Despite getting reliever Tyler Kinley back from injury a couple of days ago, the Braves will now be without one of their best bullpen arms for the near future. Robert Suarez was unavailable during the Padres series due to what was being described as “right forearm tightness” and now it’s turned out that that ailment is enough to put him on the IL.
So far this season, Suarez was sitting on an ERA of 0.56 (13 ERA-) and. FIP of 2.45 (59 FIP-) across 32 innings of work. He’d also collected four saves in the process while teaming up as a dynamic duo with Raisel Iglesias when it came to dusting off late, high-leverage innings. In fact, Suarez held down the fort while Iglesias spent some time on the IL earlier this season after Iggy injured himself while sleeping (he’s 36, it happens). Now, Iglesias will have to return the favor now that the Braves are going to be without Suarez for however long it takes for him to get over it.
Meanwhile, Hurston Waldrep is finally back in action with the big league squad and apparently he’s going to be a man on a mission upon his return. Reynaldo López is starting tonight’s matchup against the Giants and according to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, the Braves are intending on using Waldrep to come in after López is done so that the two can hopefully cover the vast majority of tonight’s game.
As Bowman mentioned, this could be a strategy that the Braves employ going forward since that would kill two birds with one stone when it comes to filling a rotation spot and also giving the bullpen a day where most of the guys can rest up. That’s also assuming that López and Waldrep are effective in their roles so hopefully tonight’s experiment is the start of a good thing rather than yet another liability at a time when the Braves can ill-afford any further serious setbacks.
In other news, Carlos Carrasco is now a free agent after he has decided that he’s had enough of the DFA cycle for now. That’s not to say that the two parties won’t re-uinite again in the future since that’s very possible but for now, Carrasco and the Braves have gone their separate ways. Don’t be shocked if he ends up signing another minor league deal with Atlanta at some point down the road, though. We’ll see what happens.
