JR Ritchie had maybe his best outing as a major leaguer last night against the Reds. I say maybe because, well, he did give up a homer, and also that the level of competition he faced from the Cincinnati attack was a lot lower than, say, what he faced in his MLB debut against the Nationals. But, I guess the main takeaway is that especially through the first nine batters, he was really good, in a way he often hasn’t been this season.
In some ways, the question of whether there’s space on the playoff
roster for JR Ritchie isn’t really one about his merits, but more about franchise preference. The reality is that there’s just plenty of room for pretty much anyone on the pitching side. Across the 13 spots, you have:
- Definite starters: Chris Sale, Tyler Mahle (2)
- Starter-ish guys: Grant Holmes, Martin Perez (2)
- Backend relievers: Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee, Raisel Iglesias (3)
Those guys alone leave six other spots. For those spots, you probably have:
- Probably locks: Brent Suter, Dylan Dodd, Victor Mederos (3)
So then we’re down to three spots. I don’t see a reason why Ray Kerr wouldn’t get one. AJ Smith-Shawver is clearly being tested to be deployed in a bullpen role, so we’re down to one. And the candidates for that spot basically come down to JR Ritchie, and a recovered-enough Robert Suarez.
If Suarez is recovered enough to be trusted in a playoff situation, then it’s really Ritchie versus Kerr versus Smith-Shawver. I don’t see Ritchie winning that battle, necessarily, though Kerr may be redundant enough with Dodd and Suter that maybe the extra right-hander that works as a bulk-y mop-up type guy ends up on the roster instead.
So I guess it kind of comes down to how the Braves feel about Suarez when he gets his big league tune-ups, versus how they feel about Kerr with a bunch of lefties already in the bullpen, versus how they feel about Ritchie.
How do you think it plays out?
I should note, I guess, that this question is fairly academic. Teams tend to only use the same four-ish relievers in the playoffs, and I don’t know that any of the bubble guys mentioned here, save Suarez, really factor in. Ritchie would probably only pitch if the game were essentially decided, or it was a crazy extra-innings affair. I guess I should’ve made this question about Suarez, but that seems more clear-cut as a “if he looks recovered, yes, otherwise hmm.”
