Earlier today, I noted that one of two big things to watch going forward was the level of urgency with which the Braves were going to treat the rest of the season with regard to their pitching management. At least right now, the level of urgency appears to be unchanged from the status quo of “no urgency” that’s been the case for the entire season to date:
Snitker confirmed that Winans will start Wednesday. He said they might also plug in someone to start Thursday series opener at NYM, with Dodd among options if not used in relief before then. https://t.co/bYEjvdlq7O
— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 23, 2024
The Braves needing someone for Wednesday was a bit of a fait accompli, given Max Fried’s injury. But Charlie Morton would be on regular rest for Thursday’s game, and as we all know, it’s not like starting Dylan Dodd or someone else on Thursday means they’d be skipping Morton. Rather, they’d just be pushing everyone back a day.
Right now, without any shuffling, starting Winans on Wednesday would mean that the Braves would use their regular rotation, sans Fried, in the four-game series in New York against the Mets this weekend. With shuffling, Sale will likely be bumped to the following series against the Brewers.
There’s probably something to be said about how maybe trying to win games against the Mets (yes, the Mets) might be helpful at this point given that they’re currently 3.5 games behind the Braves in the Wild Card standings and have the third-highest playoff odds among non-division winners in the NL, but I just wrote a post that included that sort of thing already, so I’ll just leave the rest of the potential discussion to your imagination.
Winans was blasted in one MLB start so far this year, but pitched really well in six starts last year. He has a middling 4.04 FIP and 4.32 xFIP in Triple-A this year. Dodd was pretty much just destroyed in six starts last year (though he did have a nice MLB debut), and has been the bad kind of pants in Triple-A (4.58 FIP, 4.53 xFIP).
