The Atlanta Braves spent all of June without one of their best bullpen arms. While the Braves pen rose to the occasion, having the fourth-best bullpen ERA in June, they certainly were pushed to their limits with limited off days and doubleheaders. Thankfully, the club announced A.J. Minter's return from the Injured List on Monday, which not only gives the team another fresh arm, but a dominant one as well.
The #Braves today returned LHP A.J. Minter from his rehabilitation assignment and reinstated him from the injured list.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 1, 2024
To make room for Minter on the active roster, the club sent one of Saturday's heroes, Daysbel Hernandez, back to Gwinnett.
How the return of A.J. Minter improves the Braves bullpen
Before going down with a hip injury, Minter was having a strange season. Although his 2.95 ERA was more or less in line with what Braves fans expected, his strikeouts were slightly down and he had been punished by the long ball.
Prior to 2024, the worst HR/9 rate of Minter's career came in 2019, when he gave up 0.92 homers per nine innings. This season, that had ballooned to 2.11. Minter was especially getting hammered in the 9th inning, where his 13.50 ERA in five outings was significantly higher than his 2.37 ERA in any other inning. However, the lefty's struggles may have been exacerbated by his hip injury, as his May stats, including his command, were uncharacteristically mediocre.
The Braves were patient with Minter's return, giving him two weeks to heal and two weeks to rehab. In his rehab assignment, the 30-year-old allowed one run in three innings.
With a healthy Minter back in the fold, Brian Snitker now has three setup men, who can help in distributing the workload of the bullpen, giving more rest to relievers Pierce Johnson, Aaron Bummer, Joe Jimenez, and Raisel Iglesias, all of whom pitched in 10 games in June.
While Daysbel Hernandez was the unfortunate casualty of the roster crunch, the righty reliever will almost certainly be the next man up when the Braves need another reliever. The 27-year-old has not allowed a run in 9.2 innings and has a 1.61 FIP.