The Braves have been without closer Raisel Iglesias in the early going. The veteran reliever was sidelined during the final week of March with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. The club announced he’d be shut down for at least a week and he opened the season on the 15-day injured list.
It appears that stint will linger beyond the minimal two weeks. Manager Brian Snitker informed reporters on Monday that Iglesias has yet to resume throwing (link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal Constitution). The Braves have continued to evaluate the righty’s progress, though Snitker noted they won’t have any kind of recovery timetable in place until Iglesias is able to pick up a ball.
A.J. Minter and Jesse Chavez have each picked up a save this season. The latter’s was a one-out appearance during today’s 5-2 win over the Cardinals after Collin McHugh had thrown 27 pitches. The highest-leverage work in the season’s first week has fallen to Dylan Lee, McHugh and Chavez. Minter and righty Joe Jiménez also figure to be in the mix for important work as the year goes along. They’ll all be up a peg in the pecking order so long as Iglesias is on the shelf.
Injuries have also been a story on the rotation front. Atlanta placed Ian Anderson on the minor league injured list this morning. Toscano tweets that Anderson has a right elbow injury and is being evaluated.
There’s no word on the issue’s severity, though any problem with a pitcher’s throwing elbow raises some amount of concern. Anderson will miss at least the next week of action at Triple-A Gwinnett. It’s possible he’s sidelined beyond the minimal stay, which would further thin an Atlanta rotation that has faced some questions early in the season.
The Braves were already set to rely on a pair of pitchers who had never previously pitched in the majors as part of the season-opening rotation. Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd jumped Anderson and Bryce Elder on the depth chart in Spring Training. Ace Max Fried landed on the 15-day IL after straining his hamstring on Opening Day. The Braves recalled Elder, pushing Anderson into the #6 role on the depth chart before the elbow soreness.
Fortunately, Atlanta should soon welcome back Kyle Wright from an IL stint of his own. The righty was slowed in camp by a sore shoulder. He opened the season on the 15-day IL to buy him a bit more time to build strength. He made a rehab start for Gwinnett this evening. The bottom line results weren’t great — he allowed five runs in a 6-3 loss — but Wright worked six innings and tossed 84 pitches. That indicates he’s mostly stretched out and figures to make his next start at the MLB level. He’s first eligible to return on April 11, which would be a home start against Cincinnati.
This team is so heavily reliant on Spencer Strider this year – and he’s not someone that is used to being stretched out for 180-200 innings.
Fried is reliable, but less than dominant.
I don’t have much confidence in Wright duplicating last year.
Morton is a year older and has been on the decline.
They need to add a top end guy at the deadline. Their offense is legit. The starting stuff needs a dominant horse.
“Fried is reliable, but less than dominant.”
He. Was. Cy. Young. Runner-Up. Last. Year. Man.
Wright doesn’t need to duplicate a 20-win season to be effective. Fact: Morton is a year older. They’re 5-1 (2nd best in MLB) with 3 rookie SPs (2 of which had their MLB debut). Please give credit to the offense and defense providing a padded room’s worth of cushion for these pitchers to just throw a strike.
I am so impressed with the Braves pitching staff, starting & relieving. This is such a pitching rich organization with an offensive attack to back it up. So far, Braves make me proud.
IAW, can relax & take their time in returning..
This is wrong. Their pitching is much more reliable than their hitting.
Let’s not mistake a strong 6 game start for a dominant offense. As much as I like D’Arnaud, he’s started on a tear. Arcia is hitting way above his head. Acuna and Riley seem to be clicking which isn’t abnormal but coming simultaneously with other hot hitters makes this team seem more offensively potent than it will be long term.
The pitching on the other hand really doesn’t have many holes. Even with injuries piling up early, Dodd and Elder are solid pitchers. Shuster could be as well, he just walked way too many people in his first MLB inning ever. Hopefully that was just nerves.
And these are guys who will only be pitching while Fried, Wright, and Soroka are out. Any other team would love those 3 guys in the 4 and 5 spots, let alone the 6, 7, and 8th options.
Fried, Wright, and Strider all have ace like stuff. Morton is older I agree, but as your #4 he’s still good. And if Soroka can get healthy he has every chance to be included with the other 3 mentioned who have ace like stuff.
The Braves have 4 potential ace starters in the rotation by years end. Plus Morton as your 5th. And if anything goes wrong with those, the 6, 7, and 8th options I previously mentioned are more than capable to bridge any gaps.
Easily the strength of this team.
Braves 2nd in hrs
Braves 3rd in BA, 1 point behind Brewers
Braves 3rd in RBI’s
Braves 3rd in runs scored
MJ-2, Braves have an offensive presence, you have to have offense as well as pitching, Braves have a strong showing of both.
So I specifically mention a strong 6 game start and suggest this lineup isn’t built to continue to play at this level and you turn around to cite their current rankings as a counter argument to prove me wrong?
What’s wrong with some of you? Obviously they will rank high 7 games into the season when they’re playing well. No one has discredited they’ve been one of the best offenses 1 week into the season.
We’re talking about the offense moving forward though. Arcia with another HR and game winning walk-off tonight. You actually think that’s going to continue all season? Lmao… some of you are clueless.
If you’re going to respond to me you need to do better than post the obvious hot start offensive rankings. It’s like you’re not even trying to make a good case (probably because you can’t) so all you do is point to a 1 week anomaly.
Again it’s not a bad offense, but it’s not really a dominant offense either.
Ryan, this is one of the worst takes I can remember seeing on here. Wow. Congrats, I guess.
So it goes back to what my point was: the team lacks DOMINANT pitching. Depth is fine, but in order to win in October, you either need dominant pitching or an offense that is going off for 3 weeks straight.
The Braves have an offense capable of that, but their pitching, outside of Strider is far from dominant. If they had a top-end dominant arm, they’d be much more dangerous in October.
Fried has been a top 10 pitcher since 2021. You already mentioned Strider is dominant. Seems like a good 1-2.
@Ryan you do realize the Braves just won the World Series in 2021 with basically the same guys they have now. Only difference is Max is a little better, Wright is better, yes Charlie has aged but you’re replacing Ian Anderson with Strider and they might have Soroka as an option by Oct as well. The pitching is better.
The need for “dominant pitching” to win in Oct gets blown waaayyyy out of proportion. The team with the most dominant 1-2 last year (Degrom/Sherzer) got smoked in the WC series. Not sure why it’s so difficult for people to understand. You simply need to get in and get hot at the right time to win a WS. Heck Strider/Fried are just as “dominant” as any 1-2 in the WS last year.
Let’s ignore the fact that a rookie pitcher (Dodd) held the reigning NL Central champs to 1-run yesterday and rookie Elder held them to 2 hits today. Pretty dominant outings to me.
Who has a better rotation? Houston probably. But who has a lineup of death like they have? And again with Houston – they have 1 of the 2 best bullpens in baseball.
They have 3 top end dominant arms. Maybe 4 depending on how Soroka rebounds.
You have no clue what you’re talking about.
What they don’t have, which you seem to think they do, is a complete offensive lineup. It’s not a bad lineup by any means, but it falls off pretty hard about halfway through the order.
Arcia, Rosario/Ozuna, and Murphy aren’t offensive threats. Harris and D’Arnaud could go either way. And the remaining 4 are very good.
It’s a good lineup, but I bet I could find at least 5 others better if I went and checked.
Ryan I believe I understand what you are saying. Dominate pitching. DOMINANT! Strider for example did some things last year no one had ever done in baseball ever. Fastest to 200 k’s by anyone ever. fastest to 200 with less than 100 hits–only 3 others have ever done it. There is like 6 or 7 more of these that are leaving my mind at the moment. He DOMINATED in ways no one has ever–not as a rookie but by anyone. He also got to 100 pitches around 5.2, 6.0 innings. He was striking out people at an insane rate. This year he is trying to get to more Fried level. Fried started throwing at 97 and giving it his all every pitch. Now he has 3 new pitches he didn’t have when he started his Atlanta career. Fried pitches to contact and when he needs to his FB he will hit 97–otherwise he hits 92/93. Fried has been one of the best pitchers with innings etc–he is in the top 5 for the last 4 years. Thats dominant. Wright, Morton, and Soroka can have flashes of #1 stuff at times (yes I know Soroka–but I believe). The hitters are sneaky good–yes the top 3 are possibly the best in baseball. Albies won the silver slugger in 21 and looks to be the same. MHII could be a MVP candidate.. Arcia hits the ball hard (hard hit rate is way better than Dans) and has a stronger arm. Murphy and Travis are amazing. Left will be fine. The pen is top 5–with or without Raffy (for now). The team is a pretty complete team. I don’t believe this post season the Braves will be ‘out dominated’ by starters but anything is possible.
Is the sky falling?
…….EXACTLY….its April and we have a 2.5 game lead in the division already and both the Mets and Phils look dreadful out of the gate. If we had these problems in July/august i’d be concerned. enjoy the ride for now
Don’t forget about Soroka. He pitched at AAA on Tuesday. His injuries have been lower body issues with his feet and now leg (hammy) and not his arm..
A lot of untrue verbal diarrhea
Teams always downplay these injuries until the player decides he wants a little more time off. Then they just extend the IL stint.
What’s all this 15 day IL stuff? I thought it was a 10 day now?
They moved it back to 15 days a few years ago for pitchers only. To keep teams from abusing it just to rest people and bring up fresh arms, which the Dodgers were doing a lot of for a while.
It will be great to get Wright back. Hopefully, Max will pick up where he left off when he returns. I’m sold on Elder being a #5. Soroka threw 60+ pitches yesterday, so any decent start from him could be a great value as the starting 5 rotation gains stability.
Failing to mention the return of Kirby Yates is a big oof. Though he may not be what he once was he has looked to be decent so far. The braves have started slow the past 2 seasons and still won the division. The better they play in the early season without Fried, Wright, and Iglesias does not bode well for the NL east…. But still we are 6 games in, it is way too early to look that far ahead.
I was looking for that, but also no mention of Nick Anderson either. They have so many closers from other teams to be able to withstand.
Yeah Anderson is the bigger omission. Dude has looked filthy in his appearances so far.
j2dap22;
It’s a long season and things will happen.
But right now the Phillies are reeling and the Mets look old. Everything can change in 2 weeks, let alone 5-1/2 months. But
the Braves roster looks stacked and they easily play the best
(and smartest) fundamental baseball in the NLE and possibly
in the entire NL.
I wish Mr. Iglesias well. But late last season he simply wasn’t very successful closing out games for the Angels. They traded him to the Braves as his salary was out of whack with his effectiveness (the Angels had 3-4 other relievers at the end of the season that were pitching better for far less money), With the Braves he had a great spurt (maybe their pitching coaches were successful with him).
Maybe he’ll work out as a closer for the Braves. But the season is long and they have other candidates. My gut feel is that he’d be a very good 8th inning set-up guy….but again, his salary is a bit high for that…and he’s under contract through 2025…when he’ll be 35 years-old.
He had a 0.48 ERA pitching for Atlanta last season.
Doubt we’ll be talking about any of these issues in a month. Wright, Fried and Soroka will be back by then and some of the names mentioned in the article might not be heard again until 2024 if those three , Morton and Strider stay healthy.
Braves have at least four guys who could close. Not big on using a LH pitcher to close, but Minter, like a few others (Hader, Chapman), throws hard enough so it won’t matter.
Do I think Wright will have the year he had last year, no I do not. I do think he will be an above average starter though. I am concerned with Ian though, sounds like he just needs to start over. Max, I just hope he is does not end up like Freddy and Swanson, pitchers like him are hard to come by. This is not like ss or 1st base though, top of the line starting pitching is hard to come by. Please AA, sign Max to a six year deal,
I honestly think he’s gone if the extension didn’t happen this past offseason. If Dodd and Shuster can lament themselves into the rotation, I can’t imagine the FO wanting to carry a massive contract.
The Braves have signed many extensions after the All Star Break.
Idosteroids, I hope you are wrong, top of the market starters are not born every day, there is not many around. I would put Max up there with the best, come playoff time, he is my first starter.
lol I hope i am wrong too. Just brace yourself if he isnt resigned. If they let FF walk, they could do that to anyone.