The Atlanta Braves still have not named a starter for Saturday afternoon’s National League Division Series opener in Los Angeles, and there is little reason for them to tip their hand before first pitch against the Dodgers.
What they did in Thursday’s Wild Card Game 3 has already narrowed the menu. Ray Kerr opened that game and worked 3.1 innings, a workload that almost certainly takes him out of any comparable role a day later.
Chris Sale finished the win, which makes him an unlikely option as well. What remains is a bullpen game, and at least one beat writer believes Atlanta already knows how it wants to begin.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com wrote that the Braves will go to the bullpen on Saturday and that Brent Suter is the likeliest opener, which is never going to be any fan’s favorite solution.
Bowman immediately undercut his own read, noting that whenever he settles on a preference, the club often goes the other way, and that Jesse Chavez might therefore have a better chance at the first assignment.
The joke lands because it is familiar. Atlanta has spent the week protecting information, and a public guess is not a lineup card.
Suter is still a sensible name on the merits. The soft-tossing left-hander appeared in 54 games this season, four of them starts, and finished with a 3.36 ERA.
He opened the year with the Angels and arrived in Atlanta late, then posted a 1.63 ERA across 13 appearances with the Braves. He does not overpower hitters.
He changes speeds, works the edges, and has spent a career proving he can get outs without a fastball that scares anyone.
That profile is useful against a Dodgers order that includes left-handed bats such as Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, even if a single left-hander cannot neutralize an entire lineup.
The résumé behind the arm is unusual. Suter came out of Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, then played at Harvard before the Milwaukee Brewers took him in the 31st round of the 2012 draft.
He is one of only two players selected in that round who reached the majors; the other, Taylor Ward, did not sign and was drafted again later. Postseason experience is thin.
Suter has pitched in three playoff games and allowed four earned runs in four innings, so Saturday would not be a victory lap. It would be another assignment for a pitcher who has never been handed anything.
An opener carries real risk. So does handing the ball to a starter the Braves do not trust to work deep into a game against this offense. Atlanta enters the series as the underdog, which fits the pitcher Bowman has in mind.
Suter has been an underdog from the Ivy League to the late rounds to a midseason trade. If the Braves ask him to set the tone in Los Angeles, it would be a fitting way to open a series they are not supposed to win.
