Atlanta Braves: Projected Future Rotation in 2016
By John Buhler
The Atlanta Braves organization has made a conscious effort to rebuild what was once a barren farm system. Under the leadership of President of Baseball Operations John Hart and Assistant General Manager John Coppolella, the Atlanta Braves have transformed from a bottom five Minor League collective to a top five caliber one in ten months.
Hart and Coppolella’s point of emphasis of rebuilding the minor league system is to get Atlanta back to having the deepest pitching staff in all of baseball. When the Atlanta Braves were at their peak in the 1990’s, the starting rotation featuring Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz was the best ever assembled in MLB history (1993-2002).
-= Atlanta Braves Walkoff Against Giants 9-8 =-
The Atlanta front office has made countless moves to aid in bringing top arm talent to the organization. Some of the trades have hurt, as Braves Country was sad to see so many of our favorite players leave town. But I think that we’re all on the same page that something needed fixing with the Atlanta Braves, a team that hit its ceiling under former GM Frank Wren in 2013: 96 wins, the 2-seed in the NL, and just one playoff win in the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the first year of the John Hart Era, we have seen many new faces in the Atlanta Braves rotation. The only piece remaining from last year’s strong staff is RHP Julio Teheran. We’ve seen placeholder veterans like Eric Stults and Trevor Cahill, we’ve seen Shelby Miller become an All-Star in his first year with Atlanta after playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, and we’ve seen young arms like Manny Banuelos, Mike Foltynewicz, Williams Perez and Matt Wisler all make their Atlanta Braves debuts this season.
With one eye on the present and two on the future, he is my earliest guess to what the 2016 Atlanta Braves starting rotation could look like at some point next season.
Next: An Ace That Needs Run Support