Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez appear to be the pitchers battling for the closer job on the Braves and they both have positives and negatives. Rafael Soriano will likely have the edge going into Spring Training as he is the healthier pitcher but he has some issues. He’s never been a closer in his career despite his outstanding stuff so one has to wonder if he can handle the job mentally. Soriano is 7-11 with 13 saves, a 2.93 ERA and a 1.02 ERA in his major league career so far. The righty has only given up 181 hits and whiffed 247 batters in 243 innings in his major league career which shows what kind of stuff he has.

Lefty Mike Gonzalez has experience as a closer but he missed most of last season due to injury. Gonzalez has a career record of 9-9 with 30 saves, a 2.29 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. He has only allowed 131 hits while striking out 196 batters in 172.2 innings which also shows what kind of outstanding stuff he has.

It is possible that the Braves will go with the matchups and let Soriano and Gonzalez share the closers job.

The Braves have acquired 27 year old lefty reliever Jeff Ridgway from the Devil Rays for 3B Willy Aybar and 2B Joe Fontaine. This will go down as a bad trade for the Braves if Aybar gets his personal issues straightened out. The Braves just couldn’t afford to let his actions off the field continue in their organization so they just cut bait. Jeff Ridgway pitched in 54 games in AAA ball last season and he was 2-3 with 4 saves, a 3.06 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. Ridgway was horrible in his first three major league games of his career which he worked in last September. In those three games Ridgway only recorded 1 out while allowing 7 hits, 7 earned runs and he walked a batter. That was good for a 189.00 ERA.

The Braves will acquire center fielder Mark Kotsay from the A’s for reliever Joey Devine if Kotsay passes a physical tomorrow. Kotsay is coming off of his worst season of his major league career. Kotsay played in 56 games last season for the A’s and he was 44 for 206 (.214 avg, .575 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 1 homer and 20 RBIs. Kotsay has now played in 1,340 games in his major league career and he is 1,413 for 5,017 (.282 avg, .752 OPS) with 664 runs scored, 103 homers, 560 RBIs and 89 stolen bases. Adding Kotsay will allow the Braves to let Josh Anderson and Brandon Jones compete for the job of platooning in left field with righty swinger Matt Diaz.