Andrew McKirahan returned from his suspension today generating another Braves bullpens Shuffle.
Braves Shuffle Bullpen for the . . I’ll say number 30th time
Rule five pick McKirahan made three appearances in April – 1 2/3 IP against the Mets, 2 IP against the Marlins, and 2/3 innings against Toronto – putting up a 4.12 ERA allowing 3 hits,a walks and striking out two before being suspended for 80 games as a result of a failed PED test.
While the numbers weren’t spectacular, McKirahan looked like a solid lefty to partner with Luis Avilan. The PED suspension opened a revolving door for random lefties in the bullpen but none made a last impact and Avilan soldiered on alone until last week’s signing of Ross Detwiler.
Eighty games is a long time but the young lefty told the AJC that he worked out and stayed in shape.
"“. . .I was able to work out and throw and pitch down in Orlando, so I got my work in, stayed in shape, stayed strong. . .”"
The suspension rules allow a player to go on a rehab assignment before returning to the 25 roster and the Braves took full advantage of that. He began by pitching 2/3 of an inning with the M-Braves then moved to Gwinnett where he threw 5 2/3 innings in six appearances. That work produced a 2.84 ERA., 1.579 WHIP while striking out 8 and walking 4 and giving up 2 homers.
Fredi Gonzalez said McKirahan would return to the bullpen and make it easier to maneuver pitchers when the starter doesn’t go a s deep.
"“. . . Now we’ve got three left-hander (sic) , and you can even use Detwiler as your long guy, because he’s done it, he’s had some starts. And you can use Andrew as a sixth-inning guy right now, or maybe later in the game. Get a tough left-hander later in the game, and kind of (reduce) Avilan’s appearances a little bit. Maybe we can monitor him a little bit more and back him off a little bit.”"
Aside from really bad grammar the thing that stands out from that quote is Gonzalez saying he wants to back off Avilan’s innings particularly after using him when we were behind on Sunday.
Moves that made up the bullpen shuffle
For every promotion there’s an equal and opposite promotion so the arrival of McKirahan in this bullpen shuffle dictated the departure of another reliever, in this case Ryan Webb. On Saturday the Braves sent Brandon Cunniff on a rehab assignment to Gwinnett today’s page mentions that he’s now optioned to them. Here’s a summary of all of the day’s changes from the Braves transaction page
07/20/15
LHP Andrew McKirahan from the restricted list.
RHP Brandon Cunniff to Gwinnett Braves.
Optioned Ryan Kelly to Gwinnett Braves.
Outrighted RHP David Carpenter to Gwinnett Braves.
That’s A Wrap
With McKirahan back the lefty loaded bullpen I mentioned on Saturday gets closer to reality, it will be interesting to see how that is handled. Also of note is Carpenter clearing waivers and being outrighted to Gwinnett when everyone needs bullpen help.
More changes are obviously on the way, we’ll keep the bullpen shuffle and other machinations up to date for you here on the Take.