Atlanta Braves: how 15 years of veteran 5th starters have fared

Emergency Successes

Ervin Santana

• ACQUIRED:  March 12, 2014
• AGE:  31

“Smell Baseball”.  Ervin Santana was signed by the Braves because the Braves were suddenly desperate for starting pitching in the wake of the aforementioned injuries to Medlen and Beachy.

Santana was still lingering on the market due to his price and the weight of a Qualifying Offer.  By the reckoning of Wikipedia, Atlanta still effectively stole him from the Blue Jays, who apparently had a verbal agreement with him that he obviously didn’t really want to sign.

Then again, at $14.1 million… one wonders who stole what?

Santana filled his role via 196 innings in 31 starts, though with a 3.95 ERA.  In truth, the Braves couldn’t complain:  that was in line with his career mark of 4.09 and it helped get the team through a difficult season (and if you believe in FIP… his was a near-career-best 3.39).

Atlanta nonetheless declined the chance to re-sign Santana and he accepted a multi-year offer from the Twins, a pact that ended after 2018 (while being hurt for almost all of that last season) after strong years in 2016-17.

Of note:  while I won’t devote an entire section to Gavin Floyd, he was another starter brought in for this tumultuous/tortuous 2014 season, though he signed during the prior December and thus isn’t really in the same category of ‘extra’ starters.

Floyd was doing well — very well in fact (2.65 ERA) until his over-wired arm popped the Olacranon off the rest of his elbow… *sigh*… all part of a 79-83 season.

Jorge Sosa

• ACQUIRED:  March 31, 2005.
• AGE:  nearly 28

Lightning in a bottle:  Jorge Sosa was a bit different from most of these pitchers, being obtained in trade that sent Nick Green to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Sosa had a heckuva 2005 season.  In 20 starts (44 game appearances), he threw 134 innings and had a 13-3 record with a remarkable 2.55 ERA… roughly half of his career ERA to that point (his 4th season) and exceeding all of his prior pitching Wins.

Of all the late-arriving pitchers in this group, his acquisition probably had the best impact on the Atlanta Braves of anyone.

Alas, as the Braves re-signed him that next offseason for $2.2m to see if 2005 was ‘real’… he reverted to prior form.

After 118 innings and a 5.42 ERA in 2006, Sosa was released, never throwing for anything under 4.40 in any season afterwards.

ODD TRIVIA:  confounding his pitching struggles, that year, Sosa was equally bizarre with the bat:   3 for 24… all hits were solo homers. 11K, 2BB.  Just about as close to a ‘3 true outcome’ guy as a pitcher may ever be.

He tied for 2nd in the majors for pitcher homers that season, and the stat line produced another oddity:  .125 hitting average and .000 BABIP… since homers don’t count!