Atlanta Braves: Shane Carle is becoming a household name, leading MLB in reliever WAR
Shane Carle may not be a household name, but he is making a name for himself in Atlanta Braves bullpen.
Don’t look now but Atlanta Braves righthander Shane Carle has more wins above replacement than any other reliever in baseball. Is he the best reliever in the game? Absolutely not. This is just a fun small sample/early season fluke that is fun to see and talk about. This is the kind of thing you take a picture of now while you still can claim the top spot because it will likely never happen again.
Carle may prove me wrong and end up being the best reliever in baseball for years to come, but in case that doesn’t happen let’s take today to analyze and celebrate the unlikely WAR leader. Happy Shane Carle day everybody!
Shane Carle was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 10th round of the 2013 draft out of Cal State Long Beach. He spent a few seasons in the minors before reaching the majors in 2017 where he got a cup of coffee with the Rockies.
He appeared in just three games pitching 4 innings with a 6.75 ERA. However, he did strikeout 4 and didn’t walk anyone in his brief big league stint. Carle was actually then selected on waivers this offseason by the team that drafted him, the Pirates, and later traded to the Braves for cash.
Carle has never really been much of a strikeout pitcher even going back to his college days. He worked primarily as a starter in college and in the minors where his K/9 rate hovered in the 5’s. Shifting to a bullpen role in 2017, his strikeout numbers have improved to over 7 strikeouts per nine innings. What Carle really has going for him is his propensity to limit walks.
Carle held minor league batters to a 1.95 BB/9 and major leaguers have only walked .61 times per nine innings. That is a remarkable number that will actually allow someone with a meager strikeout rate to flourish in a big league pen.
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Carle’s stuff isn’t too shabby either. He works off of his mid-90’s fastball and uses his slider and changeup to get his swings and misses. Carle’s whiff rate actually ranks in the top 50 in baseball. Not only has he been really good thus far, he’s actually been somewhat unlucky.
Carle currently has a .338 weighted on-base average against which is slightly higher than league average, but his expected weighted on-base average according to Statcast is just .230.
That’s over 100 points lower! Perhaps Carle’s performance is more sustainable than one might originally think.
This is all to show that while he likely won’t continue to be the best reliever in baseball, he might actually be a successful reliever going forward. It is going to take many more successful innings for people to start to believe in Carle as a viable major league reliever.
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He may or may not get there, but he is at least off to a good start. It’s starting to look like the Atlanta Braves found a diamond in the rough with Shane Carle.