Braves designate Falter for assignment

Falter was acquired from the Royals at the trade deadline and has pitched 10 2/3 scoreless innings at Triple-A for the Braves with an 11/2 K/BB ratio. He should operate in a multi-inning relief role for the Braves.

The Braves might see something here to think Falter will be useful down the stretch, but we’re guessing he’s mostly in the deal for salary purposes, as the Royals get to shed the rest of the $3.6 million he’s making this year. Falter had a 13.97 ERA in two starts and three relief appearances before getting dropped from the Royals’ roster in May. He’s since posted a 3.35 ERA in seven starts and 10 relief appearances for Omaha. He’d been working as a starter of late and had a 3.07 ERA in July, though that came with a 10/11 K/BB in 14 2/3 innings.

Both Thomas and Falter will return to the NL East, with Falter previously pitching for the Phillies and Thomas spending time with the Nationals. Thomas is a lefty-killer who should see the bulk of his time against southpaws, but he could get some playing time against same-sided hurlers as well. Falter gives Atlanta an arm capable of going multiple innings, but hasn’t had much success in his previous two campaigns due to injuries and ineffectiveness when healthy enough to pitch.

Falter has pitched just 9 2/3 innings for the Royals this season, allowing 15 runs on 24 hits while posting a 6/6 K/BB ratio. He’ll try to sort things out in the minor leagues.

This comes a day after Falter was shellacked by the Yankees; giving up seven runs over 2 1/3 innings. The 29-year-old will now hit the waiver wire, and his previous success — mixed though it may be — gives him a decent chance to be claimed or traded. If he’s not, he’ll be able to elect free agency or report to Triple-A Omaha.

Falter’s stuff just isn’t where it needs to be after he missed time with elbow inflammation, and he ended tonight with zero strikeouts and 13 hard-hit balls surrendered. The Royals won’t want to bail on him just yet, but they probably can’t start him again while he’s throwing like this. If he does take another turn, it’d likely be in Cincinnati on Monday.

Falter joins Kansas City’s relief mix for Saturday’s game against the Cardinals with fellow lefty Matt Strahm heading to the shelf with knee inflammation. The 29-year-old southpaw is back after missing six weeks with elbow inflammation. He’ll pitch in long relief out of the Royals bullpen.

Falter was only able to pitch in two games to begin the season before being placed on the injured list with elbow irritation. The southpaw will likely need a couple of appearances before being ready to potentially help the Kansas City staff near the end of April.

Falter pitched in two games for the Royals this year, covering three innings of relief against the Braves on March 27 and failing to cover more than an inning in a blowout against the Twins on Wednesday when he was shellacked for three earned runs. Clearly something wasn’t right in that one. The team will likely have more on his status at a future date. Falter came over from the Pirates at the trade deadline last year but made just two starts before being shelved with a bicep contusion, and the team clearly didn’t leave much of a path for him in the rotation this offseason.

Falter was originally going to start the game, but the Royals changed their minds and had him pitch behind Aaron Sanchez, since he’s probably going to be a middle reliever once the season starts. The switch obviously worked out well, except for the rest of the Royals’ pitchers giving up 10 runs over six innings in the loss.