Lane Thomas Was the Easy Part

The Braves solved one problem by acquiring a right-handed bat. Now Alex Anthopoulos has to solve a lot more

The hard part wasn’t acquiring Lane Thomas and Tyler Mahle.

The hard part is finding room for them.

Over the next 24 hours, the Braves have to activate Thomas, decide what to do with Ha-Seong Kim, prepare for Sean Murphy’s return from the injured list and, given that Alex Anthopoulos isn’t finished dealing, clear even more roster space.

The two trades Atlanta has already made address legitimate needs. Thomas gives the lineup a proven right-handed bat that owns left-handed pitching. Mahle adds another veteran arm to a rotation desperate for innings.

But neither move exists in isolation.

Every addition creates another decision, and the Braves suddenly have a roster puzzle to solve before Monday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline.

Let’s talk about it.

Lane Thomas solves one problem

Going into Sunday’s series finale versus the Nationals, Atlanta’s left fielders put up a combined .654 OPS/81 wRC+, with the bulk of that playing time going to Mike Yastrzemski and Mauricio Dubón.

That OPS figure is 28th and the wRC+ is tied for 27th.

Adding Thomas, plus the addition of Ronald Acuña Jr. allowing Mike Yastrzemski to return to left field, means that the Braves can now get a higher standard of play in left field as well as deploy their personnel more efficiently. Since Mike Yastrzemski got out of his offensive slump on May 12th, he has a .848 OPS versus right-handed pitching. Lane Thomas this season has a .800 OPS against left-handed pitching.

While it’s clearly not as simple as “smash the two together and you have an above-average offensive performer”, being able to better deploy the two - Thomas had been miscast as an everyday player in Kansas City, while Yastrzemski has mostly been able to platoon but sometimes was forced to face lefties - should result in a higher offensive floor in left field.

Figuring out who loses a job is the hard part.

Thomas, who is from and still lives in Knoxville in the offseason, is set to report to Atlanta tomorrow. He flew home from Kansas City on Sunday and is making the drive to Atlanta on Monday morning, per the AJC’s Chad Bishop, and as a fan of franchise legend Chipper Jones as a kid, is reportedly “excited” to get started with the Braves.

Thomas was traded along with lefty Bailey Falter, who will report to Triple-A Gwinnett and is expected to remain with the Stripers for most of the season.

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Want more info on all of the trades around Major League Baseball? We’re breaking them all down as they happen over on the Deadline Tracker.

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Tyler Mahle solves another

In the month of July, Braves starters averaged just under five innings per start, covering 127.1 innings in 27 games. That, plus multiple extra innings games, resulted in Atlanta’s pen throwing 114.1 innings, second only to the San Diego Padres and likely the most when accounting for Atlanta’s lack of bullpen games or openers.

Tyler Mahle can conceivably help here.

The 31-year-old has pitched in seven games since returning from a hamstring strain in late June, pitching into the 7th inning twice and the 6th inning three additional times. He’s put up a 3.79 ERA/3.63 FIP in that span, and struck out nine in Saturday’s start against San Diego, following up a strong July where he had a 2.82 ERA.

The overall Stuff is still a bit underwhelming, though. Mahle is battling a career-worst 21.6% whiff rate, although he’s overcome that to still strike out 22% of batters faced this year thanks to his splitter and slider. Mahle isn’t the type of pitcher you’re planning a postseason rotation around, but taking the ball every fifth day and getting through six innings from now through September would be a welcome addition.

PITCHING NERD SIDEBAR: Alex Anthopoulos told reporters on a conference call Sunday night that Mahle, who will pitch this weekend versus the Yankees, will be getting some pitch mix changes to better handle righties (.305/.387/.461). My first thought is to throw less four-seamers and more sinkers early in the count, as well as throwing more cutters inside to righties and being more aggressive with the slider and splitter in general.

It’ll also have the ancillary effect of allowing the Braves to deploy Grant Holmes in his original “utility pitcher” role, strengthening the bullpen and eliminating the primary culprit of short starter outings this season. July was Holmes’ ‘longest’ month, going five innings in four of his five outings and 4.2 in the other; on the season, Holmes has pitched into the sixth just five times in 20 starts and has 98 rotation innings.

But every action has an equal reaction.

The Braves need to make three roster spots

Atlanta needs to report both players to the roster by Tuesday, a day after making a roster spot for SS Ha-Seong Kim, whose rehab assignment ended on Saturday night. To compound matters, catcher Sean Murphy’s rehab stint will be ending in roughly a week and he’ll need a roster spot, as well.

Barring any trades that solve this problem today, the Braves need to part with three players.

The pitching decisions

The pitching moves are relatively straightforward - with Mahle joining the rotation and (presumably) Holmes bumping back to the pen, either starter JR Ritchie or reliever James Karinchak would be optioned down to Gwinnett, or Atlanta could DFA lefty Danny Young. My guess would be Ritchie, although if he’s optioned, that’s the fifth time this season and he can’t be sent down again without passing through waivers.

Once a postseason starter is acquired later today, there’s another pitching decision to be made and the winner of the option/DFA decision above likely becomes the next casualty.

The position-player decisions

The offensive moves are tougher.

Lane Thomas is both a good baserunner and has excellent speed. The Braves currently have two go-to pinch-running options on the roster in Jorge Mateo and Eli White, so one of those two feels like a potential victim here. White has future control and is the better defender, but he's essentially limited to the outfield. Mateo’s on a one-year deal and more likely to pass through waivers, making him the logical choice for the Braves to DFA to make one spot. The complication there, of course, is the clubhouse. Beat writer Jesús Cano of The Athletic reported on Saturday that Mateo is one of the most-liked players in the clubhouse and that the roster would, in general, be “pissed” were he to be unceremoniously DFA’d. White might end up being the casualty, due to being the team’s fifth outfielder.

The second spot goes to Kim…if he’s not traded. Atlanta is already committed to Kim's full $20M salary this season, so eating money to facilitate a trade isn't out of the question. Last deadline, Atlanta traded embattled reliever Rafael Montero to the Tigers for a bit of “organizational position player depth”, as MLB.com put it: Jim Jarvis.

After instructing him through a swing change, Jarvis debuted this year and has shown to be a mostly steady defender at shortstop through his 206 innings while also providing some surprising offensive contributions. While he’s optionable and can be sent down to make room for Kim, the belief is that the Braves will continue giving the “extended run” to Jarvis that manager Walt Weiss discussed a few weeks ago.

The Braves could always move on from designated hitter Dominic Smith and punt one of these decisions for about a week when Sean Murphy is set to return. If Drake Baldwin is the primary DH at that time, keeping a third catcher (with future control) in Joey Bart would make a ton of sense, but we’ll see what the Braves decide to do over the next few days.

One thing has become clear over the last 48 hours: acquiring players was never going to be the difficult part of Atlanta’s deadline.

Finding the right ones, and then fitting them all onto the roster, is.

The Braves still have decisions to make on Ha-Seong Kim. Sean Murphy is nearing a return. Another starter or reliever could still arrive before Monday’s deadline.

The roster Alex Anthopoulos wakes up with Tuesday morning is almost certainly going to look different than the one that took the field this weekend.

And the biggest decisions may still be ahead.