The Braves have outrighted left-hander Bailey Falter to Triple-A Gwinnett, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker, a move that followed Monday’s designation for assignment.
Falter has more than three years of service time, which means he can technically elect free agency. Still, the likelier path is that he accepts the assignment, since walking away now would mean giving up the final couple weeks of his $3.6MM salary - about $232K. If he does head to Gwinnett, he could get one last appearance with the Stripers before their season wraps up on Sunday.
There’s also a decent chance Atlanta brings him back up next week if he stays in the organization. The Braves are trending toward finishing as the National League’s #3 seed, and they’ve already lined things up so Chris Sale makes his final regular-season start a week from now. That setup would put Sale on five days’ rest for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series the following Tuesday, with Tyler Mahle presumably lined up for Game 2.
That could leave Atlanta needing only depth arms for the final game or two in Miami. JR Ritchie and Martín Pérez should each start in that series, while AJ Smith-Shawver, Owen Murphy, Elieser Hernández and Falter are among the pitchers available to soak up innings and keep the top arms fresh for the opening round.
Falter arrived with Lane Thomas as salary relief for the Royals and has already made two relief appearances for Atlanta. In 3 1/3 scoreless innings with the Braves, he’s followed 10 1/3 spotless frames with Gwinnett.
The results have been solid, but Falter remains a soft-tossing lefty who doesn’t miss many bats and was hit hard in Kansas City. If Atlanta doesn’t put him back on the major league roster, he’ll be eligible for minor league free agency this offseason.
Even if he does get one more call-up for the final weekend, the Braves are not expected to tender him an arbitration contract.
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