JR Ritchie may have helped his case with one of his better major league outings Monday night against the Reds, but whether that performance actually changes anything for the Braves’ playoff roster is another matter.
Ritchie was sharp early, especially through the first nine batters, and that stood out because it’s not something he’s done consistently this season. He did allow a homer, and the level of competition he faced from Cincinnati was not the same as what he saw in his MLB debut against the Nationals, so the outing wasn’t spotless. Still, the overall impression was encouraging.
The bigger issue is that this feels less like a pure merit debate and more like a numbers-and-preference problem for Atlanta. On the pitching side, there appears to be room for just about everybody. Across the 13 available spots, there are already 10 pitchers essentially accounted for.
That group includes what look like three locks: Brent Suter, Dylan Dodd, and Victor Mederos. That leaves three spots.
Ray Kerr seems like the next name in line, and AJ Smith-Shawver is clearly being auditioned for a bullpen role. That brings the conversation down to one remaining spot, and that’s where JR Ritchie and a recovered-enough Robert Suarez enter the picture.
If Suarez is healthy enough to be trusted in a playoff setting, then the competition really becomes Ritchie versus Kerr versus Smith-Shawver. Ritchie doesn’t look like the favorite in that fight, though Kerr may be the odd man out simply because he overlaps so much with Suter and Dodd. In that scenario, Atlanta could prefer the extra right-hander who can handle bulk innings and mop-up work.
So the real question is how the Braves view Suarez once he gets his big league tune-ups, how they value Kerr with several lefties already in the bullpen, and where Ritchie fits in that hierarchy.
Even then, this is mostly an academic debate. In the playoffs, teams usually lean on the same four relievers or so, and most of the bubble names here probably won’t matter much unless Suarez is part of the mix. For Ritchie, the path to innings would likely require the game to be out of hand or turn into a long extra-innings grind.
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Braves Survived A Scary Acua Moment In A Huge Late Win
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The good news for the Braves is that the situation did not turn into something far worse, and the team was able to keep pushing toward a needed win. Atlanta edged the Reds 3-2 in 10 innings behind a strong outing from Chris Sale, a result that helped soften the anxiety from Acuas scare and kept the night focused on a hard-earned victory instead of an injury update. [Read more 🡒]