Braves: 1 prospect to call up, 1 veteran to demote

The Atlanta Braves may need to call up this top prospect to replace an ineffective veteran.

May and June will tell the tale of how the Atlanta Braves‘ 2021 MLB season goes.

Atlanta came up one win short of reaching the World Series for the first time since 1999 last year. The Braves won their first two postseason series since 2001 as well. Simply put, the window to win a championship is now. Unfortunately, the Braves did not play well in April and find themselves with a sub-.500 record entering the first week of May. Missing the postseason is just not acceptable.

Could the Braves be making a big change to their starting rotation sooner rather than later?

Atlanta Braves: 1 top prospect to call up before it is too late

Kyle Muller should be making his Braves debut at some point this summer

Kyle Muller is a 6-foot-7, 250-pound left-hander from Dallas, Texas. He was a second-round pick by the Braves in the 2016 MLB Amateur Draft. While he did not have a good first start with the AAA Gwinnett Stripers, the 23-year-old has a career 3.18 ERA during his four Minor League seasons before this. He is the Braves’ No. 5 overall prospect with at ETA of 2021. He’ll get a shot.

What was the Braves’ Achilles heel a season ago was that they did not have enough high-quality starting pitching. While Max Fried and Ian Anderson absolutely stepped up once Mike Soroka went down for the season with, interestingly enough, a ruptured Achilles, Atlanta ran out of gas in the NLCS vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers because of a lack of starting pitching depth. It remains an issue.

Though the Braves are better in their rotation than they were a year ago, it has not offset the issues that have bubbled to the surface in their bullpen. The offense can be great, but is inconsistent. Frankly, the best thing that can happen to this team is if more of their starters can give them quality starts than not. Maybe adding Muller to the rotation by midsummer could help?