NORTH PORT, Fla. — The Braves have a reasonably good really feel for who might be of their rotation and lineup on Opening Day. However president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos and supervisor Brian Snitker nonetheless have some choices to make throughout the upcoming Grapefruit League season.
The Braves will start the spring season on Saturday after they journey to Fort Myers to play the Twins. They are going to conclude the Florida portion of their preparations with a March 23 residence sport towards the Orioles.
Between these two video games, the Braves will decide the best way to fill their remaining Opening Day roster spots. Listed below are a couple of of the important thing questions they’re dealing with:
1. Who will fill the ultimate bullpen spots?
Nearer Raisel Iglesias, Pierce Johnson, Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer are the one true bullpen locks. Daysbel Hernández is a near-lock, however he might want to have not less than a good spring. Prime candidates for the ultimate three spots embody Buck Farmer, Angel Perdomo and Anderson Pilar. Perdomo is out of choices and Pilar was a Rule 5 Draft choice out of the Marlins’ group. Farmer is a confirmed veteran who posted a 3.04 ERA in 61 appearances for the Reds final yr.
Amos Willingham, Enoli Paredes and Jordan Weems are among the many long-shot candidates. It needs to be remembered one of many bullpen spots may very well be stuffed by both Ian Anderson or Grant Holmes after Spencer Strider returns to the rotation close to the top of April. So the ultimate bullpen spot might go to a participant who has choices remaining.
2. Who will bat leadoff to start the season?
Ronald Acuña Jr. will resume his duties because the leadoff hitter as soon as he returns from left knee surgical procedure. Jurickson Profar could be greater than able to filling the leadoff spot for the primary month or two. Profar hit .380 and produced a .451 on-base proportion over 83 plate appearances within the leadoff spot for the Padres final yr. The switch-hitting outfielder had related success towards right-handed (.823 OPS) and left-handed (.885 OPS) pitchers final yr. So he might sit on the high of the lineup on an on a regular basis foundation.
Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies are different choices. However Profar’s plate self-discipline and previous success within the function appear to make him the perfect candidate.
3. Who will fill the ultimate rotation spots?
With Holmes and Anderson each out of choices, the ultimate two rotation spots are theirs to lose. If both of them is injured or proves wildly ineffective over the subsequent few weeks, Bryce Elder and AJ Smith-Shawver (Atlanta’s No. 2 prospect from 2024) could be the highest substitute candidates. It is a enormous camp for Anderson, who hasn’t pitched on the huge league stage since 2022. The ’21 World Sequence star missed almost all of ’23 whereas recovering from Tommy John, then he spent final yr within the Minors.
Based mostly on how issues develop over the subsequent few weeks, there’s all the time an opportunity the Braves might determine to have Holmes start the season as a reliever. This might strengthen the bullpen and provides both Elder or Smith-Shawver an opportunity to show they are often an asset within the rotation.
“We have been in the identical place final yr with a pair query marks,” Snitker mentioned. “Was [Reynaldo López] going to begin? Was he going again to the bullpen? These subsequent few weeks may have a manner of sorting it out for us.”
4. Who will fill the bench spots?
Harris, Profar and Jarred Kelenic will start the season as the first outfielders. Will Bryan De La Cruz function a backup outfielder? Eli White can play every of the outfield positions, and he’ll spend the exhibition season primarily enjoying the infield. The highest backup infield candidate may be Nick Allen, whose worth is proscribed to his glove. Rule 5 Draft choice Christian Cairo has to not less than be thought of a long-shot candidate.
5. Who might be this yr’s shock?
Anderson and Elder have been each optioned throughout Spring Coaching in 2023. This opened the door for that yr’s camp stars Dylan Dodd and Jared Shuster to each make begins throughout the common season’s first week. Whereas each of them shortly pale away from the highlight, Elder was considered one of Atlanta’s eight All-Stars. Tyler Matzek got here out of nowhere in 2020 and Spencer Schwellenbach wasn’t even in huge league camp final yr.
“There’s any person we’re not even enthusiastic about proper now who’s going to have an effect on us this yr,” Snitker mentioned.
