Help is on the way, Braves fans. Kyle Wright is eligible to return to Atlanta on April 11th, and he made his first rehab start in Gwinnett last night.
The stat line wasn’t pretty. Kyle Wright gave up five earned runs over six innings with six strikeouts, but that’s not all that important. What is important is the fact that he was able to make it through six innings and throw 84 pitches. That means he’s pretty much all the way stretched out and ready to go. When April 11th arrives, expect him to be back in Atlanta.
I already talked about Luplow surprisingly being designated for assignment, but it makes sense for a few reasons. Eli White is playing well in Gwinnett, and Sam Hilliard is filling his role nicely in Atlanta. He was pretty far down the food chain, and even if he wasn’t the odd-man out, he may have asked for an assignment to get an opportunity somewhere else. The Braves also get out from under Luplow’s $1.4 million salary.
Kyle Wright will bring some much needed pitching. Although the Braves have gotten good efforts from Bryce Elder and Dylan Dodd, they still may have to resort to a bullpen opener due to Jared Shuster’s poor performance and Max Fried’s injury. It’s April and the bats are humming, so I don’t have any issues with that, but I’m excited to see Kyle Wright come back up. Let’s hope he is as spectacular as last year when he lead the MLB in wins with 21 and finished 10th in the NL Cy Young voting.
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