The 2024 Atlanta Braves roster projection is 1.0.
In the days leading up to Opening Day, the Atlanta Braves must make some decisions regarding their roster configuration.
When it comes to building their roster for the 2024 season, the Atlanta Braves are off to a pretty good start.
Nine of their top ten hitters are back, so 2023’s top run-scoring offense should be just as strong in 2024 as it was the previous season. Also, the addition of veteran lefthander Chris Sale fortifies a rotation that was severely damaged by injuries in the previous campaign but still features multiple All-Stars and Spencer Strider, the leader in strikeouts from the previous campaign.
As we approach the season opener in Philadelphia on March 28, there are still unanswered concerns regarding the fifth starter, the bench configuration, and the bullpen hierarchy. As the Grapefruit League progresses, Braves Today will project who will be on the Opening Day roster and update as necessary.
The important thing is that both Strider and fellow young talent Max Fried are at the top of the rotation, regardless of what order they are listed in. (In fact, given his length of service with the team, I believe Max has a better chance of starting on Opening Day).
However, Strider is rated as SP1 because he was the most successful pitcher in Atlanta last season, topping the major leagues in wins (20), strikeouts (281), and strikeout rate (13.5 K/9).
In Atlanta’s opening spring training game on Saturday, Strider debuted his new curveball, which may help him ascend to even greater dominance in 2024.
Together with Strider, Fried is the team’s co-ace and is expected to start on Opening Day for the fourth straight season.
As he approaches a contract year, Fried is your best option for non-Strider pitchers who could challenge for a Cy Young award, considering his dominance in 2022. Max finished second in the National League with a 2.48 ERA, going 14-7, behind Miami’s Sandy Alcántara and his generational dominance. In 2022, Alcantara pitched six complete games with a shutout against the Braves and finished 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA.
On Monday, Fried made his Grapefruit League debut against the Orioles, pitching two scoreless, hitless innings with two strikeouts and one walk.
With the 40-year Morton, you’ve moved up from the “young guns” tier into the “crafty veterans” tier. As Fried and Strider are somewhat interchangeable at this point in the rotation, Morton and Sale’s order seems more dependent on the order in which Strider and Fried go. The main consideration in deciding which order to throw the mid-rotation veterans is whether to stack the righties or the lefties.
However, Morton, who came back after Atlanta selected his club option, surely feels like there is “unfinished business” in this season because he was injured and missed Atlanta’s NLDS elimination game. Expect big things from the seasoned right-hander.
Compared to his time in Boston, where he was announced as the Red Sox’s Opening Day starter back in September, Sale, one of Atlanta’s three major offseason imports from outside the organization, enters the clubhouse with much lower expectations. In fact, he might not even pitch in Atlanta’s opening three-game series against Philadelphia.
However, Sale isn’t really here for the regular season; as 2023 showed, Atlanta can weather the long season with their strong offense and pitching. No, Sale is scheduled to arrive in October, and he is ready to cause havoc in the postseason as the MLB’s career strikeout rate leader (11.1 K/9, minimum 1000 innings pitched).
Additionally, he’s (supposedly) in the best health he’s been in a while, so the remainder officially placed on notice by the league.
This is where the actual discussion starts.
Because Lopez is more flexible than Bryce Elder—who has minor league options—and because there aren’t many optionable pitchers on this roster, Lopez is listed as the fifth starter on the Opening Day roster.
Stretching back out in spring training, Làpez—an early career starter who moved to relief and is trying to convert back into a starting role—took the majority of the innings behind Max Fried on Monday afternoon against Baltimore. In two innings of work, he gave up just one hit, which was regrettably a home run to Orioles third baseman Jordan Westburg. He pitched admirably.
Atlanta can allow Elder to start every fifth day while López continues to work on the conversion back to starting by placing Elder in Gwinnett and placing López in the rotation. It’s simple to call up Elder and add him back into the lineup in the event of an injury. There’s an easy fix if López struggles in the rotation: move him back into the bullpen and give him a role that requires him to pitch multiple innings.
Another area where options are scarce is the bullpen. Since the majority of Atlanta’s relievers are signed to long-term contracts, the majority do not have options. Expect it to change from what it appears to be at the beginning of the season.
Hernández and Lee, who each have a variety of options, are the ones who made it out of camp on the roster because Matzek might need a rehab assignment and Lopez is expected to start in the rotation. After offseason shoulder surgery “cleaned up some loose bodies” in the joint, Lee is finally feeling healthy, according to a report from Justin Toscano of the AJC. Lee was pitching through shoulder issues last season.
15-day: LHP Tyler Matzek – the veteran made hints about it last week, and it makes sense for the team to have another reliever on the roster with options to be sent down at any time, as Matzek has no options left. The lefty would benefit from a rehab assignment in Gwinnett.
Sixty days: RHP Ian Anderson (starter), RHP Penn Murfee, and LHP Angel Perdomo. All three of these players are recuperating from surgeries; Anderson and Perdomo underwent Tommy John surgery last year, while Murfee underwent a simple “elbow surgery” that is thought to be an internal brace. As soon as Atlanta completes a deal that permits a matching move, they will both be placed on the 60-day injured list.
RHP Huascar Ynoa is still pitching as a starter and is supposedly working to improve the quality of his changeup and restore his slider to how it was before Tommy John surgery. It seems obvious that he put in Gwinnett to continue sorting things out since he has options.
This Gwinnett rotation, which includes RHP Allan Winans, LHP Dylan Dodd, RHP Darius Vines, RHP AJ Smith-Shawver, and RHP Hurston Waldrep, is expected to be six or seven deep and could be very good—that is, if they can stay together long enough before someone is called up to assist the MLB club.
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