Atlanta Braves: 3 players who won’t be on the roster July 1

MLB rumors: Jackson Stephens is on the chopping block in June

While it makes sense that an outfielder will have to be taken off the roster when Eddie Rosario returns, there is still no true timetable of when that will occur. It’s looking like July could be when it happens, but there’s no way to say for certain.

With this in mind, of the players currently rostered it appears that another relief pitcher is among the most likely candidates to be on the chopping block by the time July 1st rolls around.

Jackson Stephens is doing his best to keep a roster spot. This season he has a 2.79 ERA, 1.190 WHIP, and 9 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched.

Even though his ERA+ is an impressive 158, odds are that he will not keep this up. His FIP is 3.34, suggesting that he has gotten a bit lucky. Batters also have a BABIP of .245 against him, which leans towards some luck as well.

It should also be noted that a relief pitcher’s ERA is extremely volatile since they do not pitch near as many innings as a starter.

If we look at Stephens’ previous seasons, we can see that he has never had this type of output before. In 2017 he had an ERA+ of 97 in 25 innings pitched, and in 2018 he an ERA+ of 85 in 38.1 innings pitched.

Stephens also has a cool story. After not being able to crack an MLB roster following the 2018 season, he played in the Mexican league in 2021. There, he won pitcher of the year in the Venezuelan Winter League and put himself back on MLB’s radar.

Despite his redemption arc south of the boarder, other than his 49.1 innings in the Venezuelan Winter League and the 19 innings pitching in MLB in 2022, he has not had much success.

Tyler Matzek could potentially be back before the end of June, and he will obviously take a roster spot after being a key player in last year’s World Series run for the Braves. When he comes back, Stephens could be the odd man out.

The one thing that could save Stephens is that he does not have any minor league options remaining. Because of that, this could mean that the Braves do not want to risk losing him via designating him for assignment.