According to Jim Bowden of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Atlanta Braves named Touki Toussaint starter for Monday’s game with the Red Sox.
The announcement that Touki Toussaint starts Monday fits the report by Gabriel Burns of the AJC that the Atlanta Braves are returning to the six-man rotation plan abandoned after Kolby Allard’s dismal second outing.
While managers Brian Snitker didn’t come out and say the words, the six-man rotation is a fait accompli.
"“Probably, yeah, with the lack of day off and all that,” Snitker said of using an extra starter. “We’ll have some guys we can do that with."
Burns posited Touki and Max Fried would split duties to limit innings and for the young starters but Fried’s name wasn’t on the list of callups that arrived Saturday. That leaves the door open for Bryse Wilson’s second start or Kyle Wright’s major debut as the month progresses.
Six-man rotation creep
The six-man rotation slowly emerged as a genuine option over the last season. The most publicized six-man rotation announcement came for the Angels after they signed Shohei Ohtani who made two-way play a condition of signing.
Other teams tinkered with it but most continued to use the five-man model; excluding the Rays who had four starters and days. Bullpen days evolved into the ‘opener’ plan and that became a much talked about fad when they got down to two starters.
Teams see the six-man rotation as an answer because there’s not enough good pitching to go around and the pitchers that are available are expensive. This forces them to call up pitchers unable to go 200 innings a year to fill the void. Protecting those young arms means more days off, thus the six-man rotation gathers momentum.
The Braves know Sean Newcomb pitches more effectively on five days rest and tried to find extra days for him all year. When it became clear meaningful September baseball would happen the six-man rotation became a permanent answer.
The Atlanta Braves nominated Allard and Fried to fill those innings but Allard got shelled his second time out and Fried suffered a shoulder strain, opening the door for Toussaint’s debut.
Toussaint’s second
Touki Toussaint impressed in his first start on August 13, throwing six innings while allowing only two hits and one run and striking out four – albeit against the Marlins. The Braves returned him to Gwinnett the next day where the young righty continued to impress.
Over his next three starts including two shutouts, Toussaint threw 19 innings, allowed 11 hits, two runs (one earned), struck out 24 and walked five. He pitches Monday on five full days of rest.
The rotation from Monday forward now appears setup like this.
- Sean Newcomb – 145 IP
- Mike Foltynewicz – 151 IP
- Kevin Gausman – 162 IP
- Julio Teheran – 146 1/3 IP before Sunday’s game
- Touki Toussaint – 142 1/3 IP ( 85 AA, 50 1/3 AAA 6 MLB)
- Anibal Sanchez – 108 2/3 IP
Available to start if needed as of today are:
- Bryse Wilson – 130 1/3 IP (26 2/3 A+, 77 AA, 13 AAA. 5 MLB)
- Kyle Wright – 138 IP (109 1/3 AA, 28 2/3 AAA)
That’s a wrap
I’ve been a Toussaint supporter since I saw him drop that hammer on a couple of pretty good hitters. Since then his location’s improved, although he can get wild and walk a few more than I’d like (one is more than I’d like of course, so there’s that).
When and if Wilson, Wright, and potentially Fried get starts depends on how soon the division gets settled, injuries and of course bad performances. For now, Toussaint is the sixth man.