Atlanta Braves Acquire Hard-throwing Lefty Reliever Richard Lovelady

Yesterday, rhe Atlanta Braves added another power reliever, acquiring lefty Rickard Lovelady from the Royals for cash. The team announced the move today.

The Royals Lovelady out of Kennesaw State University in the tenth round of the 2016 Rule 4 Amateur draft, signing him for a $100K bonus.

He appeared in 24 games in Rookie Ball, started the 2017 season in High-A, and pitched to a 1.08 ERA in 33 1/3 innings of relief, striking out 41 of 123 batters faced (33.3%), walking four (3.2%) and recording seven saves in 21 appearances before the Royals promoted him to AA at the end of June.

Lovelady appeared in 21 games for the AA NW Arkansas Naturals and found the competition tougher, but only a little. In his 33 1/3 innings of work for the Naturals, he pitched to a 2.16 ERA, striking out 36 of 117 batters faced (26.3%), walking 13, and recording three saves.

Moving on up

He entered the 2018 season with AAA Omaha ranked 28th among Royals’ prospects by Baseball America (subscription required), whose description suggested his rapid progress wasn’t a fluke.

Lovelady possesses electric stuff, with a dominating plus fastball from 93-97 mph (thrown) with deception . . . a hard tailing action with sink. He locates it well both arm-side and glove-side . . .Because of the dominance of his fastball, Lovelady seldom needed to use his offspeed stuff, but (possesses) an average or better slider at 88 mph. . . Lovelady is locked in and focused on the mound. He profiles as a setup man and not strictly as a left-on-left reliever (who may join) Royals bullpen in 2018. . .

He didn’t get to Kansas City in 2018, but he did continue to impress, throwing 73 innings over 46 games, striking out 71, walking 21, and recording nine saves while posting a 2.47 ERA,

The 2019 season saw him start in AAA, but after two appearances, he made his Major League Lovelady pitched better than his numbers indicate for Kansas City but ran out of gas in August and went back to Omaha.

Covid Year and UCL Surgery

Lovelady was at the Royals’ backup training camp in 2020 and made one appearance in the Majors. He started 2021 in AAA, earning a call-up to Kansas City in June.

He appeared in 20 games for KC, throwing 20 2/3 innings, striking out 23, and walking six while pitching to a 3.48 ERA and 1.065 WHIP before tearing his UCL in September. He returned to the minors a year later, throwing four scoreless innings and striking out nine of 15 batters faced. The video below is from an appearance in August 2021.

Lovelady was in Major League camp this spring, throwing eight shutout innings in eight games and striking out 10 of 33 batters faced, but the Royals optioned him to AAA last Saturday.

Why Trade a Power Arm?

Lovelady was unhappy about being sent to AAA and tweeted about it. He quickly deleted the tweet, but the Royals had other plans for their bullpen and a disappointed pitcher on their hands.

The Royals could have ignored the player’s recanted Tweet and kept him, but I believe they still liked him and understood why he felt as he did. Their team is rebuilding; Lovelady isn’t old – he turns 28 in July – but likely misses the Royals’ next window to win.

Trading him to a contending team for cash gives Lovelady a new start and the opportunity to play his way onto a Major League Roster.