"Here's something that bedevils me: for the last few years, the Braves have consistently made minor moves for relief-esque arms that have involved players with truly horrible stats. Look, the state of pitching development at this point is that teams probably don't care about stats, even advanced ERA estimators, in a vacuum. But still, it's been kind of crazy to me that the Braves are just consistently grabbing these guys that look way worse than your standard 26th man, and occasionally even using them in Triple-A,"
"Carson Ragsdale fits this mold of "I don't get it, except they keep doing it." A 2020 draftee who's bounced around a ton already (including one inning for Gwinnett in 2025), his stats have been horrendous since he's hit Triple-A, with an xFIP approaching 6.00 at that level. He threw five big league innings for the Orioles last year, ending up with a 357 ERA-, 114 FIP-, and 125 xFIP-. Like I said, bedeviled."
The Braves claimed two relievers off waivers from Baltimore, continuing a pattern of picking relief arms with poor statistical profiles. Several recent waiver pickups have displayed historically bad Triple-A and MLB metrics, sometimes receiving Triple-A innings before release. Carson Ragsdale, a 2020 draftee, has posted an approximate 6.00 xFIP in Triple-A and struggled in five MLB innings with extreme ERA-, FIP-, and xFIP- marks. Josh Walker has produced more conventional 26th-man results, showing effectiveness in Triple-A and a career 160/95/108 ERA-/FIP-/xFIP- line over 27 1/3 innings. Pitching profiles suggest Ragsdale's hard curve and sinker usage raise questions, while Walker's breaking pitch profiles appear more reliable.
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