Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on RHP Armando Rivero

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.

Next: Braves Minor League Database

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.