Coming an incredibly tough stretch of their schedule that culminated with a 4-3 walkoff win against the Dodgers last night, the Atlanta Braves are set to start a series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Given that basically no one is wanting another string of bullpen games, the Braves were going to need to make a roster move ahead of Thursday's game against Aaron Nola.
The move that has made the most sense from the beginning was to promote Dylan Dodd from Triple-A Gwinnett. Dodd's performances lately have been a mixed bag down in the minors to be sure, but he did throw four scoreless innings his last time out before rain moved in. The timing has him in line for a start, there aren't any other options that available to start, and again...more bullpen games seems like a bad idea especially in the middle of a stretch of games without a day off.
As expected, the Braves made the roster move today.
The #Braves today recalled LHP Dylan Dodd to Atlanta and placed RHP Michael Tonkin on the 15-day injured list, backdated to May 24, with a strained neck.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 25, 2023
Dodd has made three starts in the big leagues this year and two of them were reasonable to good with a brutal start against the Padres being a large anchor on his overall line. Hopefully the third round pick from 2021 can cover a meaningful amount of innings for the Braves. If he can't, it sure seems like that Michael Soroka could be the next guy that gets an opportunity to stabilize the rotation.
To make room for Dylan Dodd on the roster, the Braves placed Michael Tonkin on the injured list with a strained neck. The Braves don't have a ton of folks in the bullpen with minor league options left, so an IL stint did seem to be the most likely course and this way Tonkin gets some time to reset and be healthy the rest of the way.