Overview
- The Braves acquired Tyler Mahle at the trade deadline and he has allowed one run with 16 strikeouts across 12 innings in his first two starts for Atlanta.
- Mahle’s six-inning outing in the Aug. 12 win over the Mets helped Atlanta take the series and stretch its NL East lead to about 9.5 games.
- Coaches and data analysts appear to have cut Mahle’s cutter usage in favor of his four-seamer and splitter, a tweak credited with improving his command and swing-and-miss rates.
- Veterans Martín Pérez and Grant Holmes have also posted scoreless August stretches that have strengthened the rotation in the short term.
- President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos deliberately added only Mahle at the deadline as a bet on internal depth, a move that has paid off so far but leaves postseason rotation depth and October performance unresolved.