With three weeks to go before the games start to count, teams across Major League Baseball are just starting to trim down their 40-man rosters.
Inconsistent pitching was one of the Atlanta Braves’ biggest downfalls last season, which was caused in large part by a boatload of injuries. They have incentive to keep as many of their spring training arms in the organization as possible, which meant any pitchers with minor-league options available probably wouldn’t make the major league roster unless they had established track records.
For 25-year-old right-hander Rolddy Muñoz, that meant an unlikely bid to break camp with the Braves for opening day came to an end rather early.
On Wednesday, the Braves announced that they had optioned Muñoz to Triple-A Gwinnett to begin the season. It’s the second season in which he’s been optioned, meaning Atlanta will be able to send him back and forth between Gwinnett and Atlanta relatively freely for this season and the next one.
Muñoz was the third player on the Braves’ 40-man roster to be optioned to Gwinnett in the span of a week, following shortstop Nacho Álvarez Jr. and righty Hunter Stratton.
Last season, Muñoz made his major league debut in September and gave up five earned runs in 3 2/3 innings of work against big-league competition. He was solid out of the bullpen in the minors, pitching to a 2.85 ERA in 60 innings, but the Braves have a lot of other right-handers competing for spots who have significantly more experience and no options available.
After optioning Muñoz, the Braves still have plenty of work to do to trim their opening day roster down to the required 26 players. As of Wednesday’s announcement, 59 players remained in major league camp, including non-roster invites.
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