The Atlanta Braves have been one of the best teams in all of baseball this season. With a roster full of young and veteran players that are helping the Braves make another successful run at an NL East title, it's difficult to pick who fans could dislike. But it never fails —there's always at least a couple players that enrage fans every season, no matter how good a team is.
For the Braves, there's at least two in 2023. And they're both in the bullpen.
Joe Jiménez
What was the catalyst of their World Series championship team in 2021, the bullpen has been a bit of a hinderance at times in 2023 for the Braves. Currently at fifteenth in ERA (4.01), the Braves have been looking for help since the loss of top rotation guys Kyle Wright and Max Fried went down on the IL. Meaning that the bullpen has had to fill in heavily, sometimes in full on bullpen games or covering in early innings for rookie pitchers Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd when starting. Although veteran Charlie Morton and second-year flamethrower Spencer Strider have also had their moments struggling.
One of the big weaknesses with the bullpen is 28-year-old Joe Jiménez. The right-hander has had little moments of success this season, which has likely given every Braves fan fits when it's late in close games. Jiménez in 16.2 innings has given up 19 hits and nine earned runs, four of those being home runs. He has the third worst ERA for relief pitchers on the team at 4.86; second worst in FIP at 4.85.
It wouldn't be shocking to see Joe Jiménez designated for assignment just any day now. He certainly hasn't been one of the go-to's in the bullpen. On Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, Jiménez struggles continued. He gave up two walks, one hit and one run that gave the Phillies the go-ahead lead.
A.J. Minter
A.J. Minter was one of the heroes of the 2021 Braves World Series team. In fact, playoff Minter for the Braves has been nothing short of outstanding, only giving up eight earned runs, while accounting for 35 strikeouts and a 3.18 ERA. Braves fans want more of that in the regular season, because if Minter keeps giving up runs like he has been as of late, the Braves might not make it to the postseason.
A.J. Minter currently has the worst ERA in the pen, which has blown up to a staggering 7.43. Minter has had quite the workload over the past couple seasons, which many are accounting for his lack of production this season. He's second in the bullpen in innings pitched this season at 23.2. But in the last two seasons, Minter has been either one or two in most innings pitches out of the pen.
Minter has been a workhorse for the Braves. There's no question. He's been everything from closer to middle relief. However, it's when he's been placed at the closer position where he’s often struggled and it’s often carried over when he's later placed back as a middle reliever.
When Braves closer Rasiel Iglesias was on the IL at the beginning of the season, Minter was mostly placed in the closer role. He still had a 7:3 ratio in saves to blown saves while appearing in 10 games, but it's always been obvious that the closer role was never meant for Minter.
The question is, when will A.J. Minter return to form? Have the Braves gotten all they're going to get out of the former Texas A&M Aggie? Or is there an underlying injury that Minter and the Braves haven't noticed? Whatever it is, it has Braves' fans fed up with him this season.
On Saturday, luckily for Braves fans, he entered the sixth inning and allowed no walks, no hits and no runs in 0.2 innings.
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