What the Atlanta Braves saw in Scott Blewett

The Atlanta Braves completed a cash considerations trade for a twice-DFA'd reliever from the Orioles...but why?

Welcome home, Scott Blewett.

The former 2nd-round pick in 2014 by the Kansas City Royals was briefly a member of Atlanta’s organization, pitching 72.2 innings in Double-A for Mississippi in 2023 before electing free agency after the season and signing with the Twins.

But after pitching in relief with Minnesota (25 innings, 1.80 ERA), being waived and then pitching for Baltimore (4.1 innings, no runs allowed), Blewett’s on the move to his third team of the 2025 season with last night’s cash considerations trade between the Orioles and Braves.

Why did two teams give up on him this year and why did the Braves pick him up?

Let’s talk about it.

I don’t understand why they gave up on him

The Twins DFA’d Blewett on April 12th, and the Orioles did the same exactly one week later despite his performance.

Here’s the aggregated stats between the two teams for Blewett:

4 games, 9 total IP: 9H, 2R (1ER) w/ 1BB and 11Ks.

That’s a 28.9% strikeout rate and a 2.6% walk rate. When you dive into the numbers, it’s slightly lucky but not egregiously so: The 1.00 ERA comes with a 1.24 FIP and 1.56 xERA. The fundamentals are good, too: He put up a slightly-above-average 31.7% CSW with an 18.7% swinging strike rate.

I mean, look at this Statcast card and tell me if that screams “DFA this guy.”

That’s a lot of red!

I don’t get the roster move by the Twins or Orioles on its face, but I have a theory.

Several teams - the Marlins are pioneers here - have become aggressive at DFA’ing out-of-options long relievers after they pitch extended innings so that they can replace that guy, who would normally be down for a few days, with a fresh arm. In some cases, like Blewett’s, the DFA comes even if they pitch well.

The teams, essentially, are valuing the fact that a fresh arm can cover some innings as soon as tonight rather than this specific guy being able to continue to cover innings at a high level at some point in the next series.

I can’t say that I agree, but I get it - I argued yesterday that bulk innings are one of the hardest things to find for MLB front offices, and this is another data point in support of that assertion.

Unless there’s some sort of clubhouse concern with Blewett - and if there was, Atlanta wouldn’t have traded for him - the only explanation that makes sense is that both of these teams were willing to sacrifice quality innings next series for the potential to throw innings in this series.¹

Who is Blewett as a pitcher?

I’m glad you asked, invented rhetorical device, because this is my favorite part of this series of articles.

He’s a modern pitcher, that’s who. The vanguard of the new generation of arms, to be a bit dramatic here.

His anchoring pitch isn’t a fastball, which bucks modern convention, but rather a slider. He’s thrown a gyro slider 44.6% of the time this season, coming in at 84.1 mph. It’s got above-average drop (+1.0 inches) and below-average horizontal movement (-2.0 inches).

Against righties, it’s the clear lead pitch and he aimes to catch the corner.

He backs it up with a four-seam fastball at 93.7 mph, one that’s exactly average in its IVB (16.0 inches) and below-average of horizontal movement by 2.5 inches over the average (so a little bit of deadzone shape to it, unfortunately). He threw it 40.4% of the time as his lead pitch last year and has backed off to 34.5% so far this year, lowering the BAA by the fastball from .333 to .273.

The locations on the heater are…something, though. Not sure what he’s trying to do here unless it’s just an approach of “F*** it, strike zone’s up there somewhere”.

Unless it’s a game plan of elevating to righties and pitching away to lefties (or he’s just wild), it’s a confusing fastball heatmap by Blewett.

Let’s talk about the split finger - that’s fun. In the small sample size of 2025, that’s been his main putaway pitch.²

It’s another pitch that has above-average drop and below-average horizontal movement, so it’s very much a north-to-south approach.

He zones it well, too, although it’s thrown a lot more to lefties instead of righties. Matter of fact, he throws all three pitches almost equally to lefties, while righties see more sliders and fastballs than splitters by far.

How will Atlanta likely use him?

The easy answer is he takes José Suarez’s role as long man. Owing to his history as a starter, he’s accustomed to throwing multiple innings already. Each of his four outings this season have been more than one inning, and three of them saw him record at least seven outs and throw at least 30 pitches.

But I’ve got another idea here - he’s the potential replacement for Pierce Johnson.

Manager Brian Snitker hasn’t thrown the curveballer that much, or in high-leverage situations. Of Johnson’s nine outings this season, only three have been later than the sixth inning: the 7th against Tampa Bay (when Atlanta was losing), the 8th against Toronto (when Atlanta was losing), and Sunday afternoon against Minnesota for the 8th inning while the Braves were up 6-2.

Doesn’t feel like they’re trusting him with a lead, yeah?

I still think it’s likely that Blewett’s the long man in the pen for now, but it’s entirely possible that they may use him in middle leverage ahead of setup men Daysbel Hernández and Dylan Lee.

Given that Atlanta went ahead and announced the deal, I expect him to report tomorrow morning and be in the bullpen tomorrow night. Let’s see where his opportunities come in.

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Speaking of, it’s time to update our “bullpen roles” card from the roster projections articles, as they’ve zigged where we expected them to zag.

Bullpen:
CL: Raisel Iglesias
Setup: Pierce Johnson (R) Daysbel Hernández
Setup: Dylan Lee (L)
Fireman/GB specialist: Aaron Bummer (L)
Middle relief: Daysbel Hernández Pierce Johnson
Veteran in middle relief: Rafael Montero
Third lefty: EMPTY
Young bulk arm: Enyel De Los Santos
Longman: Scott Blewett, we think

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1. I’d also accept an explanation of “these front offices are bad”, too.

2. This is an actual metric in Statcast, measuring the rate of two-strike pitches that result in a strikeout. The splitter is sitting on 40% for the year, so 12 of the 29 he’s thrown this year have been for strike three.