Braves option Michael Soroka, claim INF Lucas Williams, transfer Max Fried to 60-day IL

The Braves have been busy on the off day today. They have made three roster changes.

The Braves have claimed utility man Lucas Williams (Fangraphs knows him as Luke Williams) from the Dodgers today. He is listed as infielder, but has played all of the non-catcher position player spots in his career. He sports a career .234/.291./306 line with a 67 wRC+ and a career 0.3 WAR. If he were to take over for Charlie Culberson as the last bench player, this would be a modest improvement over Charlie, who has not played since his callup.

Max Fried has been removed from the 15-day Injured List and placed on the 60-day IL as a consequence of the throwing arm forearm strain. We had already been known that the Braves had shut him down for a month or so to build him back up. Fried was throwing on flat ground during the last home stand, so hopefully his move is just moving paperwork around to make room for Williams.

Michael Soroka is being sent back to Gwinnett after two starts. He was roughed up in Phoenix and totes a 8.38/8.77/6.37 line and -0.3 WAR back to Gwinnett. Those lines could have improved with no 3TTO PAs for sure, but it might be best to return him to a more relaxed schedule in Triple-A. His breaking stuff has looked terrific, and did a nice job helping with the starting pitcher shortage.

Today is an off day for the Braves, so the 26-man roster is one short for now. However, there is this report:

Per Hector Gomez, Roddery Muñoz will be called up for perhaps his professional debut with the Braves. Muñoz does have a 4.63/5.70/5.63 line in 23.1 IP for Gwinnett, but the bullpen needs arms and they are running out of guys to phantom IL (Yeah I see you Kirby). Roddery Muñoz is #21 on MLB Pipeline’s list of Braves’ prospects.

Well, what do the Braves do with the starting spot vacated by Soroka? Is AJ Smith-Shawver going to go from starting in Rome to starting in Atlanta in 10 weeks? Perhaps he does pitch 1 time through the order as part of the bullpen game. He was absolutely electric versus the Diamondbacks yesterday, and kept the Braves in the game to set it up for Eddie Rosario’s enormous grand slam. We will know soon and keep you updated.