This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman's Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
NORTH PORT, Fla. -- When the Braves signed Buck Farmer to a Minor League deal and brought him to big league camp as a non-roster invite this past week, there was reason to wonder why the veteran reliever was unable to land a big league deal with any Major League club.
¡°It was kind of alluded to that my outs weren¡¯t 'sexy enough,'¡± Farmer said. ¡°I guess with strikeouts, swing-and-miss and stuff like that. Still had 70-plus strikeouts in 70 innings. So, it was there at some point. So, I don¡¯t know if it was that. The velo was down a little because I was throwing a sinker instead of a four-seam. And getting a year older with the velo going down. I don¡¯t know if teams didn¡¯t find that attractive. I just couldn¡¯t tell you.¡±
If Farmer pitches as effectively as he did while posting a 3.04 ERA over 61 appearances for the Reds last season, he should be a good fit. The 34-year-old right-hander and Georgia Tech product was raised in Conyers, and he currently lives in Buford. Playing for his hometown team had started to feel like a fleeting dream.
¡°I didn¡¯t think it was ever going to come true,¡± Farmer said. ¡°Being this far into my career and this is the first time I¡¯ve worn it. That means a lot.¡±
Farmer¡¯s average four-seam fastball velocity dropped from 93.9 mph in 2023 to 92.7 mph in ¡¯24. The expected batting average (.250) for this pitch in ¡¯24 was higher than the actual batting average (.216), indicating that he might have benefited from some good fortune. But the weighted on-base average (.311) produced by this pitch in ¡¯23 was better than the ¡¯24 mark (.344).
After looking at Farmer¡¯s Baseball Savant page, there was reason to question whether he might ditch the sinker, a pitch he introduced last season, and rely more on the changeup, a pitch that would also move away from lefties and in on righties.
Opponents hit .265 and produced a .412 slugging percentage against Farmer¡¯s sinker last season, but they also hit .267 with a .367 slugging percentage against his changeup. So, maybe it makes sense that he plans to stick with the sinker.
¡°Especially early on, [the sinker was getting weak contact early in the counts],¡± Farmer said. ¡°So, it was helping me be available day after day. I was going out there throwing 10, 11 or 12 pitches in an outing. That allowed me to be ready the next day. On paper, it might not have looked great, but it was still a very effective pitch for me.
Braves manager Brian Snitker likes what he has seen thus far from Farmer, whose experience could solidify a still-uncertain bullpen mix. Closer Raisel Iglesias, Pierce Johnson, Aaron Bummer and Dylan Lee are the only locks for the eight-man relief staff.
Daysbel Hern¨¢ndez will likely fill one of the other spots. Farmer, Angel Perdomo, Anderson Pilar and Jake Diekman are among the top candidates in the fight for what would be the final three spots.
¡°[Farmer] had a good year last year,¡± Snitker said. ¡°I was excited when we got him in camp. He¡¯s had some success in the role that we¡¯re looking for. He looked good when I saw him throw [Friday].¡±