With Max Fried and Kyle Wright scheduled to miss at least a couple of months, the Braves have their first real conundrum of 2023 on their hands.
They only have three major-league starters, and their internal options aren’t inspiring much confidence. Michael Soroka looks close to being ready to return to the majors, but the Braves don’t want to rush him and are managing his workload carefully. In an ideal world, he wouldn’t return to Atlanta for at least a month or two, but this isn’t exactly a perfect world the Braves are living in.
Jared Shuster has provided some optimism in Gwinnett after a couple of shaky outings with a big-league club. He owns a 3.28 ERA with the Stripers and is probably next in line to receive an opportunity sometime this week because Dylan Dodd looks nowhere close to being ready to contribute with the Braves in a full-time role.
The 6-foot-2 southpaw began the year with a stellar start on the road in St. Louis, holding the Cardinals to one run over five innings, but it has been all downhill since then. In his next time out, he surrendered seven runs on ten hits to the Padres, leading to him being optioned, and the results in AAA have been equally discouraging.
Dodd was on the mound for the Stripers last night and only made it through five innings, giving up five earned runs on eight hits and a walk, which comes after an outing in which he allowed eight runs to cross the plate over 3.1 innings. In May, Dodd owns a 12.86 ERA with the Stripers, and on the season, it’s not much better at 7.86.
If there’s a positive takeaway from what we’ve seen from Dodd this season, it’s that he’s not afraid. He pitches to contact and doesn’t walk many batters, but that doesn’t always lead to positive results. When Dodd has been hit, it’s been a lot of loud contact. He’s not major-league ready, and that’s to be expected. Dodd wasn’t supposed to be a permanent member of the rotation this early in his career; unfortunate circumstances have forced the Braves’ hand.
There’s no question what the biggest concern is right now in Atlanta. They have to figure out how to manage their rotation without Fried and Wright. Bullpen games every few days is not the answer; someone is going to have to eat innings, but I can say with absolute certainty that guy is not Dylan Dodd right now.
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Photo: Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire
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