Bill Shanks
| Special to the Savannah Morning News
Thursday night in New York, Mets’ starter Griffin Canning bounced awkwardly off the mound in the third inning in his start against the Braves. The beleaguered New York bullpen came in and put up zeroes for the remaining 6 1/3 innings. The Mets shut out the Braves 4-0.
Then 24 hours later in Atlanta, a 139-minute rain delay forced the Philadelphia Phillies to scrap the scheduled starting pitcher, rookie Mick Abel. Instead, the Phillies made it a bullpen game, and four Philadelphia relievers shut out the Braves on nine hits. The Phillies shut out the Braves 13-0 in yet another game that could be labeled as one of the most embarrassing losses of the decade.
It’s not like this was Jacob deGrom pitching for the Mets and Zack Wheeler for the Phillies. It was eight relief pitchers that again showed how anemic the Atlanta offense is this season.
Maybe these two losses should let us define this season, this team, clearly. This Atlanta Braves roster is just not that good.
Blame manager Brian Snitker all you want. This starts with ownership, Terry McGuirk. The payroll is down this year ― from $238 million in 2024 to just under $216 million this season. Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos was obviously given a lower number last offseason, and he’s failed at trying to make this roster competitive. It happened in the same year several players have simply decided to take the season off.
This roster has too many players who either could be labeled as Quad-A players (they are good enough to play well in Triple-A but not too well in the Major Leagues), as the 26th man on a 26-man roster, or who shouldn’t even be in the Major Leagues at all.
Let’s analyze the roster and start with the pitching staff. Friday night’s starting pitcher, Bryce Elder, is as marginal as one can be in a MLB rotation, and that might be being nice. Elder now has a 5.82 ERA this season in 13 starts. His ERA in five starts in June is 8.25. Since the start of 2024, Elder’s ERA is 5.37. And since the middle of 2023, after he got off to such a great start he made the All-Star team, Elder has an ERA of 5.50 in his last 37 starts.
Can Elder pitch well at times? Certainly. He had a 3.10 ERA in a five-game stretch before these five starts in June. But Elder’s stuff is ordinary, and teams have just figured him out without him, in turn, making the adjustment to be a consistent starter at this level.
Didier Fuentes, a 20-year-old with great potential, was brought up and has made two starts. He has no business in the Big Leagues. Fuentes was rushed to Atlanta, and you would have thought the Braves have learned their lesson about rushing young starters. It rarely turns out as a positive.
Granted, the rotation lost No. 2 starter Reynaldo Lopez with shoulder trouble in the first week of the season. Then No. 4 starter AJ Smith-Shawver went down with a busted elbow in May. And just last week Chris Sale broke a rib diving for a ball. Once again, the rotation has been harmed by injuries.
But Anthopoulos had Max Fried and Charlie Morton, a pair that combined for 19 wins and more importantly 339.2 innings last season, walk out the door. Anthopoulos did not replace them. He went with Grant Holmes, who has been okay, but we’ll see if he can hold up for a full season, and Smith-Shawver, who didn’t last six weeks. No veteran was brought in, probably because the payroll was going down.
The bullpen has been a revolving door for pitchers who have been designated for assignment by other teams all season. Michael Peterson and Dylan Dodd, who both might eventually stick, are Quad-A pitchers. With Joe Jimenez out for most of the season with a knee injury, Anthopoulos did not replace him with a legit MLB set-up man. That combined with closer Raisel Iglesias having an ERA almost 4 runs higher than last year, have fans holding their breath late in games.
Starting shortstop Nick Allen is great defensively, but he can’t hit. He’s really more of a backup infielder who is getting starts because Anthopoulos never replaced Dansby Swanson. Luke Williams is as Quad-A as you can get, with a .159 batting average in his three seasons in Atlanta.
It looked like Alex Verdugo was a good sign in spring training for $1.5 million to be a backup outfielder. Pressed into more at bats with the suspension of Jurickson Profar, Verdugo has been a flop. After averaging 13 home runs and 63 RBI in his last four seasons, Verdugo has warning track power and has yet to hit a home run. He likely wouldn’t even be labeled a good backup outfielder at this point.
His partner in left field, Eli White, is a good ballplayer, but he’s yet another 26th man on a roster. The more he plays, the more he shows that. Stuart Fairchild is another Quad-A player. Fairchild has hit .205 with the Braves this season and is a career .223 MLB hitter.
And then there’s Michael Harris, who needs to be demoted to Triple-A. This has gotten out of hand. Harris has not walked in his last 33 games. This month, Harris has hit only .148 and has an embarrassing .165 on base percentage. Yes, he still plays great defense, but he cannot hit. Maybe he will again one day, but he is an automatic out right now.
Part of the problem is who to bring up to replace Harris. Jarred Kelenic was demoted and has done nothing to prove he belongs back up with a batting average just over .200 in Triple-A.
So you’ve got five Quad-A players (Elder, Peterson, Dodd, Williams, Fairchild), two guys who could be the 26th man on a roster (Allen and White), one who should have never been called up (Fuentes) and one who needs to be sent back down immediately (Harris). That’s nine of 26 players who have helped make this roster about as mediocre as one could get.
The blame for this season lies with McGuirk and Anthopoulos. Perhaps the owner will realize when he sits around in his green Augusta National jacket after the season that less money spent on the team will equate to less wins, and in turn less revenue when the fans just stay away. Whatever was behind the decision to limit or lower the payroll this season has had consequences. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.
And while circumstances like injuries and players (like Ozzie Albies) having abysmal seasons have not helped, it’s Anthopoulos’ job to fix this. He hasn’t yet, and it might simply be too late.
Profar will be back next week, and maybe Anthopoulos is banking on him making an impact to help the weak lineup. Don’t hold your breath.
Bottom line: this roster is not very good. That’s not always easy to admit, but it’s the truth. Maybe a miracle second-half will give the Braves a shot, but at the midway point they are on pace for a 74-88 record. And after watching the last two games, they may be lucky to reach that.
Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 pm on The SuperStations – 104.3 FM in Savannah and online at TheSuperStations.com. Email Bill at TheBillShanksShow@yahoo.com.