The Braves have formally announced their 28-man roster for their upcoming Wild Card Series against the Reds — a roster that includes some notable omissions of former key players and includes a few intriguing rookies. Here’s how it breaks down:
Right-Handed Pitchers
- Ian Anderson (Game 2 starter)
- Shane Greene
- Chris Martin
- Mark Melancon
- Darren O’Day
- Josh Tomlin
- Jacob Webb
- Kyle Wright (Game 3 starter)
Left-Handed Pitchers
- Grant Dayton
- Max Fried (Game 1 starter)
- Tyler Matzek
- A.J. Minter
- Will Smith
Catchers
Infielders
- Ozzie Albies
- Johan Camargo
- Charlie Culberson
- Freddie Freeman
- Austin Riley
- Pablo Sandoval
- Dansby Swanson
Outfielders
Longtime center fielder Ender Inciarte is the most notable player left off the roster. An All-Star in 2017 and a three-time Gold Glover, Inciarte’s bat has continued to wilt in recent seasons — culminating in a disastrous .190/.262/.250 slash through 131 plate appearances in 2020. With Ronald Acuna Jr. capable of handling center field and options like Marcell Ozuna, Nick Markakis and the hot-hitting Adam Duvall in the corners, the Braves have begun to cut back on Inciarte’s playing time.
While he could still have been carried as a game-changing defensive upgrade for the late innings, that role will instead go to the 21-year-old Pache — the organization’s top prospect who draws 80 grades for his defense on most scouting reports. It’s been increasingly clear that Inciarte’s role with the club is dwindling, but leaving him off the playoff roster only further highlights that reality.
Also absent from the club’s Round 1 roster is righty Luke Jackson. The mercurial reliever was outrighted in June 2018 only to surprisingly emerge as one of the club’s few reliable bullpen options in 2019 when he nailed down 18 saves. The pendulum has swung back in the other direction in 2020 though, as Jackson has been clobbered for a 6.84 ERA and seen his K/9 mark nearly halved (13.1 K/9 in 2019; 6.8 in 2020). Had the groin injury that forced righty Chris Martin from the Braves’ season finale proven more serious, perhaps Jackson would have been considered, but Braves fans are surely thrilled to see Martin’s name listed after his dominant 2020 effort.
Elsewhere, Atlanta will entrust its Game 2 outing to former No. 3 overall draft pick Ian Anderson, who rose from top prospect status to key rotation piece in 2020. Anderson still has just six big league starts, but he’s exceeded all expectations with a 1.95 ERA and 41 punchouts through 32 1/3 frames. Catching prospect William Contreras, the younger brother of Cubs star Willson Contreras, is on the roster mostly as a depth option, but his presence only further gives a glimpse into the organization’s future.
The Braves’ late pickup of Pablo Sandoval came as a surprise to many, but the organization clearly sees something in the former Giants star. Despite a dismal .214/.287/.262 slash on the year, including four hitless plate appearances with Atlanta (two walks), the Panda makes the Wild Card roster as a bench piece.
Glad Enders finally off the roster. He was playing as bad as Johan and Charlie this year. Pache needs to come in by the 8th for defense every game. Hech playing out of position led to most errors but didn’t capture the magic he had from last year either.
Except Culberson and camargo can play multiple positions
Culberson is really just meh. He’s not been anything special in almost a year.
It’s just bizarre what has happened to Enders bat. Guy was a good hitter a few years back.
He had a good bat, but his offense was dependent on him hitting about .290 to be an average to above average hitter. The thing with him this year is (and I haven’t looked too deep at the numbers, just from watching probably 75% of the Braves games this season) that his defense hasn’t be as good. There was probably four or five plays he normally makes, that just popped out of his glove or he couldn’t get there in time and it went over his head. According to baseball reference, he had a 0 dWAR this season and last season after averaging 1.86 the previous five seasons.
I remember posting that Atlanta should trade Inciarte for JBJ. Pache was always going to replace him in 2021, and then Atlanta would be stuck with ~ $9M salary. For the RS, it would’ve meant ensuring we had a CF for 2021
Atlanta fans were aghast at the suggestion.
JBJ?…abbreviation not ringing a bell for some reason….Jon Bon Jovi maybe?!…
I would assume he meant Jackie Bradley Jr.
The trade would not have made any sense whatsoever. Moving a $7million OF for an $11 outfielder who has been worse in the field over his career and really just gave a bit more pop in exchange for speed at the plate (their BA and OBP’s are both horrible and close enough to call it a wash).
For a team that watches every penny, have a GG caliber CF in the fold was worth the time for the Braves. His defense declined a little this year, but let’s face it .. he would STILL be on the squad if Duvall had to play the whole year, because Duvall always has a hot month to month and a half followed by utter misery the rest of the season. This year was just sort enough to prevent his normal collapse, which started in mid-September and will carry on through the playoffs.
I am not saying it wasn’t a workable trade, but it really didn’t benefit Atlanta in any way, shape, or form.
Funny that Duvall hit a home run yesterday.
Duvall isn’t gonna be a .285/30/120 guy…but he fills that .250-260/30/85+ role that use to be your 5-6 hitter really well. He’s enough protection to keep you honest with the bigger bats in front of him.
The trade would not have made any sense whatsoever. Moving a $7million OF for an $11 outfielder
————————————————–
Ender’s cost, including his 2022 buy out, is $17.4M against JBJ’s $11M. I had imagined in my original proposal that the RS might kick in maybe $2M.
But the primary benefit to the Braves would have been to go from a two-year commitment to a one-year commitment in CF.
It wasn’t a suggestion that JBJ was better or a better value, as much as it was the idea that, since Pache was going to play CF in 2021, Inciarte’s contract made him a liability in 2021.
And just the opposite for the RS. The RS would get a similar CF in 2020, and would have a viable CF in 2021. They are now required to either re-sign JBJ, or wing it with Duran in CF.
I’m actually a huge fan of this roster. Don’t need as many pitchers this round so being able to carry Contreras, Pablo, Culberson, and Camargo is nice. Plus, Pache offers the same defensive replacement value while contributing more offensively.
However, I don’t like leaving Hech off for Culberson/Camargo just for defensive value. I’d probably have left Culberson off for Hech but it isn’t like they’ll be playing much barring injury.
Hech hasn’t been playing good defense lately. Had a negative dWAR this season and made four errors at 3b. You figure 3b would be the position that would need a PHer or a defensive replacement (although Riley has looked pretty good defensively), obviously you won’t be taking out Swanson and Albies. If his defense at 3b sucks, why would you include him?
I’d have rather left Camargo off for Hech, but other than that I share your opinion of the roster.
I’ll take Camargo over Hecheverria. He is a better defender and could do more with the bat.
Camargo is more valuable. With the whole batter limit, you want switch hitters.
The Panda! Braves are bounded to the WS…
I’m gonna go on a limb, but I’m guessing AA kept Ender and Jackson out of the postseason roster as a way to mgmt Snit and prevent him from using them when he most inevitably would have today. Snit has this weird burning love for both Ender, Jackson, and even Markaksis. We needed “bumpers” to prevent some obvious bad decisions Snit would likely have made. I’m hyper critical of AA, but this might be the best move he’s made in a while…
I don’t understand why Snit brings Jackson with runners on base. He’s usually good when he starts with a clean slate, but hasn’t been able to stop inherited runners from scoring. And I don’t mean just this year.
As much as I agree on Snitker not making some good decisions, he looked like a genius today compared to David Bell.
Every Braves fan, every announcer, and everyone who knew anything about baseball knows they Bell should have walked Freeman to pinch to Ozuna. Not only is Freddie a better ‘pure’ hitter, he knows how to tone down his swing when needed, and it would have created a force at home situation.
Freddie won the managerial battle today. Sure, it was kind of like being the next to last kid picked on the playground, but when there are only two kids being picked you look guuuuuuuud.
I like Snitker as a manager. He gets a lot of undeserved flack, IMO. I love that he puts Acuña on lead off and Freeman batting second. Other managers like Dusty Baker would NEVER even consider that. I just don’t understand that particular handling of Jackson.
Yea no, I don’t disagree that he is a overall good manager and one that we prob should have. But he does have one serious weakness (that’s ironically a strength) and it’s his connection with players. And the weakness part is he sticks with some players no matter how incredibly bad they are. Ender, Jackson, and Markasis are great examples of those types of players. Now don’t get me wrong, markasis is not on the Jackson and Ender bad lvl… but I assure you we would have seen Jackson pitch today if he was on the playoff roster and that’s no ok. AA did a great job “managing” the manager in this situation. And Ender would have come in to run in that last inning instead of Pache likely, which is no big deal unless the game didn’t end and Ender is stuck in the lineup
What has AA done besides build a championship-caliber team for you to be critical of him?
He inherited most of those players, his refusal to upgrade the bullpen the previous offseason up until the team was about to crash last year was brutal, his refusal to truly upgrade the rotation this past offseason beyond Hamels was poor Mgmt and arguably Hamels was a questionable signing at the time and proved to be so. His refusal to upgrade the rotation at this trade deadline and basically punt the postseason was a poor look and inexcusable. We didn’t need superstars but we did need reasonable bodies. Luckily recently it seems some young arms are finally stepping up. I think AA’s mgmt of Pache this year is inexcusable… I can keep going …
BravesFan you get it. I applaud you. AA walked into one of the greatest situations any GM could ask for. AA wants to hold his job as long as he can. Not rocking the boat and unloading prospects allows him to do that. If he unloads and it backfires, he is on the hot seat. By doing very little while knowing he has a competitive team, it keeps him employed.
The only time went for it all in Toronto was months before his contract expired. He mismanaged a bunch of guys in Toronto also, much like Pache.
Thank you sir. Too many Braves fans are homers and refuse to acknowledge what’s going on or use the same old “don’t want to mortgage the future” or money bull. They think that when I say moves need to be made that I am demanding a superstar in every transaction. He absolutely came into a great situation! He basically had unlimited prospect capital and liberty mutuals books were and still have been absolutely outstanding. So the “mortgaging the future” bull is just a weak excuse over his tenure. I think I agree with you. He’s playing it safe… doing just good enough to keep his job. Never thought of it that way. However, the Pache mgmt whilst letting Ender perform worse than a pitcher at the plate… 100% inexcusable in a year like this year. Even if he sat the bench… Ender needed to go. Trade for cash or a player to be named later and eat a lot of his contract for all I care
That was the same rhetoric in Toronto, only he wound up biting through everyone just to make it to his first postseason dance. During his tenure he couldn’t sign some first rounders (saw it already in Atlanta), had many misses in the draft and the Jays development was substandard since the Ricciardi era (Billy Beane disciple).
AA is good with extensions. Although not afraid of a trade he’d rather hold the prospects. In a rebuild, sure. Contention for a World Series is a different scenario, or it should be.
He upgraded the BP last year, so your complaint is basically that he did not upgrade it quickly enough?
And he upgraded the rotation with Hamels, who got hurt. Was Hamels not a true upgrade without the inury?
Just imho, it looks to me like he intended his rotation to be:
Fried
Soroka
Folty
Hamels
Anderson
With a few decent #5/6 candidates that could’ve stepped up. Would you really invest a lot of money to replace Folty, for example?
Can the braves win a postseason game without so much stress in between?
Why? That’s boring. Winning a game like that is huge. Pitchers got in with minimal or no experience and despite the runners, they held the fort. That’s a huge confidence booster and does more for them than pitching in a blow out.
But seriously, I hope the Braves score eight in the first two innings tomorrow and cruise.
Watching Braves postseason games throughout the last 2 decades (when they made it) was fun?
This is the second straight year the Braves are considered the underdog against a team that is not even that impressive in paper. Stop with this BS and go prove you are a postseason team.