Atlanta Braves 2024 Roster Projection 1.5

The first is that Hernández has options remaining, and so can be sent to AAA Gwinnett to start the season. (Him giving up one run on four hits with one walk and no strikeouts in his first two innings in spring doesn’t really play into this, surprisingly, but it also doesn’t make an emphatic case for his inclusion.)

The second is that Giles, who doesn’t have options, made his Grapefruit League debut against his former team (the Philadelphia Phillies, who drafted him in 2011 and promoted him to the majors in 2014) and struck out the side, consisting of Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Alec Bohm.

Having returned nine of their top ten hitters, 2023’s #1 run-scoring offense should be just as potent in 2024 as it was last year. Adding veteran lefthander Chris Sale strengthens a rotation that was decimated by injury last season but still returns multiple All-Stars and last year’s strikeout leader in Spencer Strider.

But there are questions to be answered about the 5th starter, the configuration of the bench, and the pecking order of the bullpen as we head to the season opener in Philadelphia on March 28th. Braves Today will be projecting who makes the Opening Day roster, updating as needed throughout the Grapefruit League schedule.

See previous version here: 1.0

(Ground rules: Yes, Atlanta’s played in like six spring training games. Everything’s a small sample size overreaction. Additionally, we’re assuming there are no external adds to the roster between now and Opening Day, when in reality you could see several players that are released by other organizations added after cutdown day and so none of this may even happen. That’s baseball!)

Similar to the lineup, most of this is already known and the only questions are about the order in which they’ll get their first start in 2024:

We discussed this in the first version of the roster projection, but it’s easier to move a stretched-out López to the bullpen than it is to start stretching him out during the season for a move to the rotation. Bryce Elder, a 2023 All-Star, is relegated to making a 2nd consecutive Opening Day start for AAA Gwinnett in this scenario.

But since the Braves have used a minimum of 10 “true starters” every season since 2020 – by “true starters”, we’re subtracting relievers working in an “opener” capacity – and Atlanta’s undoubtedly going to be mindful of the workload for veterans Chris Sale (coming off injury) and Charlie Morton (old), Elder’s likely to be one of the first pitchers brought up from Gwinnett to make starts in 2024.

Guillorme signed a $1M deal this offseason with the knowledge that he’d be one of the primary pieces of Atlanta’s bench – the Braves used him at shortstop yesterday behind AJ Smith-Shawver, because if Guillorme can capably finish a game at shortstop, it opens things up for the rest of the bench.

Wall’s a fixture on this projection (and absolutely RAKING right now in Grapefruit League action.) Williams is the new inclusion to the projection, winning the 4th bench spot thanks to his defensive versatility and underrated speed.

n capably cover both corner infield and outfield spots, as well as second base (and even has 44 MLB innings at Williams cashortstop), and that versatility is useful for a roster that might have only Guillorme as an infield backup ahead of him. Marcell Ozuna has been playing first base in spring and Travis d’Arnaud made 16 starts in his career at first, all with Tampa Bay in 2019, but Williams’ ability to go almost anywhere on the diamond gives him the nod over other positionally limited options like J.P. Martinez (only outfield) or David Fletcher and Andrew Velazquez (primarily infield).

The first is that Hernández has options remaining, and so can be sent to AAA Gwinnett to start the season. (Him giving up one run on four hits with one walk and no strikeouts in his first two innings in spring doesn’t really play into this, surprisingly, but it also doesn’t make an emphatic case for his inclusion.)

The second is that Giles, who doesn’t have options, made his Grapefruit League debut against his former team (the Philadelphia Phillies, who drafted him in 2011 and promoted him to the majors in 2014) and struck out the side, consisting of Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Alec Bohm.