Those concerned about the Braves’ entry into Spring Training without determining who will be their closest will likely forget that the 2018 and ’19 seasons began with Arodys Vizcaíno in that role. Each of those years ended with Atlanta winning a National League East title.
Mark Melancon certainly played a key role in becoming the Braves ‘closer shortly after being taken over on the 2019 Trade Deadline. But the fact that Melancon is now a member of the Padres’ bullpen doesn’t mean that Atlanta’s closet will be dry when the club is trying to win a fourth division in a row.
“We have a lot of good options there,” said manager Brian Snitker. “We have a bunch of guys who have done that before. I think that’s a thing about bullpens in today’s game – you’re not going to have much consistency. I think that’s just the nature of the business and the way the industry is. There will be a lot of sales in bullpens. “
The Braves’ bullpen will look different with Melancon in San Diego and Darren O’Day with the Yankees. The two experienced veterans served as reliable relievers and valuable mentors during their stay in Atlanta.
But the Braves still have some skilled veteran relievers in Josh Tomlin, Chris Martin, and Will Smith. Tomlin seems destined to have a great coaching career and Smith is only a year away from establishing himself as an All-Star closing player for the Giants.
“This guy was an All-Star closer two years ago,” Snitker said of Smith. “I think we have some good options in our pen for closing games. How we do that, we’ll just have to see how we get there. But we have two or three guys down there who went through that and went through it. We’ll just see how it turns out. “
Including the postseason, Smith limited his opponents to a .165 batting average and knocked out 29.1 percent of the batters he faced in 2020. His 4.50 ERA was a result of eight of the 13 hits he gave up were home runs.
How do you deal with such an accident? Well, some of Smith’s woes were a product of his usually very reliable slider. His inconsistency with the field was likely due to the fact that he had been quarantined all month of July while waiting to test negative for COVID-19. He tested positive at the start of summer camp, but never got any symptoms.
If Snitker wants Smith to face a tough lefthanded man in the seventh or eighth inning, he could give the closing duties to Martin. Another candidate is AJ Minter, who filled the role in 2018. Minter certainly looked like a capable finisher as he struckout seven batters in three scoreless innings while making a spot in Game 5 of last year’s National League Championship Series against the Dodgers.
Drawing up decisions
When Snitker used the designated hitter last year, he saw how valuable it was to have Freddie Freeman fill the second spot in the line-up. But now that it looks like his pitchers will hit again this year, the veteran manager is considering bringing the reigning NL Most Valuable Player back to third place in the order.
Snitker started the 2019 season by giving Josh Donaldson his desire to hit second, as he had done during his peak days with the Blue Jays. But Donaldson turned out to be more productive when he went to work in the cleanup spot behind Freeman.
Snitker’s feeling is that with the pitcher hitting at the bottom of the line-up, Freeman would get more RBI chances while hitting third. That said, the skipper added that he hasn’t completely taken away the idea of starting his lineup again, with Ronald Acuña Jr., Freeman and Marcell Ozuna taking the top three places.
“I think we saw in that setup that it’s a whole different animal when the pitchers hit,” Snitker said. ‘It is not out of the question. We will talk about it and think about it and see. But I think it is real. I think when the pitchers hit, that spot doesn’t have the odds that say hit third, it does. “
Backup catcher
Once the Braves got a better sense of their financial situation, there was reason to think they would try to bring back Tyler Flowers with a beneficial short-term deal. But as time has passed, there has been more reason to think that the reserve duties could be given to Alex Jackson or William Contreras.
Contreras, Atlanta’s No. 7 prospect, seemingly has a much brighter future. But the desire to give him a chance to develop as an everyday player with the Minors could leave the backup role in the big league to Jackson, who hit 28 homers for Triple-A Gwinnett in 2019.
[Contreras and Jackson] both have come a long way, ”Snitker said. “It’s been a while since we had depth or catch options in our Minor League system. I think that’s a really good one to choose from. “