Atlanta Braves re-re-sign Peter Moylan

It’s done:  the Braves are bringing Peter Moylan back once again.

Third time’s a charm?  Reports from Jerry Crasnick of ESPN are that the Atlanta Braves have indeed reached an agreement with Peter Moylan.

Terms of the deal have yet to be announced, though something in the immediate neighborhood of $1 million is probably about right.

(Buster Olney will announce this news in another hour or so as if nobody had heard it before)

UPDATE:  Dave O’Brien is not taking this for granted that it’s a major league deal… MLBTR assumed so, and I agree, particularly since the Royals also wanted him back, but it turns out that there is a roster crunch issue.

The physical is normally routine, but with his age and 2 Tommy John stints in his history, the ‘routine’ is not to taken too lightly.  His career – major and minors – includes 601 game appearances in 12 seasons (while missing most of 2011 and all of 2014).

ROSTER STUFF (WITH A CORRECTION):  Grant Dayton is on the 60-day DL, but there are still 40 names that count on the 40-man roster.  If this is a major league deal, then someone will have to be bumped.

Still, he’s been throwing well lately – so long as he only faces right-handed batters.

Watch the Splits

In 2017, his L/R split was .308 for lefty hitters; .161 for right-handers.  In 2016, that split was .327/.210.  Apparently his side-winder delivery gives fits to RHB, but a good long look to LHB.

What’s more, he tends to walk lefty hitters much more often:  15%+ vs. 5% in 2016; 18%(!) vs. 8% in 2017.  So clearly, his stints need to be tailored for facing the tough right-handed batters if at all possible.

Last season, Kansas City didn’t seem to worry about that too much:  in 59.1 innings, he faced 243 batters – 50 of them left-handers.  That’s just over 4 batters per inning (consistent with his 1.10 WHIP.  So he is used to going a full inning at a time and not just being a situational ROOGY (Right-handed One Out GuY).

Assuming he’s still in the form from a year ago, the Braves could choose either to use him in tough spots or as a 7th inning option with A.J. Minter and Arodys Vizcaino backing him for the 8th and 9th (in some order).

Either way, it’s good to have him back.

IN OTHER NEWS THIS MORNING

Jason Motte pitched decently for the Braves in 2017 (3.54 ERA in 46 games, 40.2 innings).  You can probably figure that Moylan will effectively be his replacement in the bullpen, though for the record, he didn’t really have a L/R split … batter on both sides of the plate hit close to .200 off of him last year.

Next: Braves looking to add some OF power?

Welcome home, Pete!