When the Braves Trip Themselves Up: Jhancarlos Lara Edition
The Atlanta Braves keep stumbling on the details that shouldn't matter, but do
Charlie Morton will go down as one of the most beloved Atlanta Braves in franchise history.
A lot of it comes back to the veteran starter’s role in helping Atlanta win the 2021 World Series; after a 102 mph comebacker broke his leg in Game One, he stayed in the game and threw 16 more pitches, ultimately striking out Jose Altuve before the broken fibula finally gave way underneath him.
The Atlanta Braves announced on Monday night that they had signed the DFA’d Morton to a free-agent deal. Per manager Brian Snitker, he would be reporting to the team on Tuesday, at which point they would determine his role for the final five games of the season.
No matter if he starts, works in relief, or just hangs out in the dugout for the season’s final week, he’ll get to retire with the “Braves” across his chest.
But in their rush to bring Morton back to Atlanta, the Braves dealt themselves another self-imposed blow, one that’s been repeated too much this season.
Let’s talk about it.
Atlanta’s nostalgia problem
Anytime a former member of the Atlanta Braves is released, DFA’d, or put on waivers around the league, what’s the immediate response?
We all ask when he’ll suit up for Atlanta again.
This is the same organization that traded for Adam Duvall…twice (2018 & 2021). Same with Jorge Soler (2021 & 2024). Jesse Chavez has a Delta lounge named after him in the Atlanta airport.
We saw them repeat that pattern this season, welcoming back several former Braves as free agents - reliever Craig Kimbrel, outfielder Eddie Rosario, and starter Joey Wentz, just to name a few.
The results are mixed. Wentz is the most successful; while he’s cooled as of late, he’s shown enough to get a Major League deal somewhere next season, if not back with Atlanta.
But the Braves have also mismanaged several of those “reunion” situations.
Where the execution went wrong
One of the most notable mistakes was the decision by manager Brian Snitker to pinch-hit Rosario in the 9th inning of a one-run game. With the tying run on first base in Michael Harris II against the Cincinnati Reds on May 7th, Rosario struck out on four pitches to end the inning and the game.
Snitker had an explanation that, while frustrating, exactly fit with his ethos as a player’s manager. “I thought maybe Eddie could recreate some old magic.”
Unfortunately, the magic had run out. Atlanta designated Rosario for assignment just days later and after a one-month stay in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system, he was released in mid-June and is still unsigned.
And sometimes, the wrong decision came not in when they decided to play the veteran, but when they decided to dispose of them.
Reliever Craig Kimbrel signed with the Braves in mid-March. The future Hall of Famer was attempting a comeback at the age of 37 and voluntarily agreed to start the season in Atlanta’s minor leagues until he was ready.
And then he waited.
The Braves kept Kimbrel in Triple-A for six weeks - longer than he felt he needed to be there. But when they finally called him up, it was to reinforce a depleted bullpen in San Francisco against the Giants. He pitched a scoreless inning in a Friday road game in Oracle Park, giving up a walk and a soft single to the first two batters he faced but using a caught stealing and a pickoff to get out of the inning.
And then Atlanta designated him for assignment the very next day. No ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. No home whites. Just one road inning and a plane ticket out of town.
It was a move that really turned off some of his Triple-A teammates who watched him claw and fight his way back to the majors. “That really frustrated me and a lot of the guys in our locker room were very frustrated with it,” said veteran catcher James McCann, who played with Kimbrel in Baltimore and signed a minor-league deal with the Braves this spring. “It was strange to call him up for a day and DFA him. He’s not just a run-of-the-mill reliever who became a journeyman after two or three years in the big leagues. He’s a future Hall of Famer.”
He’s a Braves legend, the organization’s all-time saves leader with 186 and likely bound for Cooperstown. The best way to plan his call-up would have been at a time when he hadn’t pitched the day before flying cross-country to join the team, likely ruling him out of pitching on Saturday and prompting the DFA. McCann alluded to that, too, explaining that while the way he did it wasn’t pretty, there might be a reason and Kimbrel had to fight through it to give Atlanta a clean inning. “’I’m not going to speak for Craig, but he was also on a cross-country flight that morning. Maybe he didn’t have his legs under him, I’m not sure,” McCann said. “At the end of the day, he put up a zero. You can’t ask for much more than a zero when you take the mound.”
And that brings us to Morton. The Braves announced the veteran’s return on Monday night, with manager Brian Snitker explaining pre-game that the team didn’t yet have a plan for how to use Morton because he hadn’t yet reported to Atlanta; he was expected in Truist Park for Tuesday’s game.
However, they went ahead and made the transaction to add Morton to the 26-man and 40-man roster on Monday night. And there’s the problem.
Last Friday, Atlanta called up young flamethrower Jhancarlos Lara to, presumably, make his MLB debut. An international free agent out of the Dominican Republic, he arranged for his parents to make their first trip to the United States to see him pitch, flying them to Detroit.
The only problem is that the Braves didn’t get Lara into a game, despite having a six-run lead heading into the bottom of the ninth of Sunday’s finale. And then they optioned him back to Gwinnett this afternoon, despite Morton not being expected to be in uniform and available until Tuesday.
To put it simply:
The Braves chose to play short-handed rather than let Lara potentially debut in front of his parents.
Now, I’m not saying that the organization’s required to potentially sacrifice a close game just to get a kid his debut. But I am saying that in a lost season that’s already seen several…awkward roster and business decisions (see: Pennant Park, A-List price increases), things like this are a good way to build a little goodwill with the fan base.
And that’s just the public stuff that we all know about. There’s more, from clubhouse dynamics to prospect promotion decisions, that isn’t public knowledge but that has also ruffled some feathers.
No organization is perfect - with this many players involved, someone will not get what they want and have a bad taste in their mouth because of it - but for an organization that prides itself on its clubhouse culture and atmosphere being a differentiator, they’ve got to be better with this kind of stuff.
You are so right, Lindsay. It's like dating your ex-wife. STOP IT!
My guess is when Snit put Kimbrel in a high leverage situation and AA jpulled the plug. Kimbrel is a hall of famer no doubt, but he is not a high leverage reliever. For me it really is a black eye for the Braves they did this to one of their own. It was a poop sandwich and a poor poor execution regardless of the 'why.' Lara this can be fixed and should not need to be in the situation to be fixed. As in up 6,7,9 go ahead and throw the kid in already. Again to me there is a disconnect here. AA has to dfa players to keep Snit from thinking it is 3 years ago. I know it is more nuanced than that but it feels very strongly it is a Snit thing. AA then has to pivot.