NL EAST
Atlanta Braves
The Braves aren’t ready to give up on Bartolo Colon despite a 7.78 ERA and five starts (out of 12) in which the 44-year-old righthander was unable to finish five innings.
But the Braves also don’t want to send 24-year-old rookie Sean
Newcomb back to the minor leagues, not after watching him pitch to a 2.19 ERA in his first two big-league starts.
The solution, at least in the short term, could be a six-man rotation once Colon comes off the disabled list, probably this week.
“We’ll start with it, and then see where we go,” manager Brian
Snitker said. “I don’t think we’re committing to it for an extended period.”
They might not need to. The Braves could trade left-hander
Jaime Garcia to a contender sometime during the next month. They could have another injury.
Or they simply could decide they aren’t going to get anything better out of Colon, who was supposed to help stabilize the rotation after signing a one-year, $12.5 million deal over the winter.
Draft Watch: The Braves didn’t waste any time choosing Vanderbilt right-hander Kyle
Wright once he got to them as the fifth overall pick, and within days they had Wright signed to a reported $7 million bonus. “He brings everything we want to see,” Braves scouting director Brian
Bridges said. “He was definitely No. 1 on our board.” Miami Marlins
As the Marlins start making plans for the July trade market, it probably would help if they knew who will own the team going forward. According to Commissioner Rob Manfred, an answer could come soon.
“I am hoping we get some clarity well before the trading deadline,” Manfred told Sirius XM radio. “I have no reason to believe the Marlins are going to be — quote, unquote — sellers in the players market at this point. It would be best for all concerned if we got to the point where we knew who the new owner would be before that happens, so they have some input in that process.”
At one point early in the season, reports suggested a group headed by Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush was close to a deal with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. Those reports proved premature, and Bush later left the group.
Jeter is still working to buy the team, but Manfred suggested a group headed by Tagg Romney and Tom Glavine plus at least one unspecified group remains in contention. uDraft Watch: Trevor Rogers, the high school left-hander from New Mexico the Marlins took with the 13th overall pick in the first round, is a cousin of former Marlins outfielder Cody Ross. New York Mets Just when the Mets got Yoenis Cespedes, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo back from the disabled list, another wave of injuries sent four other key players to the DL. In a three-day span last week, the Mets lost pitcher Matt Harvey (scapular injury), shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera (sprained left thumb), second baseman Neil
Walker (left hamstring tear) and outfielder Juan Lagares (broken left thumb).
Asked what the team could do to keep anyone else from getting hurt, manager Terry Collins had a two-word answer: “Bubble wrap.”
Besides putting four more players on the DL, the Mets found out last week that opening-day starter Noah Syndergaard (torn lat) won’t pick up a ball for at least another four weeks. Closer Jeu
rys Familia (blood clot in shoulder) also remains on the DL and might or might not pitch again this season. Draft Watch: After learning the hard way they don’t have as much pitching depth as they thought, the Mets took seven college pitchers in the first 10 rounds of the draft, starting with University of Oregon left-hander
David Peterson with the 20th overall pick in the first round. Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies continue to resist the temptation to rush their best prospects, even with the team off to its worst 64-game start since 1945. Second baseman Cesar
Hernandez is expected to miss about six weeks because of a strained abdominal muscle, but 23-year-old Scott Kingery will remain in the minor leagues.
“He’s doing great (at Class AA Reading, Pa.),” general manager
Matt Klentak said. “He really is. I’d suspect in the pretty near future he’d move to Triple-A. But
“I hear people in the stands, ‘Hey, Dusty, take him out of there.’ OK, who would you want me to put in? Because everybody, at some point in time, has struggled.” Nationals manager Dusty Baker on the continuing problems with his bullpen
it’s not time to bring him to the major leagues right now.”
Klentak said the same applied to other top prospects, at least for now.
“I think the challenge, as I’ve said 100 times, is to strike the proper balance between the present and the future,” he said. “And that continues to be the case.”
The present is bleak for the Phillies, who were 12-12 on May 1 but went 10-34 in their next 44 games. Hernandez was one of the brighter spots, with a .735 onbase-plus-slugging percentage. For now, the Phillies are using 33-year-old Howie Kendrick at second base. Draft Watch: For the first time since they took Chase Utley in 2000, the Phillies used their first-round pick on a college hitter. The choice was University of Virginia outfielder Adam Hase
ley, who some believe could get to the big leagues quickly.
Washington Nationals
With the draft done and the focus squarely on the July trading season, the big question for the Nationals isn’t whether they need to add a reliever. Instead, the issue is whether one addition would be enough.
While most of the Nats’ relievers have struggled, manager
Dusty Baker thinks the key is adding the right guy to pitch the ninth inning.
“I honestly feel like a bona fide closer would put everybody in a position where they should be,” Baker said. “That six and seventh is different than the eighth and ninth.”
The Nationals have run through all of their internal options to close games, with little success. Six different Nationals had saved games through the middle of June, and four of the six had multiple saves.
But the Nationals also had 11 blown saves and a 5.20 bullpen ERA, worst in the NL.
Draft Watch: The Nationals set the tone for their 2017 draft by using the 25th overall pick in the first round on University of Houston left-hander Seth
Romero. Nine of the Nats’ first 10 picks were college pitchers.
Contributing: Wire reports