As we inch closer to the season, the roster continues to trim down. We are now at 37 players following the Braves’ most recent round of cuts, which included two players that were optioned to Gwinnett — Dylan Lee and Travis Demeritte — and one player that was released, Brock Holt.
I had Lee and Holt on my most recent Opening Day roster predictions, but I’m not so surprised by Lee. He still has options remaining, and the Braves have several other bullpen arms available. It makes sense for them to stash Lee in Gwinnett if they like one of the other players that doesn’t have many options available.
Cutting ties with Holt this soon was a bit shocking, though. The Braves are desperate for quality bench depth, and Holt has tons of major-league experience. On top of that, he’s been fantastic this spring, going 3-for-7 with a double and home run. The Braves did have a decision upcoming with him. By April 2nd, he had to be either guaranteed a roster spot, handed a retention bonus, or granted his release, but I wouldn’t have expected them to choose the third option so swiftly. Perhaps Holt had a pretty good feeling in his gut that the Braves were going to stick with Phil Gosselin over him. Regardless, Holt wasn’t moving the needle much for this team one way or the other.
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