Atlanta Braves add arms and some bench help for September run

It’s September 1st and the 40-man roster call-up period is upon us.  The first wave has been announced and includes a mild surprise.

The Atlanta Braves have purchased the contract of right-hander Kyle Wright – their first round pick from 2017 – to join the team at SunTrust Park this evening.

The bad news is that closer Arodys Vizcaino has apparently suffered a setback in his rehabilitation efforts and his season is now done with a transfer to the 60-day disabled list.

Here’s the full list of players joining the team today – which doesn’t rule out further moves later on:

The Bats

• C Rene Rivera – if you hadn’t noticed, the Braves picked Rivera up via a waiver deal with the Angels earlier this week.  He will get a chance to play whenever Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki both need a day…. which could be at any moment.
• OF Michael Reed.  We’ve had a couple of prior reported sightings of Reed.  He has made 6 plate appearances, garnering 2 hits in the process along with 2 strikeouts (hey – in his role, swinging the bat is the task). In 193 AAA AB’s, he’s hit a robust .363 with 7 dingers.
• OF Lane Adams.  We know Lane from 2017 and the early days of this season.  He’s back now after hitting .235 in AAA, though his greatest assets are speed and defense.

The Arms

• RHP Touki Toussaint.  Definitely want to see him pitch some more.  He had a successful outing in early August and posted a 1.43 ERA in 50 AAA innings with a K/BB ratio of around 3.5 and a 1.01 WHIP.  This was even better than his Mississippi numbers (2.93).  Dany Gilbert Kiti Toussaint has thrown 136 minor league innings in 2018.
• RHP Shane Carle.  Returning from the disabled list, Carle was providing valuable support to the bullpen (3.15 ERA) until being set down after the first week of August (after an unusual 4 walk, 4 run outing).
• Bryse Wilson.  He earned this recall after a 5 inning shutdown of the Pirates on the 20th against just 3 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5.  At Gwinnett, he hardly got started – 22 innings with a 5.32, but he’s pitched at 4 levels this season – starting at High-A Florida (0.34 ERA).  He has a total of 125.2 innings in the minors with a 3.44 ERA.

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Finally, there’s Wright, who’s first appearance on the field will mark his major league debut.  The 22-year-old RHP Vandy product from Huntsville, AL threw 109 innings in AA before being promoted to AAA recently to get another 28.2 innings.

Like Toussaint, Wright’s numbers actually got better with the promotion:  3.70 ERA to 2.51.  This includes his control – striking out batters at a slightly higher rate, but walking fewer.

Additional his WHIP dropped significantly from 1.34 to 0.80 while moving up a level.

It isn’t clear how most of these pitchers – all starters, save for Carle – will be used (if at all – it’s possible they could be done for the year because of innings).  That said, promoting players simply as a reward for fine work doesn’t make the best business sense since their ‘arbitration clock’ begins (or resumes for most of them) with each of these call-ups.

That as an aside, it’s good to see these guys back – and good to see Wright for the first time.

Kevin Gausman toes the rubber tonight against the Bucs… game time is 7:10pm.