If you hate seeing relief pitchers walk batters, then you might like this list… which is also why the Atlanta Braves might be interested as well.
On the surface, walks really don’t seem to have been a problem for the Atlanta Braves bullpen. Overall, their walk rate is right at 3.0 per 9 innings — 6th-best in baseball.
Trouble is, though… some pitchers are better than others in this regard.
Dylan Lee has actually put himself among the best in the sport with a strikeout rate of 13.94 per 9 innings and no walks in the past 30 days. No wonder he’s getting higher-profile appearances now.
Will Smith? His K-rate over the same period is almost the same (12.86), but his walk rate — 1 per inning — is not up to par.
Ditto for Darren O’Day (5 walks per 9 in the last month). Even Jackson Stephens (3.86) and Kenley Jansen (3.18) are above the team average during that time.
It’s clear that the Braves front office values strike-throwers. That’s been a theme for a while, but no more obviously so than when reviewing the stats of the top draftees this month: video-game-like results were seen across the board.
Sure, that’s from high school kids facing over-matched talent, but they are still throwing the ball in the strike zone a lot.
That leads us to today’s list… and you might watch to see if the Braves do pick up one of these guys over the next 72 hours or so.
The original list had 6 names on it. That was reduced by one, though, since the Dodgers snapped up old friend Chris Martin before I could get this on the virtual paper.
Source: The Cubs are receiving Zach McKinstry in the Chris Martin trade with the Dodgers.
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) July 30, 2022
So let’s now take a look at (the remaining?) 5 possible non-walking relief targets for Atlanta.