What role does reliever Daysbel Hernández play in 2024?
Welcome to Braves Today's Opening Day countdown series! We'll use the number of days until Opening Day to look at the 2024 Braves roster through a different lens. Today: 75, the jersey number of reliever Daysbel Hernández.
Judging from the team's offseason moves, one of the big takeaways from the Atlanta Braves being eliminated in the NLDS for the second straight year was the need for more velocity in the bullpen.
President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos went out and acquired multiple relievers, and other than trade acquisition Aaron Bummer (94.4), every other bullpen arm added (or returned) to the squad averaged at least 95 mph with their fastballs.
Free agent signing Reynaldo López led the group at 98 mph, while re-signings Joe Jiménez (95.3) and Pierce Johnson (95.8) have significant velocity and trade acquisition Ray Kerr averaged 96 mph last season.
Meanwhile, many of the pitchers that have departed, either via trades or in free agency, come in below that 95 mph mark: starter Kolby Allard (90.5), reliever Collin McHugh (91.3), starter Jared Shuster (91.4), reliever Brad Hand (92.4), starter Yonny Chirinos (93.1), starter Michael Soroka (93.2), and reliever Kirby Yates (93.6) all contributed to Atlanta's average fastball velocity being one of the lowest in all of baseball.
And when you add in all of that departed (lack of) velocity, Atlanta's bullpen ended up having the lowest-average fastball velocity in all of baseball last season.
Starter Spencer Strider owned the highest average four-seam velocity amongst full-time regulars on the team at 97.2 (good for 20th amongst all pitchers in MLB).
But only three Braves pitchers averaged over 96 mph on their fastballs, and the other two weren't full-time members of the roster in 2023 - call-up Daysbel Hernández averaged 96.0 mph in his 45 fastballs thrown and midseason acquisition Taylor Hearn averaged 96.3 mph on his fastball, but threw only 21 pitches for Atlanta at the major league level.
That's been corrected going into 2024.
But what does the addition of multiple high-octane relief arms to Atlanta's bullpen means for Hernández, the midseason call-up that got 3.2 innings before landing on the 60-day injured list with forearm inflammation?
Does he get a chance to start the season in the Atlanta bullpen?
Hernández probably starts in Gwinnett next season
Fangraphs' Roster Resource has a currently projected bullpen configuration for Atlanta that doesn't include Hernández:
Projected bullpen lineup as of 1/13/2024
And honestly, it makes sense.
Hernández only has 61.2 innings pitched in the upper minors, with 42.1 of those coming before he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022.
He first got back into competition last April after the rehab process, pitching in High-A Rome. The statistics aren't great, with an 8.44 ERA in 6.1 innings pitched.
The results were much better in AA Mississippi and AAA Gwinnett, but it may ultimately come down to logistics: Hernández has all three minor league options remaining.
One of the issues for Atlanta's bullpen last season was a lack of options, with the Braves not being able to shuffle very many of the relievers between AAA and the majors as most teams do. Injuries ended up helping out Atlanta a bit, as Jesse Chavez, Collin McHugh, and Dylan Lee all missed significant time on the injured list and the Braves were able to utilize the 60-day IL for additional roster flexibility.
But for 2024, a combination of other sources of premium velocity and minor-league options means he'll have a chance to continue to hone his craft in the minors until he's needed, either because of injuries or ineffectiveness.
And of course, he could always show up to North Port this spring and absolutely dominate, forcing the issue.
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