The rotation needs at least one arm, but the Braves might feel like they can survive with a stopgap option until Spencer Strider returns from injury. Bringing Charlie Morton back could be in the cards, and Alex Anthopoulos even thinks Grant Holmes could be a significant contributor based on how he performed last season.
“We’ve definitely talked about it at length,” Anthpoulos said in regards to adding a starter this offseason, via David O’Brien of The Athletic. “Definitely something we’d like to do. We’d also like to find out about Grant Holmes. We’re going to need more than five starters regardless. So, they’re going to have their opportunities. But we really liked what we saw out of Grant Holmes at the end of the year. He’s out of (minor-league) options. But we liked what we saw out of (him in) the rotation.”
Holmes pitched to the tune of a 3.56 ERA over 68.1 innings, primarily in long relief for the Braves. However, he did make seven starts, including the final start of the season, a game in which Atlanta needed to win to clinch a spot in the postseason. Holmes certainly deserves consideration, and as Anthopoulos alluded to, teams need a lot more than 5-6 starters to get through a 162-game season.
“You’d love to, in a perfect world, have six, seven, eight guys and feel really good about it. We have a lot of young arms, but you never know who’s going to take a step forward,” Anthopoulos continued.
Holmes, by himself, is not going to be nearly enough. As currently constructed, the Braves have three clear-cut starters in their rotation — Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, and Spencer Schwellenbach. Spencer Strider is expected to miss about a month, but he will be back at some point after tearing his UCL in April.
Beyond that, guys like AJ Smith-Shawver, Ian Anderson, Bryce Elder, and Grant Holmes can compete for opportunities. That’s pretty damn good if everyone can stay healthy, but as Braves Country knows all too well, health is not something that can be taken for granted.
Anthopoulos needs to add a body or two, and Brian Snitker is confident that will happen.
“I still feel good about our rotation,” Snitker said, via Mark Bowman of MLB.com. “We’re a long way from opening the season on March whatever. We’ll find somebody. Something will happen to where it’s going to be good. Somebody’s going to come along or [president of baseball operations] Alex [Anthopoulos] is going to make a move or somebody is going to jump the fence like [Spencer] Schwellenbach did last year and do big things for us.”
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Photographer: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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