What Needs to Happen for Atlanta Braves Bullpen to Become Elite

Coming into the year many thought the Atlanta Braves might have the best and deepest bullpen in baseball, but it hasn't all come together yet.

Right now the Atlanta Braves bullpen ranks 13th in ERA at 3.86, but they're fifth in WHIP at 1.21.

It's not like this bullpen has been as tragic as many fans seem to believe. But it certainly hasn't been as dominant as some expected.

There are many reasons for that -- injuries, regression, and bad luck.

Another valid excuse is that the starting pitching wasn't go deep into games early in the year, leading to a lot of usage. And now that the rotation is banged up, the Braves are having to deploy bullpen games, which are wreaking havoc on an already tired bullpen.

Again, while the bullpen numbers overall aren't terrible, there is certainly room for improvement.

What needs to happen in the bullpen

The first thing that needs to happen for this bullpen to reach that elite status is they need Raisel Iglesias to dominate in the closers' role.

Obvious statement of the day, but having an elite closer to finish off games takes a ton of pressure off the rest of the bullpen.

It was a bit of a rough start for Iggy giving up 4 runs in his 4 appearances, which was 2 more than he gave up as a Braves last year.

And his pitches didn't look as sharp -- even when he was getting outs. But he had a pair of 1-2-3 innings against Seattle and his outing on Sunday was the best he's looked all year.

The second thing that needs to happen is A.J. Minter has to figure out his issues. I did a deep dive into why he's struggling here.

Basically, the cutter just isn't a very effective pitch for him anymore and he's missing over the heart of the zone with it far too often. But there is still a path for him to be dominant again.

Third, they need to hope this comeback for Nick Anderson is for real.

He's been the most reliable reliever for the Braves all year. His curveball has been unhittable and the Braves' catchers are rightfully calling for it over 50 percent of the time.

The fastball velocity isn't quite back to where it was in 2019 or 2022, but it's almost a full MPH faster than 2021 before the injury. And in his last outing, he averaged 95 MPH with the fastball.

Fourth, Joe Jimenez has to be the guy they traded for.

It's crazy that Jimenez has become a forgotten guy in the bullpen after the Braves gave up a solid prospect in Justyn-Henry Malloy for one season of Jimenez.

The walk and strikeout rates are both very good, but he's getting hit extremely hard. The righty is in the 4th percentile in hard-hit%.

A lot of that may have to do with the velocity being down. His 4-seam velo is down 1 MPH from last year and his slider velo is down 2 MPH.

Batters are slugging .606 against his fastball and .500 against his slider.

If you're looking for hope, his fastball average fastball velo has been back up over 95 in his most recent outings. The last 2 hits he's allowed have come on hanging sliders.

Fifth, Collin McHugh has to be that gap guy.

When you look at the analytics this year for McHugh, he's been quite fortunate. His expected ERA of 4.45 is way higher than his actual ERA of 2.65.

A big part of that is because his strikeout percentage of 14.1% would be the worst of his career, and his walk percentage of 9% would be the second-worst of his carer. Combine those numbers with the fact he has an expected batting average against of .275 and you can see why the Braves are lucky it hasn't been worse for McHugh.

He's also had to be used in a lot of high-leverage situations because of injuries and the struggles of Minter and Jimenez. McHugh should be that guy who can come on in the sixth and bridge the gap to the back of the bullpen pitching multiple innings if needed.

That's the role he needs to be in, and the Braves need him to be effective in that role.

Sixth and finally, somebody else has to step up.

Certainly, those guys I just talked about are the glue to being a dominant bullpen and several of them have to be better.

But it would also be nice if somebody else stepped up.

The Braves are certainly hoping Kirby Yates can be one of those guys. His 29.6% strikeout percentage and .172 batting average against would tell you that's possible if he could cut out the walks (18.3% walk rate among the worst in baseball).

It's weird, too, because the velocity for Yates is actually right in line with where it was before the injury. The main issue is just not being able to locate.

Jesse Chavez remains an anomaly, but at some point the 39-year-old, 16-year veteran has to run out of magic, right?

Hopefully not.

And he's another bonus one - a trade is needed.

It doesn't have to be anytime soon, and contenders are always looking to upgrade the bullpen at the trade deadline.

The Braves should be among those teams looking for another dominant setup arm.

But the group they have is more than capable of getting it done. Perhaps they're getting out the bad now and saving the good for the end.

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