Diamondbacks To Recall Mitch Bratt For MLB Debut

Diamondbacks left-hander Mitch Bratt is joining the club in St. Louis, reports Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Bratt is on the taxi squad for now but is expected to be active for Wednesday’s game. He’s already on the 40-man roster but the Snakes will need to make a corresponding active roster move to open a spot.

The move is presumably a response to some recent rotation injuries suffered by the Diamondbacks. For most of the season, they’ve had a quintet of Merrill Kelly, Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodríguez, Ryne Nelson and Michael Soroka.

Nelson hit the injured list four days ago with an elbow strain. A left glue strain put Soroka on the IL the very next day. Gallen took the ball on Saturday. Prospect José Cabrera was called up to start Sunday. Kelly took the ball yesterday and Rodríguez is scheduled to start tonight. There’s no starter listed for Wednesday. That could be Bratt or he could work as a bulk guy behind an opener.

Bratt, 22, was a fifth-round pick of the Rangers in 2021. He was one of three players the Snakes acquired when they traded Kelly to the Rangers at last year’s deadline. They later re-signed Kelly as a free agent in the offseason. They added Bratt to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

The lefty Bratt doesn’t have an overpowering arsenal. His four-seamer and sinker are both averaging between 90 and 91 miles per hour this year. He’s also throwing a curveball, changeup and slider, though some categorize the latter pitch as a cutter. Despite the lack of gas, he has been able to put up good numbers thanks to strong control of that arsenal.

He has thrown 424 2/3 innings in his minor league career as a whole, allowing 3.22 earned runs per nine. He has struck out opponents at a strong 28.1% clip while only giving out walks 6.1% of the time. That includes 44 1/3 innings this year with a 2.84 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate.

Baseball America currently lists him as the #13 prospect in the Arizona system. FanGraphs had him in the #20 spot back in the offseason. Both outlets highlight his control-over-power profile. BA is a bit more optimistic, feeling Bratt has a chance to serve as a viable mid-rotation arm in the Marco Gonzales mold. FG thinks a journeyman path like that of Erasmo Ramírez is more likely.

Bratt’s long-term trajectory won’t be settled this week. For now, the Diamondbacks just need to find some stability in the rotation. Bratt just spent a couple of weeks on the minor league injured list but returned on Wednesday last week, tossing 48 pitches over four innings. He may not be fully stretched out but could ideally give the club a few decent innings.

Whether he sticks beyond that remains to be seen. The Snakes don’t have a ton of rotation depth but they did recently send Brandon Pfaadt down to the minors to get stretched out. He has made three minor league starts in recent weeks but hasn’t yet reached four innings. The most recent, on Saturday, saw him go 3 2/3 while throwing 52 pitches. The Snakes could call him up or keep him in Triple-A to keep getting stretched out. If he does come up, then one of Cabrera or Bratt could be optioned back down to Triple-A Reno.

Assuming the Diamondbacks stay in the playoff race, they could perhaps look for rotation help at the deadline. It was once hoped that Corbin Burnes could be back around the All-Star break but he suffered a setback and now likely won’t be an option until September in a best-case scenario. With Nelson and Soroka now on the IL with him, and with Gallen and Kelly struggling, the overall starting group is feeling flimsy.