There has been quite a bit of discussion about Alex Anthopoulos’ comments about him essentially just wanting to add a starter who would be a mid/top of the rotation guy, and not really trying to just add a guy who fits in the back of the rotation. I have conflicting feelings about these comments. A guy like Chris Bassitt would have made this roster better on paper. That’s not really something that’s disputed. I think there’s an argument if you think Bryce Elder and/or Joey Wentz are 1-1.5 fWAR/162 starting pitchers, and adding a 2-2.5 fWAR/162 starter for just under $20 million isn’t a good return on the investment and doesn’t substantially improve the depth if it results in the likely loss of a guy like Elder from the roster. A counterargument to that would be that Elder or perhaps a Holmes or Lopez could be stashed in the bullpen to maintain depth if a guy like Bassitt was added, but I don’t see Elder as a particularly strong candidate for the bullpen and that scenario wouldn’t have made much sense until Schwellenbach’s injury status was discovered. That said, adding a top 3 starter to the roster at a reasonable cost is a very difficult task, so perhaps that’s an unrealistic self-imposed bar for adding to the pitching staff. It’s an interesting approach and I hope the Braves don’t suffer another plague of injuries to their pitching staff this season.
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