Yesterday was a mostly joyous one for the Atlanta Braves as Michael Soroka made his return to the mound. Unfortunately, the C-string defenders the Braves rolled out with him made things go not so smoothly. The Braves were still able to get the job done, though, thanks to a big day at the plate from their new starting shortstop Orlando Arcia, Atlanta emerged victorious by the final score of 5-3.
The most important takeaway here is that Soroka is healthy and throwing again. His fastball velocity looked good and he broke off some nice breaking pitches even if his command wasn't quite there yet. It certainly would have been better if the guys could catch or throw the ball yesterday (including his catcher), but again...thats what spring training is for.
More Atlanta Braves News
Speaking of Arcia, it sure was strange when the Braves announced that they were sending both Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake back down to the minors a couple days. We took a look at the confusion behind the team's decision-making as well as an attempt at parsing the Braves' thinking. It is fair to say that we don't buy EVERYTHING the Braves are trying to sell through the beat writers, but I can respect the Braves placing their bets and sticking to them.
MLB News
We covered this in more detail earlier this morning (you should definitely check that article out), but MLB announced that they were making some minor tweaks to the new rules changes being put in place for 2023 and beyond. Most of the changes involve giving leniency on some fringe cases, but the general spirit of the rules remain intact until the league can get more information in regular season games as to how the new rules are working.
The Astros find themselves in a bit of a situation at second base now that Jose Altuve is out with a fractured thumb. Here is a look at some of the internal options they are considering, but don't sleep on Houston going outside the organization for a temporary replacement.