With spring training camps opening this week across Major League Baseball, at least eight front-line free-agent starting pitchers remain without teams, tops among them the Arizona Diamondbacksâ Zach Gallen and the Toronto Blue Jaysâ Chris Bassitt. And according to former 11-year MLB catcher Erik Kratz, co-host of the popular Foul Territory podcast, it is the Blue Jays World Series hero who will sign with a National League East club that suddenly has a vacancy in its rotation due to injury.
The Atlanta Braves announced on Tuesday that right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach, who threw 110 innings for the Braves last year across 17 starts with a highly respectable 3.09 ERA, is headed for the 60-day injured list with bone spurs in his pitching elbow.
Braves Should Make Call to Bassitt, 11-Year Vet Says
Schwellenbachâs ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow remains uninjured, according to an MLB.com report. But the bone spurs will cause him to miss at least the first two months of the season. That opens up a spot in the Braves rotation that will need to be filled by a reliable starter if Atlanta â World Series winners just five seasons ago â hope to return to the playoffs after missing out last year for the first time since 2017.
According to Foul Territory host Scott Braun, the Braves are expected to make a move for either Gallen â the ace of Arizonaâs staff despite a down year in 2025 â or Bassitt, an 11-year veteran himself who just finished his three-year, $63 million Toronto contract with a lights-out performance out of the bullpen in last yearâs postseason.
“When you do have resources and you have an injury to someone you are expecting to give you 150-plus innings â Zach Gallen on line one, Chris Bassitt on line two,” Braun said on Tuesdayâs edition of the podcast.
Bassitt Comes With More Favorable Contract
Kratz, who was actually drafted in the 29th round by the Blue Jays in 2002 and caught for nine teams in his 11-year career, quickly predicted that Bassitt would be the most likely signing for the Braves.
“I bet it becomes the Chris Bassitt play. Iâm not saying heâs better than Zach Gallen. Iâm just saying it feels like the Braves wonât dip into the possibility of a two- or three-year deal with a first-year opt-out for Zach Gallen,” Kratz said on the podcast.
Gallen, according to a projection by the sports business site Spotrac, is likely to command a four-year deal at age 30, with a total price tag of $74.8 million.
Bassitt, on the other hand, will turn 37 years old in February and could come on a short-term deal, according to Kratz.
Bassitt One of MLBâs Most Reliable Pitchers
“It just feels like a Chris Bassitt signing would be very Braves-esque â in the sense that I think heâs, besides Gallen, of the veterans that are left, the best pitcher,” Kratz said. “He pitches. He knows how to make pitches. And heâs had success in the East.”
Bassitt is also one of the most reliable arms in baseball, tossing at least 170 innings in each of the last four seasons, with a very solid 3.77 ERA over that span, pitching 723 total innings.
“Itâs time. Itâs time,” Kratz said, urging the Braves to sign Bassitt in light of the Schwellenbach injury. “You got to go out and get one of these guys, and theyâre fortunate that thereâs still some available.”
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