Kyle Wright will begin his bet on a rotation spot when the Braves play the Rays at the opening of the Grapefruit League season for both teams on Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Sports Park.
Wright is scheduled to start and throw two tickets to the Braves, who will also have Sean Newcomb, Grant Dayton, Carl Edwards Jr., Chad Sobotka and Patrick Weigel to make a relief appearance.
According to the 2021 spring training protocols, spring games through March 13 will be scheduled as seven-entry games, but by mutual agreement of the two managers, they can be reduced to five entries or extended to nine. tickets. Games that occur after March 14 will be scheduled as nine-entry games, but can be reduced to seven-entry games. Braves manager Brian Snitker said he expects all of his team’s games to be scheduled for seven innings in that two-week period.
With a road game also scheduled for Monday against the Red Sox, Snitker said he expects to play only half of his regulars scheduled at the opening of the Grapefruit League.
“I think we’ll spread it,” Snitker said. “We have a lot of guys we want to see.”
The Braves ’rotation plans will depend on what is determined about Mike Soroka over the next few weeks. While the team has not ruled out the possibility that Soroka will be ready at the start of the regular season, the hope is that he will be given extra time to recover from a torn right Achilles tendon. .
If Soroka starts the season on the injured list, Wright and Bryse Wilson are the best candidates for the vacant rotation.
Wright has been on the Atlanta Opening Day list in each of the last two seasons. But the 25-year-old right-hander has posted an ERA of 6.59, while so far he has only added 12 career starts. He showed some promise when he finished last year’s regular season with three strong starts and then threw six unscored innings against the Marlins in the third game of the National League Division Series.
Arrival of Freeman
Freddie Freeman has spent this week caring for his wife, Chelsea, who gave birth to the couple’s third child last weekend. The current NL MVP is expected to arrive in Florida on Friday night and complete the entrance tests on Saturday. That puts him in a position to start working with his Braves teammates on Monday.
Even if Freeman missed the entire first week of the Grapefruit League season, he would still have three more weeks left to prepare for the opening day.
“It’s not big at all,” Snitker said. “As you remember, it is usually hot during the first 10 days of [the Grapefruit League season] and then it gets bored for 10 days and then it works again. I don’t care at all about that. “
Other spring training protocols
For spring training games through March 13, defensive managers will have the option to finish an entry before the third out, as long as at least 20 throws have been added to the mid-entry and there is no appearance of plate. This will end the usual practice of having to summon minor league pitchers possibly unprepared to make an abrupt entry after a pitcher exceeds their target throw count within an entry.
The minimum three-beat rule will apply to each game played on or after March 14th.
Managers will also have the option to re-enter pitchers throughout the spring training. This will give administrators the option to use a downloader in a given situation to finish an entry and then retrieve its holder to start the next entry.