Meat and Potatoes: Atlanta Braves Weekly Recap 3/19 to 3/26

Welcome to the 4th edition of “Meat and Potatoes,” your new go-to for a weekly recap of Atlanta Braves news, notes and links. Posted every weekend.

The Lead

Well folks, the light at the end of the tunnel is blinding. We’re a mere week and change away from having survived yet another bout with The Offseason Blues. With the season so close, one might assume that the Braves roster picture has cleared up. Not so!

The big story as we pull into the home stretch of the offseason is the array of decisions that Fredi Gonzalez and the Braves must make real soon. Only a week and change remains until we open up a can of it on the Nationals Monday, April 4th. Let’s quickly break it down the roster situation, and then move on to other notable stories from the week.

Starting Pitching

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Julio Teheran, Bud Norris and Matt Wisler have spots reserved for them in the rotation. However, it’s still unclear who will occupy the remaining two spots. This competition has actually gotten more and more convoluted as the Spring has marched on. As it stands, Mike Foltynewicz, Manny Banuelos, Jhoulys Chacin, Williams Perez and outsider John Gant all have been mentioned as current candidates to make the starting rotation on Opening Day. That’s a lot of names for two spots this late in the game.

Ryan Weber was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett this weekend. Weber was considered by many as a legitimate contender for the rotation, but didn’t get a ton of play this Spring. He notched 6.1 innings before his recent demotion.

Bullpen

Here again, recent developments have added uncertainty to the roster picture. Ian Krol has been cut from the team, which initially left Alex Torres as the only LH option in the ‘pen. Just today, however, the Braves have acquired former Braves standout Eric O’Flaherty from the Pirates. It can be assumed that O’Flaherty is in the Opening Day roster plans, though he will have to show that he can rebound from a tough 2015 early on. Read about the reunion here.

There are decisions to be made with the righties as well. Depending on how the competition for starting arms goes, we could see a number of scenarios play out. Both Perez and Gant would assumedly be considered for a ‘long-man’ role if they don’t make the rotation out of the gate. This would likely impact the future of Jose Ramirez, who is out of options, and Daniel Winkler, who must make the club and stick for a couple of months or be offered back to the Rockies due to his Rule 5 status. There’s also Alexi Ogando to consider, who at least DOB views as a likely member of the OD bullpen.

So yeah. Uncertainty seems the rule. There’s just not much room left for all of the RH hopefuls.

Position Players 

Increasing clarity was a rare occurrence on the roster beat this week. However, it appears that Jace Peterson will indeed be getting most of the starts at 2B in the early goings. A number of plans involving platoons with Jace and other infielders have been floated the Spring, but DOB recently had this to report:

Beyond that:

• it’s still to be seen how the Braves will deploy Adonis Garcia at third. It seems that the whole Gordon Beckham competing for the outright starting job thing has fizzled, but we’ll see. Perhaps a platoon with LH hitting Kelly Johnson is a possibility?
• will there be any 9th hour takers for Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher? Will both make the roster if not traded? There have been some recent rumblings about a Swisher trade with the White Sox, which you can explore here.
• who is gonna make up the bench? As it stands, the aforementioned Swisher, Bourn, Johnson and Beckham have company from Jeff Francoeur and Emilio Bonifacio in that competition. Remembering that one of assumedly 5 bench spots will be occupied by the the sitting half of the A.J. Pierzynski / Tyler Flowers catcher platoon, the bench competition is proving a crowded dance card, as well.

Lots of question marks! Next week’s Meat and Potatoes should feature a lot of interesting answers to these uncertainties. So I got that going for me. Which is nice. 

News and Notes

• In very excellent Tomahawk Take news, our resident minor league scholar AND gentleman Benjamin Chase will be answering all of your minor league questions in a weekly column. Check out the shiny new first edition here. Seriously, Ben is a walking, talking wealth of information on our system. Submit questions to him by simply commenting on the article each week. Do it.
• There were a couple of retroactive rumors concerning the Braves this week. They’ve been deemed as somewhere between compelling and bogus around these digital parts. Apparently, we kicked the tires on Justin Upton during the offseason. Read Alan’s take on that here, and mine here. Also, our ongoing pursuit of Jonathan Lucroy was in the news.

Continue with a click for the rest of my Braves News and Notes! 

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