Jed Bradley called up, Pierzynski and Withrow return

The Braves have made a few moves as their September roster begins to congeal. Congratulations are in order to Jed Bradley, who will take one of those September roster spots.

The former first round pick improved a lot in his limited exposure to the Braves system after being acquired from the Brewers. He made 15 appearances (10 starts) in AA with a 2.35 ERA / 2.29 FIP, and enjoyed three more successful starts at AAA (1.50 ERA, 2.89 FIP).

Something even more interesting:

Bradley may be up to grab some starts down the stretch, rather than just pitching in mop-up duty (or, alternatively, as a LOOGY).

In other news, two injured Braves are also returning to the expanding roster:

Interestingly, the metrics loathe both of these guys this season. Pierzynski has a hang-dog 39 wRC+ and has showed no signs of resurgence like he did last season. His -0.9 fWAR puts him in the bottom 10 of all players with 250ish or more PAs. Withrow is perhaps more controversial: his 3.31 ERA is reasonable for a middle reliever but it comes with some crooked FIP and xFIP numbers (4.98, 4.74). He’s also struggled with homers and walks to both lefties and righties, but has managed to prevent runs decently well anyway. (He also has limited contact against lefties decently so far, but that may just be a random small sample reliever thing, in all likelihood.)

The scuttlebutt is that Eric O’Flaherty will be moved to the 60-day Disabled List to free up room on the 40-man roster for Bradley. Depending on how snarky you want to be, that may or may not dent the Braves’ chances for the first overall draft pick next June.