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Braves could run back Reynaldo Lopez blueprint with this free agent arm

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

House That Hank Built

Atlanta Braves v San Diego Padres / Orlando Ramirez/GettyImages

The Atlanta Braves are one of a handful of teams that have actively been experimenting with signing relievers and converting them into starters. They shifted Grant Holmes into being a starter and, perhaps most famously, they signed Reynaldo Lopez and moved him into the rotation. Other examples with varying degrees of success around the league include Jordan Hicks, Clay Holmes, Ronel Blanco, Michael King, and Seth Lugo.

It is a tricky blueprint to follow. You have to find relievers that have the attributes you want (miss parts, varied arsenal, no egregious platoon splits) who also have deliveries that won't make their arms explode once given a greater workload. Hell, the Lopez experiment is anything but a sure thing given his own recent injury issues that could force him back into a relief role.

However, there are some potential candidates this offseason if Atlanta decided they wanted to try the conversion again. One in particular, Luke Weaver, is particularly intriguing.

Braves should at least look into targeting Luke Weaver and convert him to the rotation

Weaver is far from the only potential option for this plan, but he might be the best combination of expected cost, upside, and fitting the profile needed for success. There are teams that seem to be very interested in moving Ryan Helsey into the rotation, but he is probably not going to be cheap and he has a history of comments about the Braves and The Chop that probably makes Helsey a non-starter. Brad Keller is another option and he is from Georgia at least, but he completely lacks extension and relies on power stuff that may play down in longer stints when he can't throw max effort all the time.

In Weaver, you get a guy that who consistently misses bats, gets hitters to chase, and has a four pitch mix that would fit as a rotation arm (four-seam fastball, changeup, cutter, slider). His extension does leave something to be desired and he doesn't get many ground balls, but those could be remedied with changes to his pitch usage and location and homers have not really been much of a problem the last couple of years at least.

Arguably most importantly, Weaver shouldn't be all that expensive. The 32 year-old righty has been predicted by most experts to get a two or three year deal in the $10 million AAV range. You just can't find decent starters at that price and it would be a steal for the Braves if they pulled it off. The thing about this move would be that if Weaver struggles in the rotation and as their rotation continues to get healthier, they can shift Weaver back into a high leverage relief role which would awfully helpful given the state of their current bullpen.

Again, there are pitfalls to this plan and the track record of converting relievers into starters is not overly convincing (Hicks hasn't been good, Blanco blew out his elbow, etc.). However, that may not stop the Braves from at least kicking the tires on Weaver as a starter and it might not be the worst idea.

Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.