Braves Hurston Waldrep Makes Strides in Latest Triple-A Start

Hurston Waldrep had himself some rain-free action on Sunday when he was back on the mound for Triple-A Gwinnett. The Atlanta Braves’ right-hander gave the Stripers 4 2/3 innings pitched, allowing a run on two hits and two walks while striking out five.

He stretched out to 71 pitches after finishing with exactly 53 in back-to-back starts. Granted, he was supposed to go deeper on Tuesday, but the rain forced him to wait.

The first inning saw heavy use of his cutter, a notable secondary pitch that hitters had a good handle on last season.

From the second inning onward, he showed heavy emphasis on the sinker. It’s a pitch with some greater effectiveness, and in turn, he started to settle in against Louisville hitters.

After allowing a run on two hits and a walk in the first, he pitched three scoreless innings and allowed a lone baserunner. Along with the sinker, he started showing more of a slider and his most effective pitch last season, the splitter.

That go-to pitch of his sat Elly De La Cruz, who is on a rehab assignment, on strikes. He caught the outside part of the plate, and a challenge upheld the third strike call. Three strikeouts overall have come of the pitch. One came on the slider while another came on the curveball.

From a velocity standpoint, Waldrep was in a good spot. His sinker hovered around 95.2 mph and topped out at 96.9 mph. It maxed out at a similar velocity in his last start, but the pitch was sitting around 93.4 mph. As he’s getting further stretched out, it’s ticking up, which is what you’d want to see.

No four-seam fastballs to be seen on the day. He’s shown it at times in previous starts this season, but it sat this one out in favor of his five other pitches.

Overall, it was a promising step in what is currently a spring training for Waldrep. A week into pitchers and catchers reporting, he had to undergo an elbow procedure to remove loose bodies.

He’s still a bit away from seeing action in the majors, but he’s getting closer. It would make sense that if he were to come up, it would be after he gets to 90 pitches.

As of now, the starting rotation consists of Chris Sale, Martín Pérez, Grant Holmes, JR Ritchie and Bryce Elder. They’ve been faced with injuries and a string of ineffective outings. Getting some reinforcements couldn’t hurt.

While they’ll certainly need to go get help on the trade market, Waldrep is an in-house solution who has shown previously that he can step up and help stabilize the rotation.

That time will likely come. For now, he needs to get ready to contribute at the level the Braves need him to.

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