There has been a decent bit of discussion around Alex Anthopoulos\u2019 comments regarding essentially only looking to add a starter who would be a middle\/top of the rotation guy and not really trying to add just a guy to fit into the back of the rotation. I have conflicted feelings on these comments. A guy like Chris Bassitt would have made this roster better on paper. That\u2019s not really something disputed. I think there is an argument if you think that Bryce Elder and\/or Joey Wentz are 1-1.5 fWAR\/162 starting pitchers, then adding a 2-2.5 fWAR\/162 starter for just under $20 million isn\u2019t good return on investment and doesn\u2019t substantially improve depth when it results on the likely loss of a guy like Elder from the roster entirely. One counter-argument to that would be that Elder or perhaps a Holmes or Lopez could be stashed in the bullpen to preserve depth if a guy like Bassitt had been added, but I don\u2019t see Elder as a particularly strong bullpen candidate and that scenario wouldn\u2019t have made much sense until Schwellenbach\u2019s injury status was discovered. That said, adding a top 3 starter to the roster for reasonable cost is a very difficult task, so perhaps that is an unrealistic self-imposed bar for adding to the pitching staff. It\u2019s an interesting approach and I hope that the Braves don\u2019t suffer from another plague of injuries to their pitching staff this season.<\/p>\n
Braves News<\/p>\n
We put out some early roster predictions<\/a> including the starting rotation and the backup catcher spot.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n MLB News<\/p>\n The Orioles acquired pitching depth from the Twins for cash<\/a>.<\/p>\n