Is Foltynewicz the Atlanta Braves future ace or flame-throwing reliever
By John Le
Late Inning Cannon?
Counter-question: could Foltynewicz possibly be better off in the Atlanta Braves bullpen which has more open spots than trying to stick in the rotation? If he’s the ace, he won’t need to fight for a spot but what if the Braves go get someone else?
He’s been impressive in the rotation but there are still some that believe he could still be a reliever like in this old article. He has had experience from the ‘pen with both the Houston Astros and Braves. In his career, he’s made 92 starts as a starter but has made 20 relief appearances (23.1 innings).
As a reliever, he hasn’t had the best success, producing a 5.79 ERA even though he struck out 22 and only walked 8. However, that was “old” Foltynewicz; with his maturity in his performance, there’s the hope that he could continue that success as a reliever, this time maybe as a set-up guy or even closer.
The bullpen currently has a lot of guys each have their own moments of success and moments of slumps. Names that are expected to return for 2019 are A.J. Minter, Dan Winkler, Shane Carle, Jesse Biddle, Sam Freeman, Luke Jackson, Arodys Vizcaino, and Chad Sobotka.
The ones that will most likely not be coming back are the veterans that will be free agents after 2018: Brad Brach and Peter Moylan. Injured guys that are expected to return/debut in 2019 are Jacob Lindgren, Jose Ramirez, and Darren O’Day.
Some of the pitching prospects brought up this year also made relief appearances such as Fried, Wilson, Wright among others and it could be a repeat for them near year. However, it seems like their starts have had better production than their relief appearances so should they be used out of the bullpen? What about Foltynewicz?
Foltynewicz has not made a bullpen appearance for the Braves this season but in his 3 seasons with the club (2015-2017), he was a reliever in 4 games and threw 4.2 innings of relief (2.2 in ’15 and 2 in ’17) along with his other starts.
Do the math and his relief ERA for the Braves is a high 8.55, though according to Baseball-Reference, his relief ERA would be 7.87, that’s still high!
So whether or not Foltynewicz will head to the bullpen, the Braves will definitely need to go get more relief help this off-season. Maybe bring back one guy whose call-phrase was borrowed from one certain giant creature. *wink-wink*