If the rumors are correct and the Atlanta Braves are in on other relievers. We’ve seen them sign or acquire relievers they can store in the minors to add depth; there’s no question that those pitchers and others will see action in Atlanta.
Starting pitchers have to pitch to gain the endurance to throw a lot of innings. Current projections – some very optimistic – have Atlanta Braves starters throwing 952 innings:
- Fried at 170 innings
- Morton at 169
- Soroka, Smyly, and Anderson at 140,
- Wright optimistically at 120,
- Wilson at 50, and
- Ynoa at 23
In total, that’s about 500 short of a full season.
Closers by the number, relievers by the score
MLBTR’s free-agent tracker lists 48 relievers still on the market, 39 righties and eight lefties; that number may change by the time this post appears. Since we appear lefty heavy, I focused only on righties.
Former closers Alex Colome, Ken Giles, Trevor Rosenthal, Mark Melancon, and Shane Greene are still looking for a home.
The club let Melancon and Greene walk after last season, and I don’t like either of them in the closer role. Colome is essentially a more expensive version of Greene, so despite using his name in my last post as one of many, I’ll pass on him as well.
The list of middle-inning relievers contains a bunch of former starters looking for a shot, a few like David Robertson, looking for a comeback year after losing two seasons through injury, and a group of older pitchers that are much of a muchness.
I found one that offers a pedigree, who’s an upgrade over existing options and might not cost an arm and a leg: Brandon Workman.
Doing the work
Despite his hiccup after joining a Phillies pen that was mostly a joke in 2020, Brandon Workman has quietly become one of the game’s better middle relievers.
As chairman of the closer-by-committee pen for a Red Sox team that fell off its 2018 pedestal quickly, Workman recorded threw 71-1/3 innings, with a 1.88 ERA, 2.46 FIP, struck out 104, walked 45, and allowed one home run – that’s one, as in less than two – for a 0.13 HR/9 rate.
His stinginess with the long-ball came from a combination of a 51.1% groundball rate and a 28.6% fly-ball rate. In 2019, lefties batted .132/.277/.189/.466. and managed only a .216 wOBA. Righties weren’t that good, batting a puny .116/.258/.147/.406 and posting a .201 wOBA.
Although he recorded the most saves for the Sox in 2019, he’s best used as a setup man, where his GB rate held batters to a .147/.306/.205/.511 line and a .240 wOBA. The Red Sox gave him a $3.2M contract after 2019 and traded him to the falling apart Phillies late in the shortened 2020 season.