‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ is a statement about our world that is attributed to Aristotle. General Managers hate vacuums as well – when they involve their 40-man roster.
Fred just let us know last evening about the latest Atlanta Braves‘ roster updates. Most of the time, the 40-man roster is fairly sacred: General Managers do not make changes unless changes are necessary as part of doing baseball’s business.
Yet on Wednesday, two vacancies were created. Let’s explore some of the possible options that could be in play for the Braves within the next week – or less.
The Need
The implication here is that change is afoot. The questions that should immediately arise are (1) why? and (2) how?
As an immediate aside, I should note my own belief that this move to reduce the 40-man roster to 38 has nothing whatsoever to do with upcoming off-season decisions about Rule 5 draft player protection. That will be dealt with in November.
These changes yesterday are thus entirely about the stretch run coming up.
You might also think “well, come September, rosters expand anyway”. Yes, but not exactly: only the active roster (normally at 25) is allowed to expand… and only to include players on the 40-man list.
So if the Braves are going to get some extra help for this insane schedule, they will need to have additional players available that can help at the major league level between now and September 1st… and it doesn’t help to wait.
That, in a nutshell, is why I anticipate that 2 more players will soon be added to fill these 40-man slots. So I’d better type faster.
Before The Who – and more about the Why
No, this sub-title isn’t a reference to the famous British band – but there was news today about a Canadian member of the Braves’ band of renown: Mike Soroka:
That remains highly doubtful. He still hasn't been cleared to begin throwing https://t.co/tGTk8qdlyp
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) August 8, 2018
This news – which would be well known to the Braves already, of course – is part of the reason that the Braves will need fresh players: their pitching options are running low.
While they’ve been running a shuttle service between Atlanta and Russellville over the past 4 months, the options are running low.
The Braves already have used 28 different pitchers in all roles this year. This doesn’t count either Adam McCreery or Wes Parsons, who have been available for emergency duty over the past few days, but haven’t yet pitched in the majors.
Matt Wisler and Lucas Sims are gone to the Reds, so they cannot be called upon any longer. A host of others have more-or-less showed that they haven’t been up to the task. In short, outside help is still needed.