Murphy struggled in his first MLB start on Saturday, raising concern for Atlanta's rotation ahead of the trade deadline.
With just over two weeks to go until the MLB trade deadline arrives, the Atlanta Braves have yet to come to a conclusion on their stance regarding their current rotation.
They have settled for current reinforcements within the organization, though none of which have stood out yet. Saturday’s result against the Texas Rangers followed a similar trend of roping in a new starting pitcher into the mix.
Braves rookie Owen Murphy took the mound on Saturday, making his first major league start after making two appearances out of the bullpen earlier this month. However, it did not go how he and the team would have hoped.
In what was a shaky start, Murphy turned in a brief outing in which he allowed three runs in 2 ⅔ innings of work. The right-hander yielded five hits and walked two batters, allowing lots of traffic on the basepaths in what turned out to be a 7-6 loss to the Rangers on Saturday.
Murphy drew just four whiffs on 27 swings and allowed a lot of hard contact — he averaged an opponent exit velocity of 94.5 mph. He threw a surplus of four-seam fastballs and changeups in the zone in the short outing.
Once again, it appeared that the Braves may have jumped the gun on inputting yet another pitching prospect in the rotation.
Unfortunately for Atlanta, they have been in this position before this season. A similar fate has followed JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes in their starts in recent memory, a trend the Braves can not seem to get past.
Recently, the Braves’ lack of starting pitching has begun to catch up to them. Outside of Chris Sale’s duties, the team has lacked consistency in the rotation and dealt with injuries that have sidelined multiple arms, such as Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Friday that the Braves are currently prioritizing adding offense to the team ahead of the trade deadline, while evaluating internal options for the rotation.
Though the Braves still sit atop the National League East, their lead has narrowed gradually after a lackluster month. As the team now sits just two games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies, the margin for error has become slimmer as time goes on.
Atlanta may want to begin prioritizing starting pitching if things continue, as internal options have not panned out the way they have hoped so far this season, despite small samples. Sonny Gray is one starter the team has been linked to ahead of the deadline on Aug. 3.
