3 Atlanta Braves rookie of the year candidates for 2020
By Clint Manry
#2. RP, Jeremy Walker
ML Experience: 9.1 innings pitched, 1.93 ERA
Like Pache above, Walker would be an interesting case for 2020 NL RoY. Although, unlike Pache, Walker has a much greater chance of getting hefty big league playing time this upcoming season, though he isn’t usually mentioned amongst the other Braves top-tier pitching prospects.
A 5th round pick by the Braves in 2016, Walker has done nothing but flourish in the system, having never reached an ERA above 3.97 in his now four seasons as a pro.
Now 24-years-old, Walker started in the Braves system as a reliever for Rookie-Advanced Danville in 2016, though thanks to his advanced pitch mix and repertoire he was moved to the starting rotation midway through the season.
The 6’5″ righty would remain a low to mid-90s starter throughout the 2017 and 2018 seasons as he started and progressed through full-season ball, but ever since the start of his 2019 season in Double-A Mississippi, Walker has been solely a reliever. And a good one at that.
This past season, Walker pitched 81.1 innings for Mississippi and Gwinnett, flashing strong K and BB rates of 9.1 K/9 and 1.2 BB/9 across both levels, plus a stingy 2.88 ERA and only 3 home runs allowed.
The strong performance in Double and Triple-A earned him a major league call-up in late July, where Walker took the place of a struggling Wes Parsons (Shane Carle was also DFA’d to clear space).
During his 9.1 innings of major league exposure in 2019, Walker at first struggled with walks but eventually settled down for a decent rate of 3.86 BB/9 with 5.79 K/9 and an impressive 1.93 ERA.
The problem with Walker’s RoY candidacy is that relief pitchers very rarely enter the pool of potential winners.
Since 2010 (that’s 18 total RoY awards between both leagues), five starting pitchers have won the award and two relievers (Kimbrel in ’11 and Neftali Feliz in ’10). It’s not impossible for a relief pitcher to win it, but extremely difficult.
Those two cases featured both Kimbrel and Felix converting at least 40 saves (Kimbrel struck out 14.8 batters per nine that season!) during their rookie seasons, not to mention both of them were primary closers for their respective teams.
It’s apparent, for Walker to even have a chance at winning a RoY award, he’s going to have to be one of the Braves go-to guys out of the bullpen, which may be unlikely considering the guys currently ahead of him: Mark Melancon, Chris Martin, Shane Greene, maybe even Luke Jackson and Jacob Webb.
Also, the Braves just signed veteran reliever Darren O’Day, on Friday, to a one-year deal with a club option for 2021.
However, you never know what could happen. Walker could have a dominant Spring Training and open the 2020 season as a dependent high-leverage reliever. If that ends up being the case, than anything is possible.
2020 Steamer projections: 35 appearances, 35 innings, 4.33 ERA, 0.1 WAR
2020 BR projections: 30 innings, 4.20 ERA