League system. I think it’s a very good thing to choose. ”