Atlanta Braves closer options

A.J. Minter

A.J.Minter’s been seen at the next Craig Kimbrel since being drafted. No one can live up to that hype. He is however capable of becoming a lights out closer.

Brooks Baseball says his four seam fastball “is thrown at a speed that’s borderline unfair.”  As a result it gets more swing and miss at bats than most. Like Biddle, he throws his slider “extremely hard” which causes a lot of swings and misses.

Minter’s hasn’t quite harnessed that 96-97 mph heater or the 92 mph slider well enough to be effective in the ninth. Once he gains control of those two he’ll be extremely hard to hit and a full-time closer.

External Options

Everyone’s talking trades of course and there are a few good options available. There are also lots of teams in need of back of the bullpen help making the price for the kind of are the Braves would want high.

The most obvious names are Kelvin Herrera , Alex Colome and Raisel Iglesias, there are others but I’ll start with these three.

The Kansas City connection

Kelvin Herrera is having a career year for the Royals who don’t really need a closer.

This is his second full year as a closer and also his walk year. While last year’s numbers weren’t particularly flattering he did manage 26 saves but also blew five.

Herrera relies on a 97 mph fastball 66% of the time, an 89 mph change 20 % of the time and an 83 mph slider 15% of the time. (Yes I know that’s 101%, the numbers are rounded off.)

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves 2012 Prospect Review: Joey Terdoslavich
• Braves News: Braves sign Fuentes, Andruw’s HOF candidacy, more
• The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
• Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
• Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves

In his 15 2/3 innings this season he’s posted a 1.15 ERA, 2.19 FIP, 2.94 Sierra and 0.77 WHIP. He struck out 14 of the 59 batters he faced for a 23.5% K rate and an average of 8.04 per nine IP.  Herrera hasn’t walked a batter this season.

Herrera would be a rental as he’ll certainly test free agency this fall. The remainder of his contract is worth about $3m today which isn’t all that expensive.

In theory the Royals would like to trade Mike Moustakas as well so there’s a potential salary dump and trade situation in Kansas City. Moose is on a cheap but incentivized contract that has a mutual option that he’ll clearly turn down.

The Royals would like to move both players to restock their system. They can’t offer Moustakas a QO and offering Herrera a QO isn’t likely.  What they would want in return is anyone’s guess but a good but not top 15 starter and another player should do it. Maybe Tucker Davidson and Derian Cruz would work.