BRAVES LIKELY NEED BULLPEN HELP TO REMAIN SUCCESSFUL

You might’ve missed it in the flurry of runs and wins over the weekend, but the midpoint of the season came and went while the Braves were sweeping the Cardinals at steamy St. Louis. It’s a place where recent Atlanta teams have been on the other side of such outcomes.

But as we should realize by now, these Braves are not like those of recent vintage. They had the National League’s best record (48-34) entering Monday’s threegame series against the Yankees, the team with the majors’ best record (5427). The Braves are rolling again, having put an unimpressive homestand behind them by starting the most difficult road trip of the season — 10 games against the Cardinals and a pair of division leaders, the Yankees and Brewers — with a sweep.

But it must be noted, they swept in spite of the bullpen, not because of it, which brings us to today’s topic: the need to fix the bullpen this month before the trade deadline.

Remember how the 2-4 homestand last week brought out the familiar skeptics and doom-andgloomers, some of whom opined that, at the least, the Braves were due for a correction toward .500?

But after a sweep at St. Louis, the bandwagon is getting crowded again, with some national pundits now

identifying the Braves as the team to beat in the NL.

And maybe they are. Lineup is strong. Rotation is solid and seems to take a no-hitter to the fifth inning once a series. Team chemistry is exceptional. Youthful energy is never-ending.

The bullpen, however, continues to raise flags. Especially on a team that doesn’t have the kind of aces in its rotation that can

be expected to go seven or eight innings, or a team philosophy that is likely to give them much chance of going seven or eight.

Atlanta starters’ 3.31 ERA is second-best in the majors, trailing Houston’s 2.95. But it must be noted that Braves starters have pitched only 451 innings in 82 games (5.5 innings per start). Also, in terms of fielding-independent pitching (FIP), a measurement of performance that strips away the role of defense and luck, Braves starters rank sixth in the National League at 3.90, behind the Dodgers, Phillies, Nationals, Mets and Cardinals.

Sean Newcomb, Mike Foltynewicz have been the keys to a Braves rotation that has surpassed most reasonable expectations, but this rotation isn’t dominant enough to cover the bullpen’s shortcomings. The disparity in average innings per start between the Braves starters and other major league starters’ ERA leaders is significant over the long haul and puts more stress on a bullpen that’s not particularly deep, especially after shoulder woes landed Jose Ramirez on the disabled list for an extended period and put Jose Vizcaino on the DL for the past 11 days.

Don’t discount the Ramirez injury; he was expected to be a key setup man after his breakthrough in 2017. Dan Winkler and Shane Carle picked up the slack and then some with their terrific work in the first months of the season. However, Winkler has been a lot more hittable since the beginning of June and Carle appears to have hit a wall.

The recent progress of A.J. Minter has been a much-needed positive for a weary Braves bullpen. After struggling with command issues in the first two months, Minter has a 1.35 ERA and .119 opponents’ average in 14 appearances since the beginning of June. He’s looking again like the dominant setup man and potential closer the Braves projected. But Minter’s been the exception.

Carle went from pitching at an All-Star level, posting a 0.69 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in 20 appearances through May 19, to struggling mightily with a 6.35 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in his past 15 appearances. Left-hander Sam Freeman has a 5.03 ERA and 18 walks in 34 innings. Veteran sidearmer Peter Moylan has a 1.846 WHIP and .310 OA this season including .315 by righties.

Then there’s this: Without saying it, the Braves have clearly been trying to control the innings for starters such as Newcomb and Foltynewicz, neither of whom has ever pitched 160 innings in a season.

Veteran Brandon McCarthy has dealt with several nagging injuries, serving as a reminder that he never pitched as much as 100 innings in the three injury-plagued seasons before this one. Top starter prospect Mike Soroka is on the DL for the second time with shoulder problems and rookie Luiz Gohara has been a season-long reminder of why young prospects can’t be counted on on a consistent basis.

I think the Braves will add at least one reliever and more like multiple relievers before the trade deadline. The Braves don’t want to trade away 5-6 prospects in a couple of trades, if they don’t have to. But at some point, they might have to, unless they deal a current player or two that’s perhaps expendable, or they deal for a pitcher with an expiring contract and a price that comes down.

Among the relievers who are reportedly available or potential available: the Reds’ Raisel Iglesias, David Hernandez and Jared Hughes; the Tigers’ Shane Green; the Orioles’ Zach Britton and Brad Bach; the Marlins’ Adam Conley, Kyle Barraclough and Brad Ziegler; the Padres’ Brand Hand and Craig Stammen; the Mets’ Jeurys Familia; the Blue Jays’ John Axford, Aaron Loup, Tyler Clippard and Seunghwan Oh; and the Rangers’ Jake Diekman and Keone Kela.