Zach Britton Optioned to AAA Norfolk

In a development on the fifth starter battle, Zach Britton was optioned to Norfolk today leaving a two man race between Matsuz and Arrieta in this author’s mind going into the season.  Of course, this goes to show how much I know as I predicted he would be on our 25 man roster and the fifth starter going into opening day.

When Spring Training opened, Britton was heralded by many including Roch Kubatko’s blog who believe he was pitching completely different than the year prior.  He had a few bad starts this Spring, but the following comment was issued by him today:

“Jake [Arrieta] has been throwing the ball well, and it’s a competition. He’s definitely proven that he probably deserves it. Him and [Brian Matusz] have thrown the ball real well, you can’t take anything away from those guys. I think I have stuff I need to work on. Mentally, I don’t think I was feeling like I was ready to be with the team and I’m sure they saw that.”

 

“I need to get some things straightened out at Minor League camp, and it’s a lot easier to do that rather than being in that competition and really trying to get people out. In Minor League camp, I can do some things a little bit differently and not worry about those results.”

For some reason, comments like these really jump off the page at me.  Buck has constantly implied that everyone needed to prove they belonged including Manny Machado at third base.  The notion that Britton feels he can’t contribute or make adjustments in Spring Traininng even in a competition is unnerving.  This reminds me of last year when Jake Arrieta last the strike zone and was demoted to AAA.  I hope that we see Britton again, but with the depth from Steve Johnson, Jurrjens, Gausman, Bundy, and possibly even TJ Macfarland it could be a long time until we see him.