I’m shamelessly stealing from the comments, here.
Unless there’s a move on the rotation side, Bryce Elder will probably begin the year in Atlanta’s rotation. Joey Wentz is out of options, as is Elder. Seems reasonable — unless you’re willing to roll the dice on the Braves going in a very different direction at this point in the offseason.
Anyway, I won’t linger because you get the contours of the question. The FanGraphs Depth Chart assignment has Elder throwing 109 innings as a starter and ten in relief;
for Wentz, it’s 18 innings as a starter and 34 in relief. The range of other projection systems features the combination of these two guys going about 110 to 240 innings, though you shouldn’t take the upper end of that range seriously because that’s more of a “how healthy are they?” measure than a depth chart-informed one.
My own sense is that if both guys were given free rein, they’d basically total about 100, on average, before injuries/performance saw their playing time curtailed. But they’re also somewhat competing with one another for innings provided the pitching staff health isn’t entirely a shambles, so I don’t know. 150ish might be reasonable but not exciting; I responded to said comment earlier saying that it felt like placing the over/under at 130 would be great to maximize betting, but with the Braves not signing Chris Bassitt for his fine enough deal with the Orioles, bumping that towards 170 might make more sense — at least for the time being.









