Atlanta Braves: Reasons for Signing Dickey and Colon

2017 and Beyond

Now that leaves a question for the 5^th spot in the rotation. As noted previously, the Braves now have the luxury of sitting back and watching the rest of the off-season unfold… at least in terms of pitching.  But they always have the choice to upgrade as well, should the possibility present itself.

We still don’t know what plans are for Matt Wisler.  He could be called upon at the ‘normal’ 5th starter… but…

I’ve mentioned that I believe Coppy wants to bring in one more frontline starter (he’s been quoted saying this, too), and Wisler is probably the key guy – along with a package of others – that he might use at trade bait.

But again:  because of the signings this week, the Braves are now in a position where they don’t have to make a trade… but I do think they want to…. partly to alleviate crowding on their 40-man roster; partly to improve the major league roster.

A QUICK ASIDE…

It’s funny how these things blossom sometimes.  We laid out a scenario a few weeks ago in which the Braves could plausibly pursue Justin Verlander, given the Tigers’ desire to reduce payroll.

Apparently that developed into a full-blown rumor out of our pure speculation.  But let’s just put this to bed now:  after spending $20 million on these two pitchers… nothing like that is gonna happen (though it should also validate that the money to do so was there).

That actually made its way to Sirius/XM’s MLB Network Radio today… and Dave O’Brien ended up having to address the topic, strange as that sounds:

So to the extent that Ryan and I more-or-less started this… sorry, but y’all need to read more closely!

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In Absence of a Trade…

If no pitching trades happen, then you still have a bunch of candidates for that 5^th spot in the rotation:  Wisler, Aaron Blair, Williams Perez, Sean Newcomb, Tyrell Jenkins, Rob Whalen, Joel De La Cruz, John Gant, Lucas Sims and Chris Ellis – just off the top of my head.

That’s 10 names that would be a heckuva AA and AAA rotation, and in fact, it’s really too many for AA and AAA with others in the system… so that’s another reason I think a trade is possible.

But for guys who remain, the Braves have effectively put them all on notice:  there will be no social promotions here… if you want a job in the majors, you’re gonna have to earn it… after all, they just spent $20 million in delivering that message to these guys.

Nonetheless, with 1 year deals for Colon and Dickey (though Dickey has an option for 2018), the path to the majors is not blocked at all for any of those 10 pitchers.

Don’t Look Now, But…

At the same time, another wave is coming:  Max Fried, Patrick Weigel, and Max Povse could be knocking on the door by 2018.  Kolby Allard and Mike Soroka won’t be very far behind them.  And after that is the big draft class from this year.

So there’s literally wave after wave of pitching coming… if their development gets a chance to finish.  That’s the idea here.

The best case scenario might be that 1 or 2 guys step up in AAA and make Colon or Dickey expendable via trade around mid-season.  But if not, that’s still okay.

It will also be interesting to see where the Braves are in the standings by then.  But the goal is to stabilize the rotation by having guys that will provide a lot of innings, keep the team competitively in ball games, and give the offense a chance to win.

Next: Walden Coming Back to the Pond

And everybody’s already looking forward to a Bartolo Bobblehead night.