Atlanta Braves roster report: Shane Greene to re-sign with Braves

Mutual needs resolved at one time?  The Atlanta Braves need bullpen help and former Brave Shane Greene needs a job.

Reports this afternoon are that the Atlanta Braves and relief pitcher Shane Greene are now in agreement on a 1-year contract that will bring the 32-year-old right-hander back to action in a tomahawk jersey.

This sounds almost identical to the kind of deal signed by Tyler Flowers this week.  It balances two factors in play:

• The Braves don’t have much to spend
• Greene wasn’t making any money so far this season

It’s a fair question to ask why Greene was still kicking around his house here in May.  The short answer appears to be that he and his agent thought they were in line for a relatively lucrative multi-year deal this past off-season… yet when the music stopped, he was still standing up while all the chairs around him were taken.

The deeper answer, of course, is that not even one of the 30 major league clubs were willing to buy into his stats.

Sure, his actual ERA has been under 3.00 for 3 of the past 4 seasons, but there are reasons to believe that the guy has been gifted with quite a bit of luck along the way.

So which metric do you prefer here?  None of these since 2017 are particularly good:

• Expected ERA (values start in 2017):  4.18, 4.03, 4.03, 3.53
• Fielding Independent Pitching:  3.84, 4.61, 3.79, 3.81
• Expected FIP:  4.24, 4.05, 3.97, 4.75
• Batters walked per 9 innings:  4.52, 2.70, 2.44, 2.93
• Strikeout rate:  dipped strongly in 2020 to 6.83 from rates previously in the 9’s)
• Velocity:  peaked at 95.9  on average in 2017… down to 93.4 in 2020.
• Swing rates:  down sharply in 2020
• Contact rates:  up in 2020, with swing-and-miss near a career low.

Clearly, teams weren’t looking solely at his ERA’s of 2.30 and 2.60 since 2019 (and he was quite bad at times when he first arrived in Atlanta).  If those numbers were “genuine”, he would get the kind of contract he was evidently seeking.

So why do the Atlanta Braves want him back?

Three reasons:

• Despite nit-picking the stats, Greene would still be a better option than probably 3 or 4 of the relievers that Brian Snitker has had available to him this Spring.
• The Braves relief ERA was trending in the wrong direction, currently 9th-worst in baseball.
• The price finally got to a point where the Braves were willing to go.

There’s also the point where Atlanta was struggling with the results seen by some of the guys that they’d expected better things from:

• Nate Jones was designated for assignment this week
• Carl Edwards Jr. finally got to the majors… any promptly gave up a run while recording just one out.
• Edgar Santana just arrived… and may have trouble sticking around through the end of the month.

There’s now the hope that between Greene, Chris Martin (returning this week??), and Sean Newcomb (if he’s back into form), the Braves can have 3 guys to replace some arms that have been inconsistent.

When does Greene arrive?

It could be soon.  He will have to clear COVID protocols, but that could be more easily done if vaccinated.

After that, there will likely be a stint at Gwinnett to get back into competitive shape, a stay that could be shortened if he’s continued to work out regularly at home.

Still, competitive action is a lot different than a backyard hanging tire — or any other throwing aid, so the best guess here is that it will be around 2 full weeks before we see Greene.

Clearly, the Braves are trying to address their bullpen issues… and while you can call this a “help” rather than a full solution, the “full solution” option simply isn’t really available right now — to any MLB team.

Here’s hoping it brings in a Shane Greene that wants to back up those ERA numbers for real this time.