In a Spring Training loss to the Miami Marlins on Sunday, the Atlanta Braves got another strong performance from Julio Teheran.
We are less than three weeks away from the start of the regular season and the Atlanta Braves still have a lot of big decisions to make.
One of the biggest decisions to make is what to do with outfielder Adam Duvall. If they cut him before Opening Day then they’ll owe him just around $735,000 of the $2.875 million he would make if he made the Opening Day roster.
The Atlanta Braves could use that $2 million and possibly go find a better fourth outfielder still on the market, or they could use those funds to … I don’t know … maybe get Craig Kimbrel or Dallas Keuchel (OK, I’ll quit bringing it up).
Another huge decision will come in the pitching staff, most notably in the starting rotation. With all of the injuries, there could be up to three spots open to start the season.
Right now the only sure things in the rotation are Sean Newcomb, Kevin Gausman, and Julio Teheran. And Gausman is a little behind schedule and didn’t look great in his first Spring Training appearance.
That opens the door for a lot of the Braves talented young pitchers, so they’ll have to decide not only who is ready to become a permanent fixture in the rotation all season long, but who can fill in to begin the season.
While the wins and losses of Spring Training are meaningless, the results for the player shouldn’t be considered meaningless. How these players perform the next couple of weeks will answer a lot of these questions.