The Atlanta Braves have a job opening in their rotation, if anyone wants it.
Since starter Spencer Strider went down, Atlanta’s cycled through options in the 5th spot of the rotation and so far, no one’s seized the spot and kept it. The Braves have sent five different pitchers to the mound, and only one’s had an ERA below 4.66 - AJ Smith-Shawver, who hit the injured list after one scoreless start with a strained oblique that should keep him out until sometime in July. Prospect Spencer Schwellenbach showed some promise in his first outing, going five innings with three runs allowed, all on a homer from Washington’s Lane Thomas.
The Braves have another top prospect that’s one step closer to making his major league debut after Saturday’s news that righthander Hurston Waldrep was being moved from Double-A Mississippi to Triple-A Gwinnett.
Waldrep, 22, was Atlanta’s first-round pick last season out of the University of Florida, where he took the Gators to last season’s College World Series. Making a MiLB-high eight starts after the draft, Waldrep’s leading all 2023 draftees with seventeen combined starts in his professional career. He’s 3-5 with a 2.40 ERA and 89 strikeouts (10.2 K/9) to 33 walks (3.8 BB/9) so far in 2024.
Waldrep’s been tasked with some interesting pitch arsenal restrictions, as is typical of Atlanta’s development directives to their minor-league pitchers. He’s sidelined the fastball (only 38% usage) and superb splitter, throwing more sliders and curveballs than he did last season. After two rough outings to start the season, giving up ten runs on a combined seven innings in his first two starts, he’s rebounded to be one of the system’s best pitchers. In his last seven Double-A starts prior to the promotion, he’s gone 3-2 with a 1.28 ERA, striking out 41 to only 12 walks in his 42.1 innings.
His walk rate has improved, one of the biggest “to-do” tasks given to the righthander. After walking 4.2 batters per nine innings in college and 4.9 during his travels through the system last season (where he pitched at all four full-season affiliates), Waldrep’s walking just 3.1 batters per nine this season and that’s after walking five in those first two abbreviated starts.
There’s another player gunning for that fifth spot, as well
Utilityman David Fletcher, who has spent almost the entire season in Triple-A Gwinnett save for a brief major league cameo during the injured list stint of Ozzie Albies, has long toyed with a knuckleball and Gwinnett was using him once every four or five days in single-inning relief stints.
That all changed last Wednesday, when Gwinnett needed a starter after Spencer Schwellenbach was called up to start for the major league club. Fletcher made the start for the Stripers and not only survived, he excelled.
Pitching five complete innings, Fletcher allowed just two runs on three hits, walking one and striking out six. He retired eight straight batters at one point, throwing 60 knuckleballs among his 72 pitches at an average of only 64.1 mph. Despite the low velocity, Fletcher picked up 11 whiffs on the knuckler and a 33% CSW overall.
The corresponding move for Waldrep’s promotion was Fletcher moving to Double-A Mississippi, ostensibly to continue developing the knuckleball. There’s still plenty of work to do to turn him into a legitimate pitching option - Fletcher’s ‘fastball’ in that start, of which he threw twelve, averaged only 79.1 mph and topped out at 82.9, getting no whiffs (although none were put into play, either.) - but it’s an interesting move that could pay dividends down the road if Fletcher picks it up.
The Braves have history with knuckleballers, with both one of the greatest in baseball history and the last one to win a Cy Young both suiting up for the franchise. Hall of Famer Phil Niekro spent a majority of his career playing for the Braves, starting in Milwaukee and moving to Atlanta with the franchise for the 1966 season.
In his combined years with the Braves, Niekro went 268-230 with a 3.20 ERA, making 595 starts across 21 years and pitching 4622.1 innings. He had four top-six Cy Young award finishes, but never won one, with his best finish being 2nd place in 1969. Despite going 23-13 with a 2.56 ERA in 284.1 innings, Niekro lost the 1969 Cy Young to New York Mets starter Tom Seaver, who led baseball in wins with 25 and had a 2.21 ERA in his 273.1 innings.
(Also, while not a knuckleballer, Niekro's nephew J.J. Niekro is a pitcher for Double-A Mississippi.)
The Braves DID have a Cy Young-winning knuckleballer suit up for the franchise, however, although he didn’t win it with the organization. R.A. Dickey pitched in Atlanta for the final season of his career, his age-42 season in 2017, going 10-10 with a 4.26 ERA. After several years of struggling as a conventional starter, Dickey turned to the knuckleball and had a late-career renaissance, winning the 2012 Cy Young at the age of 37. He went 20-6 and beat out Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw after leading the NL in starts (33), complete games (5), shutouts (3), innings (233.2), and strikeouts (230).
The only current knuckleballer in baseball is San Diego Padres starter Matt Waldron, who faced Atlanta last month and had one of the best starts of his career, striking out ten in 5.2 innings with just one run allowed in a Padres 3-1 win.
David Fletcher’s apparently working to be the next.
