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Braves Clippings Friday, July 17, 2020 Braves.com

Freeman unlikely to be ready for opener

By Mark Bowman

ATLANTA -- It seems unlikely will be ready for Opening Day, which is scheduled for July 24 against the Mets at Citi Field. But the Braves have not yet determined the season-opening status of Freeman, who has not been able to join the team since testing positive for COVID-19 on July 3.

“I’m sure at some point if he doesn’t get in here, we’ll have to talk about that,” Braves said on Thursday. “But we haven’t decided the date yet.”

Though the Braves are understandably clinging to the hope of having their All-Star available as much as possible during the upcoming 60-game season, the fact is the clock is working against them. Or, it might actually be more accurate to suggest it has already expired.

The Braves will enjoy an off-day on Friday and then have three days of workouts leading up to their exhibition games against the Marlins on Tuesday and Wednesday at . They’ll travel to New York the following day before playing their season opener against the Mets that Friday.

But before guessing how many days Freeman might need to prepare for the season, it must be remembered he can’t even join the team before getting two negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

Freeman battled a fever for a couple days, but he has felt good for the past 10. But until he gets those two negative results, he will not be permitted to be with his Braves teammates.

So with Opening Day eight days away, it certainly seems unrealistic to think Freeman will be ready for the season opener. Even if he gets the desired testing results within the next couple days, it would not be wise to rush his preparations and possibly lose him over a longer period.

Freeman has been able to swing a bat and do some workouts at his home over the past week. But he hasn’t seen live pitching and he doesn’t want to have a setback like he did in February, when he taxed his surgically repaired right wrist too soon.

“It’s a whole total body thing, getting your body back going,” Snitker said. “I’m sure it’s something we’ll have to discuss. I think after the off-day tomorrow, we’ll be approaching our last five days, and those are issues we’ll have to address.”

While Freeman is unavailable, could serve as the Braves’ primary first baseman. Riley has also been targeted to see a lot of time at third base, though is also quite capable of handling the hot corner.

The Braves might also be without All-Star reliever and right-handed , who still have not tested negative, despite being asymptomatic.

Non-roster first baseman Peter O'Brien was placed on the 10-day on Thursday because he had been in contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. O’Brien was not considered a Opening Day roster candidate.

But given the uncertainty surrounding Freeman, the Braves want to preserve their depth at the first-base position.

Hamels update While Snitker chose to hold out hope for Freeman, he was willing to concede Cole Hamels will likely be unavailable to begin the season.

Hamels threw a pain-free side session on Thursday, but he remains behind schedule. The 36-year-old left-hander missed with left shoulder inflammation. Though he had four extra months to recover, he still was not ready to throw live batting practice when Summer Camp began on July 3. He then missed a side session last weekend because of triceps tendinitis. The Braves had planned to limit Hamels to three to four innings during his first couple starts. But given he still has not faced live hitters, they will not rush him and possibly further jeopardize the approximate $7 million investment (prorated portion of his $18 million salary) they’ll make in him this year.

“We’ll see where he is when we get back in here on Saturday,” Snitker said. “I don’t know if there is time for him to be ready to go in the beginning. But we’ll see where he’s at after his side today.”

Rotation vacancy With the expectation Hamels will be unavailable, the Braves could initially fill their rotation’s fifth spot with , who impressed Snitker while throwing three solid innings during Thursday afternoon’s intrasquad game.

Wright, who is ranked ’s No. 52 prospect by MLB Pipeline, was slightly behind at the start of camp because he came in contact with somebody who had tested positive for COVID-19. He stayed away from the team until he received the two negative tests needed to return.

The Braves rotation will include , Max Fried, Mike Foltynewicz and . and dark horse candidate are among those competing against Wright for the fifth spot.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Braves’ has a Grade-2 ankle sprain

By Gabriel Burns, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s “going to be a little while” until top outfield prospect Cristian Pache returns, Braves manager Brian Snitker said.

Pache suffered a Grade-2 ankle sprain during Monday’s intrasquad game. He’s now at the alternate camp in Gwinnett, where he’ll eventually work out with other players who won’t factor into the Braves’ immediate plans.

The speedy was injured on a late slide at second base. He walked off on his own power and Snitker said after the game that the medical staff thought Pache could play the next day. The soreness proved worse than they anticipated, Pache was scratched from Tuesday’s lineup and has since been sidelined.

“It’s not bad, but he’s going to need a few days,” Snitker said Wednesday.

A healthy Pache might make his major-league debut later this season. Pache, 21, has impressed with his physical growth and maturity over the past two years. To start the season, the Braves will rely on outfield combinations determined by matchups. Ronald Acuna, , , and soon-to-be signee Yasiel Puig are their primary .

Baseball America rated Pache as the Braves’ No. 1 prospect entering the season, giving him 70-grade running, fielding and arm. The publication added it’s “easy to project Pache as a Gold Glove center fielder.”

Need to see pitching depth Braves keep talking about

By Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Braves talk a lot about their deep pitching. I buy that for the bullpen. I had a hard time seeing it with the starters even before Felix Hernandez decided to sit out the COVID-19 season and Cole Hamels developed arm soreness last weekend. Now the rotation looks shaky beyond Mike Soroka and Max Fried.

That’s why Kyle Wright’s first intrasquad scrimmage appearance Thursday carried some weight. Wright had been missing from the Truist Park mound because he got a late start to summer camp. He said he was possibly exposed to someone with COVID-19 and so couldn’t rejoin the Braves until twice testing negative.

That setback meant Wright had to build up his arm again before facing hitters in a live game. He pitched three innings against teammates Thursday.

“I feel good now,” Wright said via Zoom. “Getting that outing today was a good test to see where I felt. The more I threw, the better I felt. That’s definitely the way I want to be trending.” This might have been a minor development under normal circumstances. It’s significant now that the Braves almost certainly need Wright, their highest-rated pitching prospect, as part of their rotation. He was bad as a Braves starter in 2019 but finished strong for -A Gwinnett, then recorded lots of with few walks at spring training.

The Braves have options to “piggyback” their starters’ short outings early in the season as a bridge to the deep bullpen. The question is whether there are enough good choices. And, at some point, they’ll need more than two reliable starters for the back half of the 60-game sprint.

Lefty Hamels was to be the reliable veteran for the Braves this season in the same mold as Dallas Keuchel last season. Then he aggravated his throwing shoulder in January and didn’t pitch in spring training. The expectation was that Hamels could be ready for the restart 3 ½ months later, but his last bullpen session got scratched because of triceps soreness.

Hamels says he needs three outings in game conditions to build up to 60-65 pitches. Opening day is a week away. Hamels threw on the side Thursday and will be evaluated after an off day on Friday, Braves manager Brian Snitker said. But he added: “I don’t know that there’s time right now for him to be ready to go in the beginning.”

Hamels, 36, still can be good if healthy. He was having a good year for the Cubs in 2019 before the shoulder became a problem. There’s just not much time for Hamels to ease into a 60-game season.

With Hamels on the shelf, the Braves’ rotation is headed by 2019 All-Star Soroka and Fried. They are a good pair: FanGraphs projects 1.2 Wins Above Replacement for both , tied for the 25th-best among MLB starters. According to the forecast, Soroka will post a 3.77 ERA and Fried a 3.74 ERA.

That sounds right. I believe Fried could be better than expected after drastically improving his command in 2019 and refining his change-up for 2019. There could be some volatility in Soroka and Fried’s results -- they are young pitchers and the truncated season leaves little room for error -- but they are an exciting pair.

There are big questions for the Braves starters after those two.

Mike Foltynewicz’s performance long has been unpredictable. Left-hander Sean Newcomb lost his rotation spot early in 2019 and ended up being better in small doses as a reliever. Josh Tomlin, formerly a solid starter, was an effective reliever for the Braves in 2019 following a bad year in Cleveland’s bullpen.

Those are the alternatives as far as proven veterans. Wright is among prospects who might be called on to help. He’s probably got the best chance to do so from that group. got beat up during brief MLB stints in 2018 and 2019 and Tucker Davidson and Patrick Weigel have yet to make their big-league debuts.

It’s possible I’m being too pessimistic about the Braves’ pitching. That might have something to do with spring training getting cut short. Something about that time of year allows sunniness to shine through my usual skepticism. I can’t remember what that felt like now and the surreal summer camp is no substitute.

It’s reasonable to believe the starting pitching will work out for the Braves. Soroka and Fried meet expectations. Foltynewicz or Newcomb become reliable No. 3 starters. Hamels eventually returns to form and someone becomes a good enough fifth starter. That would be a competitive group in the NL East.

The Nationals are the only division team with more pitchers than the Braves among the top 25 in the FanGraphs WAR projection. No MLB team can match the top three of (third in projected WAR), (fourth) and Patrick Corbin (tied for 11th). But the Braves’ rotation compares favorably with the other NL East contenders.

The Phillies have Aaron Nola (tied for 17th in projected WAR) and (tied for 28th), but there’s a chance Wheeler will opt after his wife delivers their child soon. Mets ace Jacob deGrom left Tuesday’s intrasquad outing after just one inning because of back tightness An MRI was negative but the setback casts some doubt on deGrom’s scheduled opening-day start against the Braves.

The Braves could cobble together enough starting pitching to win the East again because they should score plenty of runs. That’s assuming slugger Freddie Freeman recovers from COVID-19 in time to join the lineup for a significant number of games. Snitker said the Braves should know more about Freeman’s status when they return from the off day.

Freeman’s health is the most important issue for the Braves. Their starting pitching is next on the list. The Braves have boasted about their depth, and maybe they are right to do so. I’m just not seeing it.

Braves will make decision on Freddie Freeman in coming days

By Gabriel Burns, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Braves haven’t ruled out first baseman Freddie Freeman for opening day, but they know they must make a decision in the coming days. Freeman hasn’t been with the team since he was among the four Braves to test positive for COVID-19 before workouts began July 3. Freeman must test negative twice to rejoin the club.

Opening day is a week away from Friday. Freeman is running out of time to be ready for July 24 against the Mets.

“I don’t know,” manager Brian Snitker said. “That’s something that after the off day (Friday), we’ll get in here on Saturday, I’m sure there’s going to be, at some point if he doesn’t get in here, we’ll have to talk about that. But we haven’t decided what the date is or anything like that yet.”

A potential additional factor: Freeman, who had offseason elbow surgery, was stalled early in spring training due to elbow inflammation. Whenever he’s cleared, the Braves wouldn’t want him to rush back and risk longer-term damage. It’s unclear how long Freeman would need to be ready for games.

“It’s something we’re going to have to discuss,” Snitker said. “After the off day (Friday), we get in here and we’re approaching our last five (exhibition) games.”

Austin Riley, Johan Camargo, Adam Duvall and (who played first base on Thursday) are among the Braves who could handle first- base duties in Freeman’s absence. Riley might be the likeliest option, with Camargo at third base and Duvall in the outfield.

Other notes:

-- Infielder/outfielder Peter O’Brien was placed on the injured list Wednesday. He’d been exposed to somebody who has COVID-19, though O’Brien has not tested positive himself, Snitker said.

- Left-hander Cole Hamels threw a side session Wednesday and “felt better,” Snitker said. The Braves will see how he feels on Saturday, but Snitker acknowledged Hamels probably won’t be ready for the start of the season.

“I don’t know that there’s time now for him to be ready to go at the beginning,” Snitker said. “But we’ll see where he’s at after his side (Thursday).”

Hamels has been working his way back from a shoulder injury sustained before spring training. He was recently slowed again by triceps tendinitis. Hamels hasn’t faced hitters since camp reopened.

- The Braves played their fourth intrasquad game Thursday afternoon. They were rained out after 2-1/2 innings the previous night.

Kyle Wright and Patrick Weigel started for the split teams. Wright, who pitched three innings, is among the pitchers competing for a rotation spot. If he doesn’t pitch the fifth day – which would be July 29 – he’s stretched out and will likely be in the Braves’ bullpen.

“I loved his stuff today,” Snitker said. “He got better as he went. The location wasn’t great early but the stuff was good throughout. I thought he threw the ball really well. His ball was moving good. He threw the ball extremely well, I thought.”

-- Travis d’Arnaud is apparently the Barry Bonds of summer intrasquad action. He homered off Weigel on Thursday after taking Josh Tomlin deep on Monday. D’Arnaud also a in a controlled scrimmage last week.

D’Arnaud hit 16 homers with the Rays last year, tying his career high. It was his first season back after undergoing right-elbow surgery due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament that limited him to four games in 2018. At the season’s outset, d’Arnaud struggled in his return, going 2-for-23 with the Mets before they designated him for assignment. His hometown Dodgers picked him up only to flip him to Tampa Bay five days later.

D’Arnaud was rejuvenated with the Rays. Perhaps most impressive about the rediscovered power is that d’Arnaud achieved that number in only 92 games (327 at-bats). The other time he reached that total was 2017, when he hit 16 homers in 112 games (348 at-bats).

The Braves inked d’Arnaud to a two-year deal last winter, believing what he showed in Tampa Bay was a sign of what’s to come. As far as summer scrimmages go, so far so good.

-- Outfielder Ronald Acuna recorded a hit and steal Thursday. It came less than 24 hours after he doubled twice off Mike Foltynewicz in Wednesday’s rain-shortened affair. He’s ready for the season.

-- The Braves are taking Friday off, their first idle day since camp reopened earlier this month. They’ll play another intrasquad game Saturday before hosting the Marlins for two exhibitions July 21-22.

Braves must go from zero to 60 in a hurry

By Steve Hummer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Here at the dawn of short attention span baseball, the season reduced from a soliloquy to a hiccup, one must recalibrate one’s outlook. Take, for instance, the old sports bromide – “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” Now shred that. In a 60-game, virus-shortened baseball season, the comforting idea that somehow time is on your side is passe.

Now, it’s very much how you start ... or you may be finished.

In the increased gravity of a 60-game schedule, as opposed to the 162-game one that was instituted nearly 60 years ago, each game bears more than twice the usual weight (2.7 times the weight to be precise). Consider that the Nationals played 17 postseason games last year, which would comprise close to 30% of this regular season.

So, yes, we’ll be working very much under playoff-like urgencies. And come July 24 in Flushing, if it turns out that the Mets’ Jacob deGrom is fit enough (he felt some back tightness Wednesday) to face the Braves’ Mike Soroka, the opener will have an uncommon edge to it.

In such a compressed docket, there is no time built in to wait out a slump, to nurse an injury or to bring along gradually a tender young talent. Losing streaks just got a whole lot more worrisome.

As the Braves get ready to break from the starting gate, they, like every other team in this compromised season, must avoid faltering at the break.

Just as some people are not morning people, some baseball players naturally start slow. Take Braves new catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who over six- plus seasons has hit .205 for the months of April and May and .257 the rest of the way. His two lowest monthly OPS numbers show themselves in the first two full months of the season.

Two very important players – first baseman Freddie Freeman and Will Smith – are great looming question marks at the start not because of their tendencies but because of the scary new variable of COVID-19. Both tested positive and missed the team’s summer camp. When well, Freeman is a model of consistency whose first-half-of-the-season OPS (.899) is just a slight bit better than his second half (.863). But who knows how anyone will react when coming back from this confounding virus?

Just days away from a season unlike any other – one with no guarantee of completion – here’s how two specific Braves players are approaching the start. They come at this from opposite perspectives, one who began last season in the best way imaginable, the other with a record of taking a while to warm up, like green wood on a campfire.

The Good-from-the-Get-Go Kid

Soroka knows that during a warped season you will get warped numbers. “You look around and you understand in a 60-game season there are going to be some silly stats thrown out,” he said. He should know. Few young players have done more with the brief sample size than he.

At 21 years old a season ago, Soroka was just plain silly at the outset. Not on the Opening Day roster, he was called up to make his first start of the season on April 18. Just like that, through his first 10 starts of 2019, Soroka was 7-1 with a 1.38 ERA. And 8-1 with a 2.12 ERA after 12 appearances.

Penciled in as the Braves first Opening Day pitcher not named Teheran since 2013, Soroka also looms as the franchise’s youngest ever Opening Day pitcher.

A dozen or so outings will comprise an entire season for a starter this year, so it seemed logical to ask of Soroka if he felt it possible to duplicate 2019′s beginning and thus pretty much dominate for what is going to be all of 2020.

“I don’t see why not,” he said all matter-of-factly.

He has declared that his stuff has never felt better. And that he put to good use all that down time after spring training was snuffed by the coronavirus. “I found a little more efficiency and was able to work on some things while we were down,” he said. “I got to fiddle around with things that I wanted to learn how to do more consistently.”

In the imprecise laboratory of intrasquad games, Soroka has looked stout thus far. He seems palpably excited about getting to a real game in New York, looking forward, he said, to “hitting that adrenalin that pushes you over the edge, where you can react on instincts, letting it happen rather than trying to make it happen.”

Now, if he can just convince himself it’s 2019 all over again (ah, if only we all could return to how things were then).

“Going back to last year when I got called up, I didn’t know if I was going to make my next start, we were all kind of battling for that spot,” Soroka said. “I’m trying to put myself back in those shoes and understand that the only game that matters is the first game and move on from there. That’s where I need to be to give myself a good chance to do that again.”

Yes, by all means, let’s have a 2019 Soroka redux. The Braves shall count on that, then.

The Name’s Ender, after all, not Beginner

Atop the injuries that centerfielder Ender Inciarte dealt with last season – the menu read back, hamstring, quad – there was the slow start that is something of a specialty in his case. His first 40 games last year, Inciarte hit .218. Returning for 25 games in July and August before the leg injuries compounded, he hit .293. He’s always been a second-half guy: For his career, he’s hitting .259 during the season’s first half and .314 the second.

Given all that, there is only one way for Inciarte to look at the challenges this short season: Trust the calendar.

“It’s the second half already, that’s my mentality,” he said here in mid-July, what would be early in the second half any other year.

“I miss playing. I’m going to go out there and have some fun just like I was in the second half last year. I’m not going to worry too much about what I’m doing today or tomorrow. Stats are going to take care of themselves. I’m going to go out and try to help the team and whatever (manager Brian Snitker) asks me to do – either playing from the beginning or coming off the bench – and just try to do my best and try to gain that playing time I want.”

The Braves outfield is in flux, with the addition of Marcell Ozuna, the subtraction of Nick Markakis and the pending arrival of Yasiel Puig. Defensively, the Braves could put no one better than Inciarte in center. But they can’t afford to wait for him to heat up offensively should he get off to another slow start.

Inciarte said his legs are strong again, that he is more confident in them than he was during the brief spring training. The swing, he adds, “feels in a good place.”

Normally, his manager is a patient sort, willing to let his veteran players work out their issues in-game, realizing that ebbs and flows are normally just a part of baseball. But normally left town months ago.

All his players, not just Inciarte, will be on a shorter string here in the shorter season. “I would assume they will, that’s just the nature of the beast that we’re handed this year,” Snitker said.

“It might be that we move things around every now and then. You give a guy a crack, if you give him two weeks (to get right) the season is almost over.

“There is going to be a little more sense of urgency in what we’re doing for the fact that it is such a short season. The resources aren’t going to be great as far as the players, you’re going to be kind of playing with what you’ve got and hopefully in those situations we can maybe give a guy a day or two here or there hoping that’s the thing that gets him going.”

Welcome to in 2020, a shadow of its former self, where the imperative is to go from zero to 60 like a dragster. Those aboard your grandad’s Buick LeSabre will be left behind.

’95 Braves: ring capped Mark Lemke’s improbable journey

By Tim Tucker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Editor’s note: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is looking back at the champion Braves on the 25th anniversary of that special season. In a series that will run through October, we will capture all the key moments and hear from the participants as they share their memories. Today’s installment is on that team’s and his improbable journey to multiple World Series.

Two years before he made his big-league debut, nine years before he won his World Series ring, Mark Lemke barely made the Braves’ farm team in Sumter, S.C.

As he remembers it, he was one of the last picks for a roster spot when the organization’s minor-league managers divvied up the players at the end of spring training in 1986.

“Brian Snitker was the manager at Sumter, and he told me the story,” Lemke recalled. “He basically said, ‘Look, you weren’t even on anybody’s list. I took you because you can catch the ball and because you don’t give me any problems.’”

Such was Lemke’s path to the big leagues: A 27th-round pick in the 1983 amateur draft out of Utica, N.Y., he persevered through struggles in the low minors to eventually play an integral role as the slick-fielding, clutch-hitting second baseman during much of the Braves’ 1990s success.

Lemke, now 54 and a resident of Sandy Springs, has found himself reflecting on his journey this year -- not necessarily because it’s the 25th anniversary of the Braves’ 1995 World Series championship, but because the minor-league season was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Countless minor league players have had their professional paths interrupted this summer, and many of them probably won’t get another shot next year. Lemke can easily put himself in their place.

“I think to myself: If this had happened in 1986, not having a season, that may have been the end for me,” he said. “I may never have seen the big leagues. I’d just have been home and probably had to accept it because I’d have had nothing to really show for any argument of why they should wait another year and bring me back again. “So I feel for these kids this year.”

Lemke hit .149 in 42 games for the Braves’ Class A team in Anderson, S.C., in 1984 and was returned mid-season to Bradenton, Fla., for a second stint in rookie league, the lowest level of the minors. In 1985, he hit .216 in his first of two seasons at Sumter, which had replaced Anderson as the Braves’ affiliate in the South Atlantic League after the 1984 season.

A few weeks into the 1986 season, Lemke’s second at Sumter, the team needed a because of an injury. So Snitker, in his first year as manager there, turned to his backup second baseman.

“He asked me, ‘Have you ever played third base before?’” Lemke said. “I said, ‘Of course, I have.’”

Had he, really? “Not ever.”

But he played most of that season at third base, hitting a much-improved .272 with 18 home runs, and moved the next year, along with Snitker, to the Durham, N.C., team, then the Braves’ affiliate in the high-A .

Lemke reached the big leagues for the first time late in the 1988 season and was the Braves’ starting second baseman for most of the 1990 through 1997 seasons.

“I loved Mark Lemke from the first minute I laid eyes on him,” former Braves general manager said. “He was a blue-collar gamer who could play the game better than people would allow themselves to give him credit for.

“He made the other players on the team, especially the infielders, better players. He was understated, not a rah-rah guy. But boy, he was a baseball player. And you need to have as many of those kind of guys contributing to your team on a daily basis as you can find.”

Like many others who reached the big leagues through the Braves’ farm system over the past few decades, Lemke credits the influence of Snitker.

“I struggled out of the gate at Durham in ’87, but he stuck with me and I ended up turning that around and had a good year,” Lemke said. “That is what catapulted me.”

At the big-league level, he wound up playing in 1,038 regular-season games and 62 postseason games for the Braves.

He had a career batting average of .248 with the Braves and often starred in the postseason. He hit a team-high .417 with three triples in the , which the Braves lost in seven games to the ; hit a solid .273 in the 1995 World Series, which the Braves won in six games over the ; and hit .444 with five RBIs and at least one hit in each of the seven games as the Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1996 NL Championship Series.

By 1995, Lemke had experienced the Braves’ worst-to-first season of 1991, their thrilling NLCS victory over Pittsburgh in 1992, their scintillating 1993 race against San Francisco in the NL West and, yes, the strike that wiped out the final seven weeks of the regular season and the postseason in 1994.

The strike extended into the spring of 1995, delaying the start of the season and cutting the schedule to 144 games. The Braves won the NL East by 21 games, rolled past Colorado and in the NL playoffs, then faced “as good a lineup as we ever faced” – Lemke’s assessment – in the World Series.

“I think the biggest win of that series might have been ’s game, Game 4, although they were all huge, don’t get me wrong,” Lemke reminisced. “That was a swing game. He pitched a heck of a game up there in Cleveland.”

Avery allowed one run on three hits in six innings, and the Braves won 5-2 to take a three-games-to-one lead. The series returned to Atlanta after the Braves lost Game 5. was on the mound for Game 6.

“He was on top of his game and needed to be, every pitch,” Lemke said. “He was as clutch as you can get. One mistake, and it changes the whole game.”

After ’s home run gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning, “you’re saying to yourself, ‘Is it going to be enough?’” Lemke recalled. “Well, turns out it was.”

Making the championship – the only World Series the Braves have won since moving to Atlanta in 1966 -- all the more special within the clubhouse was that many of the players had known each other for years, dating to their days in the Braves’ minor-league system.

“It was huge to have come up together and have gone through the ups and downs of the during those times,” Lemke said. “There were a lot of lean years -- ’88, ’89, ’90,” three consecutive last-place finishes.

The stars of the final game of the 1995 World Series -- Glavine, who allowed just one hit in eight innings, and Justice, whose homer produced the only run -- were among Lemke’s teammates in the low minors. “I remember answering the door of my room in rookie ball in ’84 in Bradenton, Fla., and it was Tom Glavine,” Lemke said. “That was the first time I met him. I was his first roommate (in pro ball).”

Lemke was 17 years old, just out of high school, when the Braves drafted him in June 1983. He was set to go to Purdue University, where he had been offered a rare full baseball scholarship.

“Back then, when you got drafted (in low rounds), you just got notified by a telegram,” Lemke said. “My sister saw the telegram and said, ‘The Atlanta Braves drafted you.’ I pretty much looked at her and said, ‘Well, that’ll be nice for a scrapbook, but I’m on my way to West Lafayette, Ind.”

His plan changed after he made a post-draft trip to Atlanta for a workout at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and a Braves game. He signed, as he recalls, for a $17,000 bonus and a promise the team would pay future education expenses.

In his first year at rookie ball in Bradenton, in the summer of 1983, one of his teammates – briefly -- was a future famous college football named Urban Meyer, a 13th-round draft pick by the Braves in 1982 and to this day a friend of Lemke’s.

“He was a , a good player, athletic,” Lemke said. “We talk about it now, and he says the same thing I’ve heard from numerous players – you sign and you think this team really has all their focus on you, and then you get down there and you realize there are 30 guys just like you.”

Meyer’s baseball career didn’t advance beyond rookie league. Lemke’s career took him all the way to the World Series -- four times.

The Braves didn’t retain Lemke when he became a free agent after the 1997 season, and he finished his big-league career with the in 1998. He resurfaced as a knuckleball pitcher on an independent-league team, the , during the summers of 1999 and 2000.

“I was kind of done as a player at that time,” Lemke said. “I just wanted to mess around with pitching. I had a really good time. I met some of the greatest people in the world up there.”

In recent years, Lemke has worked part-time in broadcasting. He co-hosted the Braves’ pregame radio show at home games last year and planned to do the same this year before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down baseball. He expects to resume that role in the delayed, abbreviated season, “but with all that’s going on there is a lot of rearranging so I’m not 100% sure.”

“I’m in that semi-retirement,” Lemke said. “I guess that’s a hint you’re getting older.”

And yes, like many of us, he finds it “hard to believe” it has been 25 years since the Braves won the World Series.

The Athletic

Projecting Opening Day: Whither Freddie Freeman, Charlie Culberson, Yasiel Puig?

By David O'Brien

All but one or two spots on the Braves’ Opening-Day roster had been decided with two weeks to go before the scheduled March 26 opener.

Then the coronavirus pandemic halted sports and so much more.

Baseball shut down after March 12. Spring training was suspended, the season delayed four months, and well, things have changed significantly since then for most teams including the Braves, who are one week from a July 24 opener against the .

A brief update before we project a 30-man Opening-Day roster:

• Four Braves tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago at the beginning of baseball’s summer-restart camp, including star first baseman Freddie Freeman, 2019 All-Star closer Will Smith and rotation/spot-starter candidate Touki Toussaint. None has joined camp, and all are expected to open the season on the special COVID-19 injured list, from which they can return at any time after two negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

• Veteran outfielder Nick Markakis, a clubhouse leader and five-hole hitter, and former winner Félix Hernández, a leading candidate for the fifth-starter job, decided at the beginning of camp to opt out of the 2020 season, after weighing the coronavirus risks and seeing all that would be involved in playing this season, including the disruption of workout and game-preparation routines that they were long accustomed to.

• Left-hander Cole Hamels, who signed a one-year, $18 million contract and was to help stabilize a young rotation, missed spring training with a shoulder strain, then slow-played his rehab because he could with the sport shut down for a few months. When he got to camp and finally was ready to face hitters, Hamels had triceps tendinitis and once again is doubtful for the four-months-delayed Opening Day. • Rules were changed in deference to a severely shortened, region-centric 60-game season, including increasing the Opening-Day roster size from 26 to 30 players and instituting the universal for 2020, since teams wouldn’t have had time to get pitchers ready to hit with a three-week camp following a 3 1/2-month shutdown.

• And last but certainly not least, the Braves, in what would be the biggest signing in the majors since camp began, agreed to terms Tuesday with power-hitting outfielder Yasiel Puig on a one-year contract. It will be finalized only after he passes a physical and, most importantly, a COVID-19 test. That could happen at any moment or not at all — the team hasn’t acknowledged the deal in place and wouldn’t if it were to fall through.

Given all those developments, projecting an Opening-Day roster is trickier now than it was fourth months ago, especially since rosters have been expanded to 30 players for the first two weeks of the season (with reductions to 28 at that point and to 26 after four weeks). But despite the inherent difficulty of sifting through the various unique roster rules in place for this season, we’re gonna do it. A projected roster with one week to go before Opening Day.

For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll assume Puig tests negative for COVID-19 and passes his physical and that he reports in good enough shape to be ready to play next week when the Braves open at New York.

And we’re going to also assume that Freeman, Smith and Toussaint will start the season on the COVID-19 IL, since even Freeman would be hard- pressed to have enough time to get in game shape at this point. Neither of the pitchers has faced hitters in at least two weeks, and it’s unclear how much either of them faced hitters during the shutdown.

The Braves have their only off day of camp Friday and will use Thursday (July 23) as a travel day, which means they have just five work days left before Opening Day, including at least one more intrasquad scrimmage (Saturday) and their only exhibition games against another team — Miami — on Tuesday and Wednesday at Truist Park.

Without further ado, here we go. One man’s speculation of what the Braves’ 30-man Opening-Day roster will look like (*non-roster invitee):

Outfielders: Ronald Acuña Jr., Marcell Ozuna, Puig, Ender Inciarte, Adam Duvall

Acuña will play every day, but it remains to be seen how often he’ll be moved from right field, the preferred spot for the Braves’ young star, whose strong arm is a weapon best utilized at that corner. But these factors likely portend to his playing plenty of center field and perhaps some left field: the anticipated addition of Puig, who played only right field in the past few years but played center and left in the past; Inciarte’s lackluster stats against lefties and tendency to start slowly; and Ozuna’s below-average defensive metrics at this point of his career, which could land him in the primary DH role with Duvall playing plenty in left field, particularly against lefty pitchers. Puig is a right-handed hitter but has hit as well or better against righty pitchers than against lefties most seasons. If the Puig contract falls through, don’t be surprised if Cristian Pache makes his MLB debut sooner than later, although probably not on the Opening-Day roster after turning an ankle in a game this week.

Infielders: , , Austin Riley, Johan Camargo

When Freeman returns, expect Riley to be the regular third baseman. But assuming Freeman is on the IL to start the season, Riley is the top candidate to move across the diamond to first base, and Camargo would be the regular third baseman in that scenario. Charlie Culberson, Camargo and Duvall are also potential candidates for some first-base time, and journeyman first baseman Yonder Alonso and Peter O’Brien are also in the Braves’ 60-man pool and could be candidates if there are more injuries or positive tests. O’Brien was placed on the 10-day IL on Thursday after being exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19, although he didn’t test positive himself and could be eligible to play after a quarantine period and when he tests negative twice.

Catchers: Travis d’Arnaud,

Free-agent signee d’Arnaud has impressed with the bat and could end up being one of the most impactful offseason additions for 2020. With the Braves playing 20 games in 20 days to start the season and 60 games in 66 days in a compressed schedule, they might decide that a third catcher is needed. But Culberson can throw on the catching gear and get them through a game if they were to lose both in one day, and that seems a better option than using a roster spot for , who hasn’t done much in his limited MLB opportunities. Prospect Williams Contreras has impressed in spring training and summer camp, so much that he might be more attractive than Jackson as an emergency catcher. Still, Contreras could use more seasoning and could get daily reps in intrasquad and simulated games at the Gwinnett satellite camp until he’s needed.

Utility: Adeiny Hechavarría, Charlie Culberson*

Hechavarría was an emergency signing late last season when Swanson was injured and neither Culberson nor Camargo played well in Swanson’s stead. Hechavarría filled in so ably that the Braves signed him again. He and Camargo, who’s in much better shape this season than last, are the Braves’ top utility infielders, but Culberson likely will to make the Opening-Day roster with Freeman expected to open on the IL. It also doesn’t hurt Culberson’s chances that he’s friends and former teammates with Puig after spending parts of two seasons in adjoining lockers with the mercurial outfielder. Once Freeman is ready to play and also when the roster is reduced to 28 (and later to 26), Culberson’s status might be more tenuous. But a lot can happen in the interim, as we’ve seen so far in the year of the coronavirus.

Starting pitchers: Mike Soroka, Max Fried (L), Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb (L), Josh Tomlin* With Hernández having opted out and Hamels seemingly set to open on the IL, Newcomb is a lock for the rotation and Tomlin has been stretched out in intrasquad games as if the Braves intend to have him in the rotation. If Toussaint hadn’t tested positive for COVID-19 and Kyle Wright hadn’t been a little behind at the start of camp, either could’ve been the fifth starter. Wright was exposed to someone with the coronavirus, and while he never tested positive, he had to go through protocols and twice test negative. As a result, he didn’t face hitters in camp until Thursday when he pitched three solid innings. The Braves also could turn to top pitching prospect at some point to make a start or two, although he’s at the Gwinnett satellite camp and won’t be on the opening roster.

Relievers/swing men: , , , , Darren O’Day, , Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, A.J. Minter (L), Patrick Weigel, (L)*, Chris Rusin (L)*

The Braves plan to use Smith in highest-leverage situations as both a setup man and second closer, but he has missed camp so far due to COVID-19 and won’t be ready Opening Day. Fortunately for the Braves, they have their deepest bullpen in a decade, and both Jackson and Greene (a 2019 All-Star closer with Detroit) have plenty of closer experience and combine with Martin to form a stout setup trio. Webb was having a strong rookie season before an elbow impingement that required surgery; he looks trimmer and has thrown well in camp. Wright and Wilson can be used either to start or to piggyback starters in the first two weeks when the Braves hope to get two or three innings out of most starters and then two or three more innings ideally out of a reliever. Another candidate: prospect Tucker Davidson, a lefty starter who has shone at spring training and in summer camp. He could even make the Opening-Day roster but seems more likely for a midseason call as a starter or reliever.

COVID-19 IL: Freeman, Smith, Toussaint, Pete Kozma

10-day IL: Hamels

The Athletic Atlanta turns 2: Our favorite stories from the past year

By Daniel Shirley

It’s hard to believe, but The Athletic Atlanta is already celebrating its second anniversary. Time goes by fast, huh?. Our first year included a championship and a parade, and the second year has been a blast, too, even with these crazy past few months.

So we wanted to look back with a glance at our favorite stories from the past year. If you’re not a subscriber, yet, we hope you take advantage of our 30-day free trial and check out The Athletic Atlanta — and The Athletic as a whole.

Jeff Schultz

Feb. 10: Schultz: As season nears, Braves face calls to end the ‘Chop’ and change their imagery

The Braves’ use of Native American imagery and certainly “The Chop” are not new controversial issues for the franchise, but they resurfaced during the 2019 Division Series when St. Louis pitcher and Cherokee tribe member Ryan Helsley criticized “The Chop.” The Braves canceled a foam tomahawk giveaway at the next home game and said they would revisit the issue in the offseason. Their subsequent failure to follow through on this promise prompted me to pursue the topic and speak to leaders in the Native American community and former Braves player , a member of the Choctaw Nation. But it has become clear the franchise is more concerned about upsetting some fans than it is being progressive in this area. Meanwhile, the Washington NFL team and the Cleveland MLB team are exploring name changes, making the Braves look even worse.

Oct. 27: Schultz: Arthur Blank should realize Falcons’ problems go deeper than Dan Quinn

Feb. 24: Schultz: Freddie Freeman tried to get through 2019 on adrenaline, painkillers

March 6: Schultz: Downtime with family has provided Chip Caray with emotional healing

April 19: Schultz: I was bored, so I texted 100 sports contacts, and I got back … wow

David O’Brien

Sept. 2: A peek inside , Freddie Freeman’s clubhouse chemistry; returns to SunTrust

One of the best things about a Major League Baseball beat is the access that we have to players on a daily basis, which allows writers to develop good working relationships with team members and gain their trust, which leads to them sharing anecdotes and insight about the team. This story was about the Braves and how Freddie Freeman and Josh Donaldson, two guys who couldn’t be much more different, had grown close as teammates and how their differing personalities made for a colorful and cohesive clubhouse culture. It was fun to write and gave me the opportunity to really use a lot of entertaining and descriptive episodes told to me by various players.

Aug. 11: Make room, : Ronald Acuña Jr. is about to join you at 30-30, with 40-40 a possibility

Oct. 2: Braves pitching coach maintained positive vibe while dealing with crisis at home April 2: on 2017 Astros: ‘We obviously cheated baseball and cheated fans’

April 13: Q&A: Braves icon on 1980s, TBS, , R.E.M. and more

Chris Kirschner

Feb. 28: Bruno Fernando struggles to find peace as he battles the worst pain of his life

Feb. 27: ‘Man Kobe was with me tonight’: Trae Young on his emotions of playing after Kobe’s death

Both of these stories were incredibly challenging to write. I had never written stories about death before, and it was hard to keep my emotions in check. Like many others, especially my age, Kobe Bryant was one of my favorite players to watch growing up. Getting to see the relationship starting to form between Kobe’s daughter, Gianna, and Young up close in Los Angeles was one of my favorite moments. The genuine happiness on both of their faces is something that is going to stick with me forever. And Trae’s openness about how Kobe’s and Gianna’s death affected him was moving and heartwarming.

Fernando’s story took me more than a month to put together because of several interviews with him. I was amazed by Fernando’s strength after losing his mother. He spoke so eloquently and beautifully about her just weeks after her death. I couldn’t imagine having to deal with that kind of pain, especially being thousands of miles away from family to support him. I am extremely thankful that he trusted me to tell her story.

Nov. 13: On a career night for Trae Young, best friend Michael Porter Jr. has front-row seat

Dec. 18: ‘We have to figure this shit out’: Inside the lowest point of the Hawks’ season so far

March 9: Inside John Collins’ mind before a pivotal offseason for him and the Hawks

Tori McElhaney

Sept. 9: ‘Stutter Gods’: How a speech impediment brought Tariq Carpenter, Juanyeh Thomas together

If you’ve been following me at all, you are probably so tired of seeing this story continuously pop up, but I am not going to apologize for it. For the past year, this has been the story I have chosen as my favorite whenever we are asked to send in our favorite story for promotional reasons. I think it’s my favorite because these two players didn’t have to open up to me about something that many people view as a flaw. But they wanted to change the narrative about what it meant to have a speech impediment, and they allowed me to help them do that.

Sept. 26: Kaleb Oliver juggles fatherhood during emotional week

Oct. 25: On the beat: 12 things I learned through 12 months covering Tech

Dec. 16: State high school coaches share their perspective on Georgia Tech recruiting changes

April 14: Working out like Georgia Tech’s players for two weeks and dropping 6 pounds

Seth Emerson

Aug. 18: Carpentry, connections and Chick-fil-A: How D-II Valdosta State became an FBS coaching springboard

This story was almost 20 years in the making: I covered my first Valdosta State game in 2002 when I was at the nearby Albany Herald, missing Kirby Smart by one year. I gradually would learn about the many other coaches who had been there, from Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen to Smart and Will Muschamp, and eventually decided, “Hey, I should do a story about all this for a national audience.” So I went down to Valdosta and learned even more, and eventually, the story turned out better than I’d ever imagined.

Dec. 13: The importance of returning receivers, and why perhaps we should have seen this coming for Georgia’s offense

Feb. 2: ‘He’s the real deal’: Why a big-play background and an infectious personality made Todd Monken the choice for Georgia

April 10: My favorite player: Shawn Williams, never a softy

June 29: How a former Georgia football coach got in early on a lucrative restaurant chain

Felipe Cardenas

Aug. 15: The defining moment in Atlanta United’s season came exactly one month before Campeones Cup triumph

Since joining The Athletic in May of 2018, I’ve had the opportunity to profile some interesting characters from Major League Soccer, sit down with some of the Premier League’s emerging stars and witness the exciting rise of a soccer club with a unique story in the South. But the club’s culture changed overnight when Frank de Boer was hired to replace Tata Martino. Atlanta United won two trophies under de Boer and came agonizingly close to playing for a second consecutive MLS Cup. But something seemed off during the first half of the 2019 season. A story about the clashes in culture that defined many moments last season was a precursor to the transitional season that Atlanta United are experiencing today.

Aug. 4: ‘All defenders can do is hack him down, but he can handle it’ – Why Almiron holds the key to Newcastle’s season

Oct. 18: The search for Atlanta United’s Standing Man

Feb. 3: Arthur Blank on Atlanta United and MLS’s growth: ‘The beauty of what we’ve done here, I think you can do it at any place.’

April 23: ‘What the hell is Atlanta doing’: An oral history of Atlanta United’s first game

Daniel Shirley

May 10: High expectations remain at Georgia Southern, which is determined to exceed them

There is always pressure to win at Georgia Southern, and Eagles Chad Lunsford understands that. In fact, Lunsford embraces the expectations that come with being Georgia Southern’s head coach entering his third season. There is plenty of optimism about the program, as well, and there should be. Lunsford was the Eagles’ interim head coach for the final six games of the 2017 season before being named the head coach and has led the Eagles to a 17-9 record and two bowl games the past two seasons. He’s a terrific interview and is growing into a really good coach with a bright future in a tough job.

April 7: My Favorite Player: Dwight Clark

April 13: Nicki Collen Q&A, Part 1: After busy offseason, Dream have a new look in 2020

April 14: Nicki Collen Q&A, Part 2: Breaking down the Dream’s options, focus in WNBA Draft

April 19: How the Dream pulled off a roster reload after their tough 2019 season

New York Post

Nationals may need new 2020 home field because of coronavirus protocols

By Jared Schwartz

The Nationals might need a new home for the 2020 season.

Due to local coronavirus protocols, the team is unsure if they will open the season playing at Nationals Park, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The team is scheduled to host the Yankees in its opener on July 23.

The Washington Post was the first to report the possible venue change.

Players, coaches and staff will have to quarantine for 14 days if any of them are exposed to the virus, and the team is unsure if it will be able to operate under those guidelines.

If they do indeed decide to play elsewhere, the Nationals are looking at two alternate sites – their Class A stadium in Fredericksburg, Va. and their spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla.

According to the MLB’s safety protocols, if a player is exposed to the coronavirus, he must test negative, be asymptomatic, undergo temperature tests and symptom monitoring for at least 10 days, wear a mask at all times except when on the field and undergo a daily saliva test for a week after exposure.

Although DC’s mandatory 14-day quarantine is not among the league’s requirements, government protocols take precedence over the MLB’s.

Since spring training 2.0 started on July 3, eight Nationals players and one coach have had to enter the city’s mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Nationals’ home-field search shows how tenuous MLB season really is

By Joel Sherman

A major league season like no other could fittingly begin this way: versus Max Scherzer — in Fredericksburg. Va. That is assuming it begins.

The Post confirmed that the Nationals are looking at alternate sites to their Nationals Park home. The organization is concerned about Washington protocols that would impose a 14-day quarantine on anybody who is exposed to COVID-19. Thus, if a player were exposed, he would be lost for at least two weeks, creating a competitive disadvantage the Nationals would want to avoid.

The Washington Post initially reported the Nationals’ considerations.

The regular-season opener for all of the majors is next Thursday with the defending champs hosting the Yankees. But where are they going to play host?

Nothing was decided as the final weekend before the regular season neared, but the Nationals were mulling either their -A Fredericksburg stadium or their spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Washington Post described the spring site as less likely. That would make sense considering the soaring COVID-19 numbers in Florida.

Enlarge ImageError! Filename not specified.Nationals ParkGetty Images

The uncertainty fits into a season that no one can yet guarantee will start on time, much less be played to its 60-game and postseason conclusions.

What the league wants and what the virus will allow are going to be constantly at issue. MLB had hoped that its first step this year was to have the defending champs play the sport’s most popular team in the nation’s capital with Cole making his anticipated Yankee debut versus the indomitable Scherzer.

Now, the locale may have to change to the home of the Fredericksburg Nationals of the Carolina League.

This is going to be a reality of the 2020 season — under the best of circumstances. The teams skilled at improvising and adaptation and not easily thrown off by disruption are going to have an advantage.

The Nationals already are challenged. They had three players — first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, backup catcher Welington Castillo and No. 5 starter Joe Ross — decide not to play this year, and three lineup mainstays — Howie Kendrick, Victor Robles and Washington’s best hitter, — had yet to attend camp with the Nats providing no reason to reporters. A club can only announce whether a player is absent for reasons associated with coronavirus with the player’s permission.

This is all part of a season like no other, a season that will cause wonder each day whether it can go on. How apt that with less than a week to go there was uncertainty where the first game of this season was even going to be played.

New York Post

Amid the Storm, Dave Dombrowski Plots an M.L.B. Future in Nashville

Dombrowski brought World Series titles to the Marlins and the Red Sox, and now he’s leading an effort to bring a major league club to a new market.

By Tyler Kepner

Assume for a moment — and it is a grand assumption — that Major League Baseball safely completes its 60-game schedule and postseason. Even in that best-case scenario, the sport faces a murky immediate future.

Owners will seek to cut payrolls this winter. The players’ union will seethe. When teams reopen ballparks to fans, they will try to sell tickets to 81 home games in a stricken economy. And the same negotiators who could not agree on the structure of this mini-season must devise a new collective bargaining agreement by the end of next year.

In other words, it’s stormy out there, and nobody builds an addition during hurricane season.

But there is no harm in hunkering down to plan, and that is what Dave Dombrowski, the longtime baseball executive with two World Series titles to his name, is doing now. Dombrowski, 63, was named last week as an adviser to Music City Baseball, a group that wants to bring an expansion team to Nashville. Experience tells him these clouds will pass.

“Early in my career, I had the fortune to work with the White Sox when Bill Veeck owned the team, and looking back at what he went through in the war era — the economy, the world, everything was different, and all of a sudden the game bounces back,” Dombrowski said by phone last week. “So you look at all different types of things that have taken place over 100-plus years, and the game still bounces back, because it’s such a great game. That’s how we have to approach it.” Dombrowski was most recently the president of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox, spending big to win a championship in 2018. He was fired last September as ownership prepared to shed payroll — a task Dombrowski has accomplished himself. He built the expansion Florida Marlins into champions in 1997 — their fifth season — then tore down the roster and set the foundation for another title six years later, after he had moved on to Detroit.

The sport has weathered two extended strikes and a lockout during Dombrowski’s career, which is probably over as a top baseball operations executive. He will soon move to live in Nashville full time, and said it could take four or five years to start a new team. But he likes what he sees.

“Looking out my hotel room, I can see one, two, three” — he counted to 11 — “cranes for buildings being built downtown,” Dombrowski said. “They haven’t shut down during the pandemic. So the town is just booming, and it’s going to continue to do it. It’s a young city, with a vibrant entertainment area, hockey has done great, and they just added a soccer team.”

Baseball has not expanded since 1998, and Commissioner Rob Manfred has often said he wants to expand to 32 teams, from the current 30. Doing so would make scheduling easier while growing the game and enriching owners through expansion fees.

At the All-Star Game two years ago, Manfred named Nashville as a “viable” market, with Charlotte, and Portland, Ore., in the , and Montreal and Vancouver in Canada. There is other business that must be handled first: The two current teams seeking new stadiums — the and the — must resolve those issues before the league expands, and neither franchise has broken ground.

Nashville could theoretically lure one of those teams, but it too needs a major league-size ballpark. The plan, Dombrowski said, calls for a privately financed park with a retractable roof beside the Tennessee Titans’ stadium on a bank of the Cumberland River, just a pedestrian bridge away from downtown. Fitting into a growing sports landscape — with the Titans, the Predators of the N.H.L., Nashville S.C. of M.L.S. and Vanderbilt’s teams in the Southeastern Conference — would be another challenge.

“Right now there’s not much of a drive for it because it’s not realistic to a lot of people,” said Willy Daunic, a longtime radio host for ESPN Nashville and a former minor league pitcher. “But a five-year plan is a smart plan because it’s going to take that long with the logistics of the stadium. And the key is for guys like Dombrowski to stay present and make those connections with the city leaders and the fans. If they can do that, they can definitely build a lot of support.”

Dombrowski is not alone in the effort. The advisory group also includes the Hall of Fame manager and the former All-Star pitcher Dave Stewart, who was recruited by his friend John Loar, a longtime real estate developer in California who moved to Nashville in 2018 and is the group’s managing director. Alberto Gonzales, the former United States attorney general, is chairman of the board.

Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in City, Mo., is another board member, and the plan is to call the team the Nashville Stars, after a Negro leagues team. To Stewart — who has been a coach, a general manager and an agent since retiring as a player in 1995 — the group’s commitment to diverse ownership is critical to help change the largely homogeneous culture among baseball authority figures.

Derek Jeter is the Marlins’ chief executive and part of the Miami ownership group, but among M.L.B. field managers and top baseball operations officials, more than 83 percent (50 of the 60) are white, and all are male. A Nashville team, Stewart said, would promote progress.

“We didn’t know two years ago we were going to be going through this pandemic and the social injustices at the rate we have this year,” Stewart said. “But baseball has been one of the most closed sports when it comes to hiring in upper positions and on the field, and this calls for a time to do something historic, which is to have true Black ownership — or diverse ownership — in the game.”

The specifics of achieving that goal will take time to sort out. For now, at least, it is part of an encouraging vision, far off in the distance, hinging on the premise that baseball can lift itself up — again — and find a way to flourish, even in a new environment.

“You look at the city, the people involved, the ability to try to do this thing right,” Dombrowski said. “It’s high risk, with no guarantees, but it’s an interesting proposition, and I think it’s fun.”