The Braves have announced their final Opening Day roster moves. As expected, righty Josh Tomlin and outfielder Matt Joyce were selected. To clear a 40-man roster spot, catcher Raffy Lopez was designated for assignment.
The Atlanta organization’s late-breaking addition of Tomlin came after a barrage of pitching injuries that the club hopes will prove to be minor. Starters Mike Foltynewicz and Kevin Gausman have officially been placed on the 10-day injured list along with relievers A.J. Minter and Darren O’Day.
The veteran Joyce will make the roster at the expense of Adam Duvall, who remains with the organization but has been optioned to Triple-A. A career .250/.351/.451 hitter against right-handed pitching in nearly 3400 plate appearances, Joyce will give the Braves the left-handed-hitting fourth outfielder they’d reportedly been seeking. He’s not an option in center field at this stage in his career, though on days that Ender Inciarte needs a breather, Atlanta can shift Ronald Acuna Jr. into center field while deploying Joyce in a corner.
Tomlin will serve as a long man out of the bullpen, providing depth for a Braves rotation that has been hit by injuries this spring. In addition to Foltynewicz and Gausman landing on the IL, right-hander Mike Soroka was out for much of Spring Training due to shoulder troubles and was optioned to Triple-A to build up strength. Tomlin had a brutal season with the Indians in 2018 but gave Cleveland nearly 500 innings of 4.44 ERA ball from 2013-17. The 34-year-old righty doesn’t miss many bats and has one of the game’s slowest fastballs but also has uncanny precision; over his past 557 MLB innings, he’s averaged just 1.1 BB/9.
Lopez, 31, hit .176/.265/.284 in 117 plate appearances with the Padres last season. The Braves acquired him from San Diego in exchange for cash back in early November, but he didn’t have a place on the active roster behind Tyler Flowers and Brian McCann.
Tomlin? oooph
Pure injury fill-in guy, probably only going to see him in lopsided games. Probably only going to last a couple weeks into the season unless he has a remarkable turnaround. Not going to impact games.
I think it’s a little bigger then that. Isn’t wright supposed to start the year with the club? A guy like Tonkin could help limit his innings
Tomlin
Wright was announce as starting game 3 vs philly
Um, yeah. There are multiple injuries in the rotation. There are multiple injuries in the bullpen. Tomlin… is in the bullpen.
Braves fans should be happy. They got one of the Indians pitchers.
Francona did everything humanly possible to hide Tomlin in the CLE pen last year, but he eventually had to use him, and he got lit up every time. This guy gives up dingers like nobody’s business.
Who spells oooof, “oooph”?
me. suck it
Braves will be good. Guys are going to step up. I don’t think this team will win the World Series. I do think they are going to find a way to make into the playoffs though.
Yay for Josh! Hopefully he goes easy on giving up the gopher balls.
Lopez has a nice glove behind the dish
Would rather have Pache and Alex Jackson, if we are planning every player breaking out to compete, go for broke.
Not going to call up prospects to sit on the bench. Better to get them reps in the high minors
There is also the service time issue, but having everyday reps and learning in the minors is critical for their development. Best day of the year is opening day, unless your team wins the WS
The only way Pache was going to be up is if Teheran & Ender were moved together for a SP. He’ll man RF or LF next year w/ Ender & Acuna.
I would guess Pache would be in CF flanked by Inciarte and Acuna…
Then again if Pache proves he is ready they could trade Inciarte in the winter.
Yeah, regardless how good Inciarte is in CF, Pache is already the better CF’er..Which is crazy to say, since Inciarte is a GG guy.
What people fail to realize is Pache only just made HUGE adjustments to his swing last off-season..As in a complete swing overhaul..This was done so Pache could begin to tap more into his power, and so far the results have been solid.
This is year two of his swing adjustment, so Pache needs to continue getting those at bats at the MiL level, getting down that muscle memory.
If he’s forced into a big pressure situation, he’s likely to fall back on old habits, and that wouldn’t be good for Atlanta nor Pache. With his growing frame, increase in power, his already all world defense, his speed, and his relentless work ethic Pache will be special..However, we fans need to have some patience. He might be a September call up if they’re makin a run, but we shouldn’t expect to see Pache until next season..
As for Alex Jackson, last off season he dedicated the vast majority of his time working on his defense behind the plate. This off season, he was able to focus a lot more on his offensive game, so hopefully his good showing in spring will carry over to at least a pretty good season.
The Braves, unless there’s an injury, really don’t need Jackson to come up this year. However, come September, any tips or advice he can get from Mac could def. help him moving forward.
Jackson really isn’t even the Braves catcher of the future, that title belongs to William Contreras. That kid is an all-around stud!! Even so, if Jackson is able to produce offensively, with his improved defense, then he can definitely help hold down the position until Contreras is fully ready come late 2020 or most likely 2021..
How Matt Joyce has a roster spot is beyond me
Perhaps it is to inspire Adam Duval to get it together. Joyce is likely a short term play, unless he has a 2018 Markakis-like start.
Keep an eye out for better options being released or traded in the coming days
lol you sound like AA with his surprise signings coming soon…keep an eye out wink wink
Matt Joyce made the roster so that Duval could get everyday at bats in AAA and try to get back on track. If he can find his confidence down there he will be back up at some point. Hopefully he gets it figured out and can finally add that pop to the bench.
Joyce was so bad that the worst outfield in all of the MLB cut him during spring training…
soooooooo our starting pitcher only went 5 innings with 3 earned runs and then our bullpen gave up another 7 earned runs….hmmmm, definition of insanity anyone smh?!