The Braves have placed southpaw Cole Hamels on the 10-day injured list with left shoulder issues, Mark Bowman of MLB.com was among those to report. Hamels will not be available for the postseason, Jeff Schultz of The Athletic tweets.
Then coming off their second straight NL East title, the Braves signed Hamels to a one-year, $18MM contract last winter with the hope the longtime workhorse – previously with the Phillies, Rangers and Cubs – would fortify their rotation. Instead, though, because of various arm problems, Hamels only made one start (on Sept. 16) and threw 3 1/3 innings in a Braves uniform under his current deal.
Hamels’ health woes, not to mention the issues Mike Soroka (Achilles) and Mike Foltynewicz (performance) have faced, have made this a less-than-ideal season for Atlanta’s rotation. To the team’s credit, though, it’s on its way to another division title. The Braves lead the NL East by three games, but even if they hang on, they’ll enter the playoffs dealing with questions in their rotation beyond newfound ace Max Fried and standout rookie Ian Anderson.
Hamels, 36, is set to enter free agency off the worst season of his career during the upcoming winter. While Hamels is a 10-time 30-game starter, an eight-time 200-inning hurler and someone who has logged a 3.43 ERA/3.68 FIP in the majors, a high-paying deal figures to be out of the question in the wake of what has been a nightmarish year from a health standpoint.
s(pain)
This signing turned out well
I agree on that one!!!
At least they only did one year.
18 mil, could have saved all their employees jobs! For a few years!!
I believe the MLB salaries were pro rated this year. But it did turn out bad. Looks like Fried/Anderson/Wright for the playoffs.
Sounds about right…
Can’t wait for the Braves to fail to learn from this mistake and ink yet another over the hill SP to a 1 year, $18 mil contract.
Welcome to the team Jake Arrieta!
Wonder if this season is enough for this organization to realize they need to go external to have any chance to compete for the title.
Lol Hamels was an outsider
Although his timing of this post was bad, I think we all get the message. AA needs to do a better job of bringing in the appropriate talent where needed before we hit crisis mode. Hamels was one of 3 or 4 rotation moves the Braves prob should have made this offseason.
Off-season and at the deadline*
Look for Bauer to be atop their wish list on the off-season.
Let’s discuss.
Kyle Wright (in his third year but only exhausted rookie status two starts ago) is 2-0 with 12.1 IP and a 2.19 ERA, 10:3 K:BB ratio, and a 0.97 WHIP.
Huascar Ynoa looked at least worth another look last time out.
Folty- Acquired from Astros
Newcomb- Acquired from Angels
Aaron Blair- Acquired from Diamondbacks
Btw, Fried (while acquired from SD, spent 2 months there before needing TJ), and Soroka are looking like bonafide aces and Anderson doesn’t look far behind.
What exactly do you want?
Pretty much all of those were not AA’s move. Most coppy… Wright is the only AA move, and Ynoa didn’t earn “another look” until well after the deadline. With an offense this strong, we should have serviceable pitching at worse… not basically no pitching. Folty was a wildcard and the entire world knew it this offseason, and Newcomb was a wildcard this offseason also. No one knew Anderson would be ready, Wright had been pretty bad most of the season. And yes, fried has been amazing, but even he wasn’t a lock to be good coming into the season. It was basically only soroka that we could trust to be good, then prob fried… then it was flip a coin after that… AA has been and continues to fail the Braves and Braves fan…
Folty/Newcomb are at the camp, Wright has 2 quality starts and a bunch of 2inn appearances, Wilson/Tookie/ others have regressed, Cole 18m bust, etc… we expect netter moves
All of those guys were acquired by the previous regime!
It’s not about who acquired them, it’s about they’re here. People screamed give up on Riley, give up on Fried, give up on Wright…the guys have to have a chance to work thru their warts. You guys see a one year window. If this team is developed properly, this is a 5-8 year window for winning. The goal isn’t one WS. It’s a perennial contender.
or you can just keep waiting and waiting and watch one prospect fail after another. Before you know it, the farm is terrible and they can no longer acquire a quality pitcher via trade.
Na, ur missing the point. AA had an abundance of opportunities both before the season and at the deadline to make incremental moves to improve the team without mortgaging the future and he didn’t. Right now, almost all of the success at the major league lvl and soon to come are the work of coppy. AA improved the bullpen after a brutal half year we went through and seeing the L’s we were posting because he refused to do anything in the previous offseason. But it took a lot of twisting to get him to do that. This year, the Braves just needed something respectable to put in the pitching rotation, and he didn’t come through. He mess that up and had very little appropriate replacement options for when things went south. Thank god this team is on a historic hitting tear
If the Braves followed YOUR plan, nobody would have had the time it needed to mature before you traded them all and we would have become the 2015 San Diego Padres..with Madison Bumgarner thrown in there. =D
Ha!.. that is a great and unfortunately sad comparison…2015 Padres and 2020 Padres has just lapped the Braves again when actually going for it….both with great farm systems and talented major league rosters…except one organization knows when to cash in some chips and go for it….Bet we’ll say the same again in 2025. I’d much rather be an organization that goes for it than constantly being lapped over and over again as we hold on so desperately for the ‘future’ that never seems to come smh…
The Padres are having their FIRST season of success and now you are talking about the Padres lapping the Braves.
You can say you would rather be an organization that goes for it until it doesn’t work out and then you are just another fan pissed off that they went for it and blew it. I don’t want you to misunderstand me. Anthopoulos blew it this deadline, in my opinion, but it’s sensationalism to say the Padres lapped the Braves.
its been almost 20 years since the Braves have won a playoff series, not a championship, just a simple series….20 flipping years! Stop being an apologist for mediocracy. I would much rather have a team that went all in every 5 years and failed but at least they tried….its literally the same result at the end of the day, what is the difference?! Do you remember the prospects we hung onto soooo desperately in 2015 or 2010 and so on to preserve our ‘future’ cuz i sure don’t? And the ones I do remember sure as heck didn’t help us win anything
@divisiontitles
I mean, you do get that we hire development, right? Teams have to bet on themselves to a degree.
And there is so much pitching in this system. I know you need 3-5 to get 1, but hell, we’ve had about 20. The pieces are there. Look how home grown talent and development of players like Duvall has paid dividends on offense.
The Braves rebuild started over the 2014-15 offseason so I don’t know why you are pointing the all that before it. You didn’t expect playoff births then, did you?
An apologist for mediocrity? Well, at least you didn’t argue with me when I said you are being sensational. Shouldn’t mediocre be reserved for teams that are about even with the competition? The only way you can know what mediocre means is in reference to your competition. From where I’m sitting, the Braves are a better team than most which means they are NOT mediocre. That would be called above average. =}
Dude, Hamels was signed. Felix Hernandez looked really, really good. We went to camp in March with like 8-9 legit starting pitchers.
Soroka
Fried
Hamels
Hernandez
Folty
Newcomb
Wright
Toussant
Wilson
All those guys were on the burner for this year in April. By the end of the year, Anderson, Weigel, and others would be ready. You can’t just go get someone who will plug a hole for years when your long term plans are on the farm.
You know, you say that…but wait until you start getting tired of the three loosing years for 1-2 year windows of contention.
Cool story. It’s been over 20 since the padres have.
In 2010 it was a very different story. The Braves have never rebuilt since 1990 prior to 2016. This is very, very different. We aren’t having to make moves for Nate McClouth type players now.
And do you forget the players we lost to be competitive for Mark Texierra? Elvus Andruw, Matt Harrison, Nefalti Feliz…all took Texas to a Nelson Cruz error away from a World Series trophy.
And let’s not forget, trading him to açaí where his comp pick became Mike Trout…
With the exception of Soroka and Fried, the rest (Hamels also an exception, I guess) are not legit starting pitchers, and NEVER WILL BE!
woohoo we’re celebrating ‘above average’ now?! Nice…participation trophies for everyone! I’d venture to say most people outside of Atlanta would agree not advancing out of the 1st round of any playoff as being mediocre…unfortunately this is Atlanta sports mentality. Call me a sensationalist or whatever but I’m too old and too tired of seeing the thing over and over. I do truly believe the Braves will win a series this year due to expanded playoffs. But the F/O being reactionary and not proactive will catch up to us once again
@divisiontitles- not Ian Anderson??? Wright looks like he’s at the very least going to round into a #5.
Soroka and Fried are #1’s. Both have now put together insane Maddux-like seasons in ‘19 and ‘20. If that’s your bar for EVERY pitcher, then you’ve got a lot to learn bubba…
@arthur Blank- this was the first year that the team was good enough to win- and the FO reacted by not pushing all in on a weird, 16 team playoff season. That actually is being proactive, just not how you want them to be.
A rotation of Soroka, Fried, Anderson and Wright is not looking so bad for the next few years.
Absolutely. Three homegrown, Fried traded for prior to making MLB. They should rule that division for years to come. The only other NL East team with that mentality is Miami.
Madison Bumgarner is external. Let’s hit up Arizona, see if we can make a trade. Maybe they’ll take Acuna off our hands. Ah, I know what you are thinking. You’re right. Acuna is negative value so to take him, we probably have to attach someone else. Let’s say Anderson. Then we can trade Fried for Bumgarner.
Nah, Liberty Media doesn’t care about titles or the Braves, this is just a tax write off for them. No chance they ever shell out what it takes to win on a regular basis
Career done
AA needs to be fired!!!! Hamels has been hurt ever since we spring training and he made zero moves at the deadline to improve a rotation that was bleeding! And any fans who defend him are insane! We didn’t need much! We didn’t even need elite! We just needed reasonable bodies to pitch in our rotation! We will never make it through these playoffs with this rotation! They punted the season! FIRE AA FIRE DAN QUINN! ATLANTA SPORTS FANS DESERVE BETTER!!!
Is this sarcasm?
How quickly fans forget how the franchise looked before AA
You do realize that a healthy majority of the roster was not the doing of AA but rather coppy… right??? Lol
And 100% of the penalties are due to Coppy!
Guess overhauling the bullpen, signing Donaldson, Ozuna, and d’Arnaud were terrible moves by AA also?
Ozuna was luck and I can assure you he won’t resign him, much like Donaldson, which was also pretty lucky. d’Arnaud was a good signing… I’ll give you that. That’s the one thing AA has locked down pretty solid catching production … I’ll give you all of those… but it took an absolute meltdown on the bullpens behalf for AA to do something about it… it shouldn’t have come to that. Before last season every fan on the planet knew the Braves bullpen wasn’t just a weakness but a serious problem. He cost us a lot of wins by not upgrading that bullpen more appropriately (aka earlier) and quite honestly had to overpay to do so. The rotation is in a similar if not worse mess than the bullpen last year, yet nothing… that’s on him. Those are the moves GM’s have to make to make championship teams. Not division title teams
Dude there should have been young arms ready to step up in the pen last year.
I don’t understand the complaint. You’re talking about preseason moves, well we got the bullpen for the post season and won the division. This year you’re talking about deadline moves and all when the market was insanely high and nothing premium was moving. And we still are piecing together decent games and leading the division. What’s the complaint?
Let’s be honest here though. They brought in a starter in Hameln. They had Wright, Soroka, Fried and Newcomb. I’m not a Braves fan, but you can’t really be mad at the front office for injuries and regression
MLB have a lemon law?
You used to be able to try before you buy, but I’m pretty sure they canceled the Expos a while back.
It was silly to expect an old pitcher who hasn’t thrown a competitive pitch too magically get up to speed with a week left for a postseason run. Unfortunately, in a couple of weeks we’ll think it silly that we convinced ourselves that rookies in Wright and Anderson were capable of starting postseason games.
Such a shame because this is the best Braves offense and one of the better bullpens it’s had. Starting pitching wasn’t an “awe shucks, injuries happen what can you do”. They did, but in three offseasons and deadlines they’ve failed to add one significant long-term starter.
Some Pitchers who have been traded or free-agents since the 2017-18 offseason: Lynn, Minor, Gray, Bauer, Grienke, Keuchel, Sanchez, Corbin, Morton, Paxton, Hamels, Clevinger.
Inexcusable.
100% agree Brandon Sans! Nailed it! 100% inexcusable!
AA built that “best Braves offense they’ve ever had” and once again the league’s 9th-highest payroll has the league’s 3rd-best record and is going to win its division. THIS TEAM IS NEVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO GO BUY YOU ALL THE BEST PLAYERS AT EVERY POSITION. AA’s built a great team for now and the future. Whine about the pitching if you must, but please don’t ask to fire the guy who‘s building a really solid franchise.
Absolutely Wrong… AA didn’t build that lineup, GM’s before AA did. Acuna, Ozzie, Freeman, Swanson, Riley… those weren’t AA guys, Soroka Fried… not AA guys…
Dude, you just don’t get it. AA’s teams have won three division titles in a row. He’s kept an awesome group of young talent together. He’s brought in quality veterans that have been major contributors. The team gets better every year. And you want to fire that guy? You call what he’s done on the limited budget he has to work with mediocrity? I’m pretty sure baseball doesn’t work the way you think it works.
Did AA really build this team? If you “got it” you would know that is not true. This team was built before he arrived and he just sprinkled a few pieces here and there. What AA is doing is squandering opportunities. That last part is debatable but please stop re-writing history when AA did not build this team.
@wild Bill, @bravesfan – The facts: AA traded for, signed, or re-signed more than half of the current roster(14 of 27) including exactly half the pitching staff. If you throw in his two brilliant extensions of Acuna and Albies, you can run his total responsibility to 16 of 27. Since prospects take 3-4 years to develop and AA’s tenure won’t hit the three-year mark until this November, it would be unreasonable to expect to see his fingerprints on homegrown talent for another couple of years. (He is already responsible for three of the Braves current top 10 prospects.) You also have to give AA credit for keeping guys like Fried, whose numbers weren’t stellar in his first three years. Given all that, how can you say AA didn’t build this team? He is directly responsible for the excellent, successful product we Braves fans enjoy today.
Would you like some cheese with that wine?
Keuchel didn’t work out in Atlanta. Hamels didn’t. Paxton hasn’t been good and is hurt.
Keuchel didnt work out in Atlanta? His stat line is perfectly reasonable. What were you expecting from him?
Ummm, his single handed lyrics under performing and loosing two post season games?
Right, Keuchel performed much better than 80% of our rotation… even when bad in Atl, he’s better than some of what we have…
Why are you exaggerating? He had one good performance and one bad. His first post season game he went 4.2 innings and gave up 1 earned run. The second he went 3.1 innings and allowed 3. Also, his body of work in the regular season was very valuable. Meanwhile you think he didn’t work out for Atlanta because he had ONE bad start in the playoffs? That’s not realistic.
@salarycapmyth wait just a second?!…3 weeks ago when I said (as braveshomer) we really missed out not trying to resign Kuechel, you said thats a “complete hindsight statement”! and how would his performance have remotely justified resigning him? Now you’re saying Kuechel was valuable and performed well and what exactly did we expect from him?…soooo which is it?! hahaha
I said it was a hindsight statement because you (or Braveshomer) were arguing that the Braves should have resigned him based on his present performance. That is hindsight. I don’t fault the Braves for not signing him based on what he is doing right now. This is not a contradiction to my view that his production in 2019 was valuable. It wasn’t remarkable but it was valuable. This doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.
you specifically said his performance didn’t justify resigning him based on his #’s and peripherals etc…but now ‘he was valuable and what did we really expect from him’??!….whatever man lol, one conversation to the next I guess smh…should’ve resigned to be our #3 regardless. 3 years of Keuchel vs. whatever 1 year Cole Hamel deal type deals the Braves hand out over the next 3 seasons is the same no matter how you spend it…
Arthur, you were arguing with more than one of us. I would certainly have said his peripherals wouldn’t justify resigning him. I expected him to underperform what he did in 2019 BECAUSE he outperformed his peripherals that year. His actual production was valuable. I thought we got lucky with Keuchel so I didn’t want to see him resign. So you can see now how I DO think his production was valuable but I DIDN’T want to see him resign.
Keuchel definitely “worked out” in Atlanta. You cherry-picked guys who didn’t work out. Truth be told, not every move is going to work out. When I say “inexcusable” I’m referring to the fact that the biggest starting pitcher acquisition in three years was Cole Hamels.
1. Keuchel should never have been there to be signed in June. That was a rare situation where a good and healthy veteran was available on a one-year deal for half a season.
2. Anibal Sanchez was a good move, but he was more wild card gone right than surefire starter. The Braves opted not to bring back him nor Keuchel when both received affordable contracts a year apart.
4. This year, the World Series hopeful Braves decided their rotation was set with the addition of a 36-year-old pitcher who was hurt last season, a former top prospect who has rarely thrown strikes on a consistent basis, a washed-up ace who had to settle for a minor league deal.
3. On the trade market, they’ve only brought in Kevin Gausman (who had a good stretch run in 2018) and Tommy Milone.
It’s not about Hamels or some unfortunate injuries. It’s the failure to bring in at least one capable starter in three years outside of a extremely unusual series of events regarding Keuchel.
What a joke. This clown needs to retire before he robs another team
.AA you lousy rat fink, I knew ya shoulda signed Bumgarner…………………………………..
Any team can come out of the bottom 1/2 of NL playoff tree. Much better to draw cubs/Braves vs Padres/dodgers. Gonna be fun watching it all go down to the wire
Based on previous outing just when you think Ynoa may be able to help, he poops in his britches (again).
He’s done. Nice career, though.
Is he secretly best friends with Mike Hampton?
As much as Hamels has been a let down, everyone else wanted Mad Bum, who will be a 3 year financial drain vs. 1. It sucks but could have been worse.
azbraves20. 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Bumgarner was in decline. He was not the Bumgarner of old. What do you mean everyone wanted him?
There was a loud cry from Braves Country to sign Bumgarner … the idea being a big game pitcher with his postseason brilliance would be the missing piece to propel a young team towards World Series contention. (Similar to the idea behind Hamels, in fact.) Obviously, a year in it appears they made the right move by passing on him.
Doesn’t mean there weren’t more affordable guys like Morton, Keuchel, Sanchez, and Lynn who were on the free agent market or guys like Bauer, Minor, Lynn, Clevinger, and Gray who have been on the trade block.
Hamels over Bumgarner was a good move, although both were aging and had injury questions. That they didn’t add another, more surefire starter and have Hamels as the projected fifth guy is what’s baffling.
Agree there were better options. You think they’d ever gamble on Bauer. He wants 1 year deals, and we love them too.
Phillies should sign him to a minors contract for next year.
Phillies legend, stealing 18m from Atlanta. Seriously I liked this signing for the Braves. Thought Cole could do some serious damage as a 4th or 5th starter, and help develop the younger staff. Real bad luck here. This team is already very scary, but imagine how dominant they could be without all the pitching injuries?
Prorated portion, guy. $6.66M. The Trojan horse won’t work. Mickey Moniak or bust.
Still, not exactly chump change for almost 0 output.
Whatever.
I expect nothing in the postseason. No one should.
What a travesty. How could AA NOT not know that Hamels was going to be crap! It’s not like he has been one of the top pitchers of the last decade plus. I mean really. I hope he gets fired so we can bring him back to TO after we clean house. Second best manager we ever had in the big smoke after Gillick.
The Braves are right in the thick of it this year, notwithstanding all that’s went on with injuries. Anything can happen with this playoff format. This offseason they need to make a move for a corner outfielder/DH (provided it stays in the NL) and an ace starting pitcher. They should make a run at Bauer.
This has to be a record. 6 million an inning is what his salary turned out to be.
A one year gamble isn’t going to kill the Braves. We can play hindsight 20/20 all the way back to the Braves trading Wainwright for JD Drew but it’s not going to change things. They gambled on Hamels, it didn’t work, but it’s made to look worse because Soroka got hurt and Folty/Newcomb/Touki and Wright (outside of two starts) have been awful. You can’t account for all that, along with Felix Hernandez opting out.
I guess they could’ve resigned Teheran to a one year deal and gotten a ten era.
Record probably goes to Ryan Madson. Made almost ten million to not pitch a single inning in 12 or 13.
Eh, no one should have expected him to do anything after being out so long. When he wasn’t close to making it back when things restarted I just considered him to be a non-factor.
The key is going to be Wright down the stretch. Hopefully with him getting his first win it cleared some mental/confidence block and he can finally put things together.
Regardless, a playoff rotation of Fried, Anderson and Wright is scary as hell. But with the Braves offense and bullpen depth, if their starters can go 5 and only give up three runs, they should be sitting in good shape.
Bullpen has been suspect the last few games, especially Greene. He was bound to have a rough outing but he’s had 2 in a row now and looks more like the guy that came over from Detroit last year and his first 2 weeks with the team. And I still think Smith is a liability.
Law of averages, things tend to even out. Greene will bounce back and even out. I’d rather for things to even out now than in the playoffs.
The Braves relievers are different than others, they don’t really throw that hard. Melancon, Greene, Martin, Smith, they all throw low 90s and maybe hit 95 here and there at best. Then you’ve got O’Day and Dayton. Minter probably throws the hardest and then Matzek and Jackson are 93-95ish. It works though.
“There’s no doubt that our starting pitching has not performed to the level we wanted it to or expected it to,” quote from A. Anthopoulos to ESPN concerning Hamels season ending.
Unfortunately our GM hasn’t performed to the level we wanted this season either. I don’t think Anthopoulos should be fired but this was a pretty painful mistake. The Braves have a good bullpen and the offense is firing on all cylinders. That should have been supported. Anthopoulos had pointed to the cost being to much for what they were getting back in return yet teams like the Blue Jays managed to acquire arms without bankrupting the farm so why couldn’t the Braves do the same?
The saving grace for Anthopoulos is that if you are going to punt on a season when you are competing than this is the one to do it in but it just doesn’t look like it had to be like that.
The Braves are going to make the playoffs and probably win the division but does anyone like our chances beyond a 3 game series? Even that sounds concerning. Anderson has given Braves fans enough for us to at least HOPE he can answer the call but it’s still hope but Kyle Wright is terrifying and he’s our game 3 starter.
Does anyone want to contemplate the Braves rotation in a SEVEN game series? How does everyone feel about Urlin, Milone, Tomlin or Ynoa starting a playoff game? That should send shivers down your spine because I don’t see how at least two of those pitchers don’t end up starting a playoff game at some point if the Braves can manage to make it even somewhat deep.
Some of the arrant nonsense you read on MLBTR comment boards, eg. “AA needs to be fired”. Heading into this season we had Soroka, Hernandez, Hamels, Fried, Folty, Newcomb, Anderson, Wright, plus quite an excellent bullpen. Where and when does AA pull out his all seeing all knowing crystal ball that sees Hernandez pull out of season, Soroka get injured, Hamels injured all year, Foltynewicz drop all that weight and lose speed off his fast ball, Newcomb go erratic again, etc. None of this has anything to do with AA, and he made the right moves, Who could have foreseen Hamels, a guy that has been solid and durable all his career have a season like this……Please……
AA should not be fired. But, let’s stop giving him credit for building this team. He didn’t do that. He hasn’t destroyed this team either. If he did then a case could be made for his dismissal. That discussion shouldn’t start until after the 2021 season.