Feb 23, 2015; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves bullpen coach Eddie Perez (12) watches stretching exercises during spring training workouts at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 23, 2015; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves bullpen coach Eddie Perez (12) watches stretching exercises during spring training workouts at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
The Atlanta Braves saw A.J. Minter climb all the way to AA Mississippi this season with incredible statistics out of the bullpen. Where will he be pitching in 2017?
Who Is He?
Alex Jordan Minter was drafted originally out of high school by the Detroit Tigers in the 38th round in 2012, but he chose instead to go to Texas A&M for college, and after being a 1st round possibility before his draft season, injury led to the Atlanta Braves being able to snag him in the second round for an above-slot bonus. Due to surgery, he did not pitch in the minors in 2015.
The Braves chose to take a cautious approach with Minter in 2016, holding him in extended spring to let him get his feet under him before sending him to low-A Rome. Incredibly, Minter sported a 0.00 ERA in Rome and Carolina as he worked up the system, and that’s not due to luck of allowing unearned runs – he allowed ZERO runs!
Minter pitched in 31 games total this season – 5 with Rome, 8 with high-A Carolina, and 18 with AA Mississippi. In those 31 games, he pitched 34 2/3 innings out of the bullpen, with a 1.30 ERA and 0.84 WHIP, posting an 11/47 BB/K ratio as he sliced up hitters at every level. To emphasize the dominance he had, Minter allowed zero home runs, had zero hit by pitch, zero balks, and in spite of having incredibly wicked movement, threw all of 4 wild pitches in the entire season. To top all of it, Minter allowed runs in TWO games in the entire season in 31 games pitched, which means he had 29 scoreless appearances out of his 31 total. Add in the postseason (where he was perfect – no runs, no hits, no walks – over 3 1/3 innings pitched with 4 strikeouts), and you have 32 scoreless appearances in 34 total appearances on the season!
To get a good look at Minter, I checked out 6 of his appearances. Total in those appearances, he allowed one run on 6 1/3 innings pitched, giving up only 2 hits and 1 walk, striking out 12 hitters.
Size/Delivery
Minter is listed at 6′ and 205 pounds. He could even be another 10-15 pounds bigger than that, but it’s not “bad” weight by any means. He does not have any size projection left, but that’s not surprising as he’s 23 at this point.
Minter pitches exclusively out of the stretch in the bullpen, which has severely calmed his delivery. In finding some old college video of Minter, he had a lot of tilt and lean in his delivery that could throw off his balance and put stress on the arm. Out of the bullpen could actually help him to stay healthy as he stays more balanced throughout his delivery.
Minter starts with a slow leg lift, bringing his right knee just under knee level. From that apex of his load, he explodes quickly to the plate, releasing the ball from a high 3/4 arm slot. Due to the explosiveness of his move toward the plate, one thing I noted in the games where I saw Minter have any issue with control (and there weren’t many) was that he can lunge forward a bit too much with his weight and need to tap his foot earlier than his typical landing spot, and that leaves his arm dragging a bit, and he has a habit of dropping all the way down below 3/4 to a low 3/4 slow when he has that happen.
Pitches
The pitch that everyone knows of with Minter is his big time fastball. As a starter in college and with Team USA, he sat around 91-93 with the fastball and touched 96-97. As a reliever now full-time, he’s sitting 94-97 and touching 98-99, and that fastball has some ridiculous arm side sink and run. He works the fastball up and down in the zone, adjusting the batter’s eye throughout the at-bat.
Minter has a change up as a starter, but he rarely uses this in the bullpen (I saw 2 in the games I witnessed). His primary breaking pitch is a slider that runs in the mid-80s, and I saw it clocked as high as 89 in one AA appearance I viewed. He gets unique action on the pitch as he does use the slider low in the zone, but it has a cut fastball look to it, with nearly no depth in the pitch, but some excellent horizontal movement, working in on left-handed hitters and away from righties.
The change could become something effective even out of the bullpen as Minter pitches so much off of the fastball that a change could really keep hitters guessing on his fastball. I could not get a good look to give a good report on the change.
So, I was trying to find a good comp for Minter, and frankly, they’re quite difficult. To find a guy who really focuses on two pitches the way Minter does with such a heavy focus on his fastball, you start to narrow down to a very few guys. As I looked at the lefties in the game currently, two stuck out with their focus on their fastball – Zach Britton and Tony Watson. However in watching them, Watson uses a true sinker/change/slider combo (in that order) while Britton works with a two-seam fastball and slider mix.
Then I got out some video of Britton. The two of them could play games of mirror with each other as far as the effects of their pitches. Britton’s also not a big guy, like Minter, going 6’1 and about 200 pounds. Britton actually gets more of a straight sink on his fastball rather than the arm side run that Minter gets, but they both work with sliders that get more horizontal movement than vertical.
Of course, we’re talking about a guy who’s one of the rare closers in competition for a Cy Young Award this season due to his dominance on the mound, and I’m by no means saying that he’ll be that guy immediately, but if you want an idea of where Minter could get as a reliever, peak value, Britton would be a good guy to look at.
I’d imagine Minter will start at AAA next year, but he’ll certainly be given every shot to open 2017 in the Atlanta bullpen. I do know that one thing that Minter stated to teams before the draft was that he wanted to be allowed the opportunity to start if he so chose, and the Braves were willing to allow him to do so after his first season back.
If he does return to the rotation, that would likely put him at least back down to AA, if not high-A to get his feet under him in using that change again, but I would imagine that he’s gotten a taste of how close he is to the big leagues at this point from the bullpen and will stay there.
