Once-promising arm could be important for the Braves in 2024
The Braves completely revamped their bullpen this offseason, with an obvious focus on increasing the speed of their relief core.
Alex Anthopoulos worked quickly to re-sign Joe Jimenez and Pierce Johnson.
Both were acquired in trades last season and signed multi-year deals.
They returned Raisel Iglesias and AJ Minter, but Anthopoulos wasn’t done yet.
He acquired Aaron Bummer in a trade and signed Reynaldo Lopez in free agency.
This is as expected for the Braves, at least five high-leverage relievers, and maybe six if Bummer experiences a
positive regression.
Additionally, there are some strong players returning from injuries such as Dylan Lee and Tyler Matzek, which, if
they return to form, could give Brian Snitker two more southpaws.
Then AA has some lottery tickets as usual.
Ray Carr can do that, and they’ve set their sights on Penn Murphy, who could be back at the end of the season after
undergoing Tommy John surgery in June.
But there could be another potentially important piece that not too many people are talking about, once-promising
arm Huascar Ynoa.
Starting 17 games in 2021, the hard-throwing right-hander posted a 4.
However, these numbers do not accurately reflect the possibilities.
It seemed like Ynoa was well on his way to stardom until he injured his hand in May.
He pitched 44.
2 innings through May 16, posting a 3.
03 ERA with only 11 walks and 50 strikeouts.
Then young Inoa punched him into the dugout bench, knocking him out for two months, and he was never the same
again.
Upon returning in August, Inoa pitched 46.
1 innings with a 5.
05 ERA and a 4-5 record.
Looking at his performance, there were hopes that he would be able to get back into shape for 2022, but that didn’t happen.
He got off to a terrible start that continued into Triple-A.
Finally, he had to go under the knife in September 2022, which cost him all of 2023.
He’s now back from Tommy John surgery and is expected to be ready for spring training.
Inoa’s problems may be partially due to an elbow injury, so he is expected to be able to contribute in 2024.
It’s unclear how many minutes he’ll get as a starter, but his repertoire is perfect for a backup role.
Whatever Huascar Hinoa gives the Braves this season will be great.
No one expects him to be a key part of the bullpen, let alone the starting rotation, but he’s still young and has a great arm that’s worth getting excited about.
