The Braves announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Forrest Wall. In a corresponding move, left-hander Kolby Allard has been placed on the 60-day injured list, retroactive to July 17, with left shoulder nerve inflammation.
Allard, 25, came over to Atlanta in an offseason trade with the Rangers, with Jake Odorizzi going the other way. Allard suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain during Spring Training and began the regular season on the injured list. He was reinstated three weeks ago and has made four appearances for the club since then, but departed his most recent start with shoulder tightness.
The club hasn’t provided a specific timeline but it appears the issue is serious enough that they don’t expect him back in the next two months, given his immediate placement on the 60-day version of the injured list. That means he won’t be eligible to return until mid-September at the earliest, perhaps indicating his season is in jeopardy. It seems the trade won’t work out well for either side, since Odorizzi suffered his own shoulder injury during the spring and will miss all of 2023. It’s possible Atlanta could still come out ahead in the long run, as Allard has three more seasons of control beyond this one. Though given his injury and 6.10 career ERA, he could be a non-tender candidate this winter.
Allard wasn’t the most important player on the Atlanta roster but this is nonetheless the latest in a string of serious injuries for their rotation. He’s now the fourth starter the club has on its 60-day IL, alongside Huascar Ynoa, Max Fried and Kyle Wright. That leaves their current rotation mix as Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, Bryce Elder and Michael Soroka. Strider and Morton give the club a strong duo at the front. Elder has been good overall this year but was rocked for seven earned runs in his most recent start. Soroka has a 5.40 ERA and might encounter workload limitations at some point after missing most of the past three years.
Fried is on a rehab assignment and could rejoin the rotation in the next few weeks with Wright potentially behind him, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see the club pursue some staring pitching in the weeks to come. In addition to the injuries to their regular starters, they’ve also seen depth pitchers like Allard and Ian Anderson drop out of the picture, the latter due to Tommy John surgery. Dylan Dodd, Jared Shuster or AJ Smith-Shawver have had brief stints in the big leagues without seizing larger roles. Since the club has a strong lineup and bullpen, the rotation would be a sensible focus for them at the deadline.
As for Wall, the 27-year-old finally cracks a big league roster almost a decade after being drafted by the Rockies in 2014. He was traded to the Blue Jays in 2018 as part of the Seunghwan Oh deal but topped out at Triple-A in that organization. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners last year but again didn’t get called to the show. Another minor league deal with Atlanta for 2023 has finally paid off with today’s promotion.
He’s now played in 290 Triple-A games across four different seasons, hitting a combined .259/.344/.373 in those. He doesn’t have much power, having never hit more than 11 home runs in a season, but he’s walking at a 13.5% clip this year. He’s also a proficient base stealer, getting over 35 in each of the past three seasons, including 52 last year and another 45 already this year. He’s capable of playing all three outfield slots.
Atlanta has a regular outfield of Ronald Acuña Jr., Michael Harris II and Eddie Rosario. Rosario has been dealing with some hamstring tightness of late, which could open up some extra playing time, though the club also has Sam Hilliard and Kevin Pillar on hand. Even if he doesn’t immediately carve out a regular role, Wall should be able to serve as a versatile bench piece who can pinch run or serve as a defensive replacement.
That Chris Martin trade has literally provided nothing for Texas. Both guys in the follow-up Allard trade got injured and basically won’t pitch at all this year.
Allard showed some flashes that first season with the Rangers, but unfortunately it looks like injuries will derail him from ever meeting his potential.
I don’t get why people use “injuries” as an excuse for having terrible numbers (a 6 ERA). I get if we are talking about Aaron Judge, but I don’t think Allard had consistent stretches of goof performance to indicate he had potential outside of injuries. A 86-87 MPH “fast” ball isn’t that impressive. I watched him dominate maybe 2 innings, before serving up a 2-run homerun or so. He would often do well in 1 outing and give false hopes, only to start throwing homerun derby pitchers the next time. Allard should have pitched to Joey Gallo and Adolis Garcia in recent homerun derbies instead of Beasley.
> I don’t get why people
> use “injuries” as an excuse
I don’t think it’s necessarily an excuse. His results are what they are at this point. However, Baseball is a game of rhythms. If you are injured frequently, you cannot maintain any sort of rhythm.
As a pitcher, you need to have a feel for your pitches. It’s one thing to have a feel for them in the bullpen and another thing completely to have it on the mound in an actual game.
You also can’t get in a rhythm when you throw 88 mph…. He’s just not good…
You can look at how quickly he progressed and how successful he was in the minors to see that there was potential. Does that mean he was guaranteed to be an ace in MLB? Of course not, but in order to maximize your potential it takes work and repetition. You can’t get the work in if you’re constantly injured.
Jamie Moyer says “Hi”
Deception can easily make 88 seem like 92-93. Many pitchers succeed with 91 or so. Not as many as the past but when you expect players that throw hard to be the only ones that are good (get the signing bonuses, get called up, etc) it’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many pitchers who throw around 91 have struck out a good amount too. Allard himself struck out 8 in 4 2/3 his first start.
I agree, Kidnova. He never had “ace” stuff, but there was a point in time he looked like he had the potential to be a piece in the back of a rotation. I know baseball fans don’t tend to get excited about that, but it’s not nothing. He’s just been derailed to the point that even that seems like a pipedream now though.
The thing that people never seem to grasp is there are so many guys who throw near 100 who never figure out the control and command. Watching the Braves growing up it was fairly routine that a starter would come up throwing gas and struggle and they’d tell him to take a few mph off and he’d succeed. It’s not all black and white.
Mike Minor, if I recall correctly, was one of them. He had a stretch of a full calendar year with ATL where he was second to Kershaw in nearly everything. He was throwing 91 or so. I believe he came up throwing 95 and stunk. I want to say Teheran was that way but can’t remember for sure.
If Allard takes a few more mph of his bread-and-butter (4 seam FB, thrown 45% of the time in ’23), he’ll be verging on an eephus.
He’s never had much control or a secondary pitch to really have any staying power in the league. He was a Coppy/Hart 1st rd selection that, like position player Drew Waters before him (though a 2nd rd pick), they exhausted their options, then sold reasonably high on him while they could.
Well I’m not saying he should take anything off. I’m saying that the fact that ATL used to do that with pitchers, and they would actually get better, speaks to the fact that you don’t really have to throw mid 90s. And that for some pitchers their stuff (fastball movement) and command actually can improve if they don’t throw as hard. Well the Braves must still believe in him or they wouldn’t have traded for him and let him start major league games this year.
It’s not really that I necessarily believe in the guy but that he did have two decent starts and the only bad one he had he was apparently hurt. He’s throwing better than Soroka this year,at least. Soroka was a pick in the same draft, btw. He sure wasn’t a flop, when healthy
He wasn’t a Frank Wren pick, btw. Wren left the year before. He was a pick of the next administration which, like everything they did, was hit or miss. Who doesn’t like having Max Fried tho? I can’t complain about Coppy entirely. Just not as good as AA.
I changed it to Coppy/Hart during my edit time. He was Coppy’s first pick, but timeline’s skewed in my head, as Wren had a lot of bad top picks (with some great international FA signings….).
Well in all fairness I’m sure the scouting from the years prior by Wrens guys played some role in that draft
Don’t let Kolby getting the ball in a spot start make you think they have that much confidence in him. They were shedding Odorizzi and his awful deal and were fine to take ANYTHING with a pulse to do so. The fact that Kolby got the ball in a spot start, IMHO, has more with them exploiting the matchup, knowing MIN is bad vs. southpaws. It worked then, so kudos, but I think it had much less to do with his stuff, but that could be just me. Look at his performance since that 6/28 spot start and you’ll see more of a true indication.
Oh, I agree. But there were plenty of pitchers like Jake that got around 10mil last off-season. I’m sure they could’ve got someone to take at least 5 mil of it for nothing. So they somewhat valued him, at least
He has a very good curveball.
Jamie Moyer with 20 years in the bigs?
I remember when blue jays fans thought Forrest Wall could headline a package for Mike trout. Gotta be the most delusional fanbase in baseball.
They couldn’t see the forest for the wall.
Bravo!
Blue Jays fans are top notch. I still remember when they thought the Braves had traded them a lock HoF SS in Yunel Escobar. They lived off that trade for all of 1 year before they hated him too.
He leaves one start early with shoulder inflammation and he’s straight to the 60 day IL? Did I miss something else?
It would seem this will lead to thoracic outlet surgery, which is about as bad of a diagnosis a pitcher can receive this day in age.
Maybe the shoulder inflammation part?
I just can’t recall an injury (ever) where the player appeared to have a non-catastrophic injury and then the next update was 60 day IL. There’s usually a few days of getting it checked out, maybe an immediate placement on the 15 day IL while they think about it, that kind of thing. Whatever they saw clearly was very bad.
Well if there’s a nerve entrapment, there’s not much more that needs to be looked into. It’s either physical therapy or surgery. If the guy can’t feel his fingers, the hope of a quick return is out of the cards. Chances are they saw bone spurs blocking pushing against the nerve or something similar.
It feels like the Braves team doctors have a pretty good idea what it is, they just don’t want to say for sure yet until test results confirm it.
That 6/28 spot start in MIN where he went 4.2 IP and uncharacteristically had 8K — I’m really not surprised to see this. Wish the best to him.
Good to see Forrest Wall finally get the big league call. I was always hopeful that he was going to be the successor to DJ LeMahieu at second in Colorado, but at least he will make it somewhere.
Hopefully he figures something out to find the 5-6 MPH he’s lost since HS
Needs to go to Tread or Driveline, or get traded to the Guardians or Rays. One of those four could figure out how to get him back to 91-94 MPH.
Kolby Allard Baird was a before and after puzzle on Wheel of Fortune the other night.
RUN FORREST RUN !!
I don’t understand calling up Wall unless you’re full well expecting to cut him very soon. You can’t have enough pitching in the majors on a given day and bench bats rarely play, so seems like you should find an arm u want to cut first
I do not get it either. Even if Rosario is dinged up.
The only thing I can think of is that this a prelude to a trade. Either they are already planning on not playing one or two others due to a pending trade, or they want to see if Wall is serviceable enough to consider moving someone with a little more value, such as Pillar or Hill
No idea really, but as you said, it really makes no sense from a ‘things are static’ viewpoint.
Cool to see Wall get a shot.
“Since the club has a strong lineup and bullpen, the rotation would be a sensible focus for them at the deadline.”
Strong bullpen seems like a pretty generous assessment.