Braves prospects: Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson both have work to do

A 2019 season to forget

If you remember, Wright made the Opening Day rotation and earned a start in the third game of the season, a wet and chilly night in Philadelphia in which he walked five batters and was out after just 4.1 innings of work.

He only survived two more starts before a demotion to Triple-A Gwinnett (he later made three relief appearances in September, pitching rather well).

Wilson got the Game 2 start against the Phillies, though he was no better than Wright, lasting only 3.1 innings after allowing four runs, four walks, and a homer.

He made a strong 9th-inning appearance in late-April versus the Rockies, before being bounced back-and-forth throughout June and July — he made three starts (14.1 IP) and allowed 10 runs in that span — before getting one last big league appearance in early September, an outing in which he allowed two runs before getting four outs.

Altogether, the two righties certainly didn’t perform quite as expected, as both wound up with some gaudy ERAs at the major league level in 2019:

• Wright: 7 games, 8.69 ERA, 8.2 K/9, 5.9 BB/9
• Wilson: 6 games, 7.20 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 4.5 BB/9

Unfortunately, that’s the name of the game with pitching prospects. They very rarely get it right when you’re expecting them to, hence the need for so many.

What was even more concerning, though, was the fact that neither was very consistent in the minors.

The new baseball in Triple-A, along with some early-season mechanical issues perhaps played a hand in some of it. But Wright had a horrible start in Gwinnett in 2019, allowing 14 runs in his first 10.2 innings pitched (3 starts) and never striking out more than six batters until his 10th start.

The issues with Wilson were perhaps more expected. I wrote about his struggles earlier in the 2019 season (granted, after just three starts), but it appeared “The Bulldog” was bringing too much Bulldog to the mound this past season, perhaps attacking the zone too much.

Wilson’s minor league performance fell right in line with his usual play: a solid amount of strikeouts and hardly any walks. But at the major league level, Wilson seemed to lean on his fastball too much, almost shying away from any of his secondary offerings at the first sight of trouble.

Things certainly weren’t going either pitcher’s way and it’s fair to say both guys took an unfortunate step back; but we already knew that, right?