Braves News: AJ Smith-Shawver looms after solid Gwinnett start, Atlanta loses the bullpen game, more

The Braves lost another bullpen game and while they can be useful at times, Snitker doesn’t seem to have a strong ability to manage them to win, rather than simply to cover innings, and they can be taxing on the bullpen over time, so getting a fifth (assuming Shuster can be a fourth, which is not a given) real starting pitcher on the roster would be useful. The obvious option (again, if Shuster can solidify himself) is Dylan Dodd, who had a solid start for Gwinnett and only threw 73 pitches, which was apparently an intentional cap. Dodd would be lined up for this next rotation on Thursday. With that being said AJ Smith-Shawver is a big wild card, as he is clearly supremely talented and has been rapidly pushed up the minors from starting the season in high A all the way to now in triple A. He made his triple A debut on Friday and was good but not spectacular. If he can even be just good at Gwinnett, however and Dodd and/or Shuster are unable to handle the majors, Smith-Shawver could be in the majors sometime this summer.

Braves News

AJ Smith-Shawver’s debut was covered in our minor league recap of Friday’s play.

We are in mock draft season, as we are only a month and a half out from the draft, and the Braves were mocked a high school shortstop in MLB Pipeline’s latest.

The Braves lost yet another annoying game, this time 7-3 to the Mariners.

MLB News

Tyler Glasnow appears to be about a week away from his major league return.

The Dodgers signed once-dominant reliever Ken Giles to a minor league deal.

The Angels DFA’d Brett Phillips to activate Jared Walsh from the IL.

The Dodgers put Julio Urias on the 15-day IL less than a week after Dustin May went down for at least a month.

The Yankees DFA’d veteran Aaron Hicks, eating nearly $20 million in sunk cost.