ATLANTA \u2014 AJ Smith-Shawver is lined up to start Sunday for the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers, but he isn\u2019t listed as the probable pitcher. There\u2019s a chance the next time he toes the rubber, it\u2019ll be at the major-league level.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be someone here in the near future that\u2019s going to help us,\u201d Braves manager Walt Weiss said Wednesday after Smith-Shawver threw 95 pitches the day before.<\/p>\n
On July 29, Smith-Shawver made his first MLB start since he had Tommy John surgery last year. As the extra player added to Atlanta\u2019s roster for its doubleheader against the New York Mets in late July, Smith-Shawver, 23, went 4 1\/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out four batters. He threw 69 pitches, and his fastball averaged 97 mph.<\/p>\n
He was optioned to Triple A after the game and has made two starts for Gwinnett, where he\u2019s totaled 11 innings with 13 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
The Braves see Smith-Shawver as a contributor on their roster for the remainder of the season and beyond, but there is a bit of a crunch. He\u2019s mainly pitched as a starter in the majors, but with the Braves\u2019 starting rotation sporting a 2.68 ERA since the All-Star break \u2014 the best in baseball \u2014 it\u2019ll be tough for him to slide in.<\/p>\n
The bullpen appears to be a more feasible option, and given he spent so much time sidelined, it would help him regain the feeling of facing major-league hitting. Still, if he is brought up this week, barring an injury, someone will need to go down.<\/p>\n
If the Braves go in that direction, Victor Mederos seems like a reasonable option to be demoted to Triple A since he has options left.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just one piece of the puzzle for the Braves\u2019 pitching staff. Reynaldo L\u00f3pez, who is eligible to return from the injured list, threw a bullpen session Tuesday and said his command and physical shape felt good. Manager Walt Weiss and L\u00f3pez said they felt his stint on the IL, prompted by left knee inflammation, would be short. When he returns, another roster move will need to be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are things we have to think about,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cBut he\u2019s at the point where he\u2019s in play now, and obviously a talented arm. So I\u2019m looking for ways to make that work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 AJ Smith-Shawver is lined up to start Sunday for the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers, but he isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":974317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11449,7,6,15],"class_list":["post-974316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117102615201253150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}