With its bullpen struggling as of late, the Braves are bringing up one of its farm system talents a little sooner than they’d like.
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Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports that the Braves are calling up prospect Shae Simmons to slot in immediately as a setup man to closer Craig Kimbrel. He will be available as the Braves take on the Marlins on Saturday afternoon. Simmons comes straight from Double-A ball, having posted a Kimbrel-esque 30 strikeouts over 23 innings while maintaining a 0.78 ERA. Righties and lefties are hitting below .200 off of him.
Bowman writes that the bullpen needs some relief due to the absence of usual setup man Jordan Walden. Walden has been out since the beginning of the month with a strained hamstring and due to the injury, Atlanta is needing to throw Simmons into the fire immediately, so to speak. Usually, organizations like to ease prospects and new bullpen pieces into the Majors, putting them in low-pressure situations, such as mop-up roles, but the Braves are clinging to a one game lead in the NL East after barely beating out Miami Friday night.
As a whole, the Braves bullpen sits 8th in all of baseball with a 3.09 ERA and the struggles for the team this week cannot be blamed entirely on them. Sloppy baseball in general led to Atlanta being swept by a Red Sox team that, prior to the series against the Braves, had lost ten straight and was visibly showing signs of frustration. Thursday it was three errors. Wednesday it was a messy outing for Alex Wood, who took over for Gavin Floyd. Tuesday, it was a four-run seventh inning off of rookie reliever Ian Thomas. Monday, the bullpen blew a five-lead against Boston, at a time when the Red Sox seemed most vulnerable.
Ian Thomas, the rookie who had problems Tuesday night was optioned back to the minors to create space for Simmons.