MLB: Spring Training-St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves /
The Atlanta Braves drafted Armando Rivero in the Rule 5 draft from the Chicago Cubs system. What chance does he have to make the roster?
Who Is He?
The Atlanta Braves have utilized the Rule 5 draft to attempt to strengthen their bullpen in seasons past. While last year’s selection, Evan Rutckyj, did not work out with the team, they went after another relief option in December’s major league portion of the Rule 5, selecting Rivero
Rivero was signed by the Chicago Cubs out of Cuba and made his pro debut in 2013 after pitching four seasons as a reliever with Cuba’s Serie Nacional.
He pitched across three levels in 2013, debuting in the Midwest League with Kane County before spending about a week with the Cubs’ high-A affiliate in the Florida State League. He finished the year pitching for the Cubs’ AA affiliate in the Southern League.
In all, he made 20 appearances in 2013, throwing 30 1/3 innings, with a 4.15 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, and a 12/45 BB/K ratio. He gave up some hard contact, but for a guy who hadn’t thrown a competitive pitch since 2010, it was a solid showing.
The Cubs sent him to the Arizona Fall League that season, and he had struggle with his command in that environment, making 11 appearances and throwing 11 innings, walking 5 and striking out 9.
In 2014, the Cubs started him with AA Tennesee, and he was dominant, earning a mid-season promotion to AAA Iowa. His combined numbers on the season were a 2.22 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 28/100 BB/K ratio over 65 innings total over 49 appearances.
He spent all of 2015 and 2016 in Iowa, never getting a call to the major leagues in spite of very solid numbers in the PCL. In 2015, he made 48 appearances, throwing 57 innings, with a 3.16 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and a 32/53 BB/K ratio.
This past season, Rivero turned a lot of heads when he posted a 2.13 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and a 35/105 BB/K over 67 2/3 innings from 43 appearances.
Rivero is listed at 6’4 and 190 pounds. He’s certainly every bit of the 6’4 and 190 might even be generous in size.
Rivero’s long arms and long legs lead to a delivery that has a lot of parts moving in the batter’s eye, but it is a fluid, athletic delivery, and it is notable that in the times I saw him off the mound, Rivero is extremely athletic in his ability to cover first and play defense.
Rivero starts from the stretch. He holds the ball in his open hand and has his glove hand dangling as he takes the sign.
From there, he works quickly, bringing his knee up to waist height before pushing forward hard with his lead leg. His long limbs allow him a big reach toward the plate, appearing even closer for the hitter.
His arm action is what would be incredibly difficult for hitters to pick up. He throws from a low 3/4 slot that he disguises by holding his hips tight until his lead foot hits the dirt, when he explodes toward the plate.
Rivero can short step going toward the plate, and when he does, he doesn’t get full rotation of his hips and therefore, leaves his arm back, hanging pitches or leaving them arm side.
Pitches
Rivero’s primary calling card pitch has always been his fastball. He works low in the zone with the pitch, sitting at 94-97, touching triple digits multiple times in his career.
Rivero’s primary fastball has very little movement, especially from waist up, but the reach he gets toward the plate along with the deception in his delivery makes the pitch difficult to square low in the zone.
Rivero added a cut to his fastball in 2016, taking off a hair of velocity when he would throw the cut pitch, working more 90-92 with his cut fastball.
The cut fastball blends into his breaking pitch, a slider that is quite inconsistent for Rivero. In games that he was on with the pitch, hitters simply had no chance on the pitch, as it had a hard, sharp break late in the pitch’s life.
One notable thing in watching his games from 2015 to 2016 was that Rivero had nearly every pitch at his max velocity in 2015. It seemed every fastball was 96-97 and every slider was 84-85.
The games I saw in 2016, he did not sacrifice pitch movement by altering his velocity in games, especially in his slider, which I did see with the same hard break at 78 and 85 in the same game.
The cut fastball also gives him multiple looks in his fastball velocity, but he also took a hair off his fastball at times, going with a 92 MPH offering and then coming back in the same spot at 96, really making it hard on the hitter.
Next: Future outlook
Future Outlook
In watching Rivero’s arm action, he reminds me very strongly of current Braves reliever Mauricio Cabrera, in spite of being 29 in 2017, so he’s 5 1/2 years older than his bullpen mate.
Cabrera uses a change as his third offering while Rivero uses the cutter, but their arm slots and arm action have similar appearances, which is both good and bad.
I’ve probably been the guy most concerned with Cabrera’s long term future for the Braves due to his arm action, and his pro debut didn’t change that for me as he showed a lack of desire to really change speeds in his pitches.
Rivero has made progress on a maturity level to work with that varied velocity, and I do think he could be an asset to the Braves bullpen, especially with his ability to go multiple innings.
In watching him, I really felt like he could fill a similar role to that of Cristhian Martinez, who really didn’t have a tremendous pitch mix, but he was able to use pitch velocity variation to work as a long man well in Braves bullpens for a few seasons in the early 2010s.
