The twin brother of Roddery Munoz finally broke out in 2023
Roddery Munoz’s twin brother, Rolddy Munoz, has yet to be ranked among the Atlanta Braves top 30 prospects and entered 2023 off of the heels off three poor seasons in a row. He has yet to be placed on the Braves’ 40 man roster.
How Acquired
Rolddy Munoz was signed, along with his twin brother by the Braves in 2018 out of the Dominican Republic.
Preseason Report Card
Entering the season, there were a lot of question marks surrounding Munoz. He had yet to find the success that his brother had had at the minor league level, as he had three consecutive not-so-good seasons. He was actually decent in A-ball in 2022, but struggled on promotion to High-A Additionally, walks had been a problem for him, as he had a double-digit walk rate in three of his five distinct stints at different levels since entering the Braves’ system. Despite avoiding injury, he had only thrown 101 ⅔ professional innings with his career high being 58 innings across 32 games, including two starts, in 2022.
There are a lot of negatives there for Munoz, but he’s run decently high strikeout rates at every stop, which is what makes him somewhat interesting.
What we saw in 2023
Munoz had a comparatively better 2023 season where he threw 59 innings across 20 games, seven of which were starts, for the Rome Braves. He posted a decent 3.75 FIP that belied his sparkling 2.25 ERA, but the 4.41 xFIP was still a bit concerning. He once again ran a high walk rate in the double digits, but his strikeouts stayed relatively high at 23 percent of batters faced.
The injury bug did hit Munoz for the first time in his career in 2023, as he spent a little over a month on the shelf in July and August. Prior to Munoz’s injury, seven of his 15 appearances were starts and all but two of them went two or more innings. In his five final appearances after he returned from the Injured List, he only came out of the bullpen and his longest appearance was 1 ⅓ innings.
2024 outlook
It is safe to assume that at some point in 2024, Munoz will be pitching for the Mississippi Braves at the Double-A level. It is likely that the Braves will once again try Munoz in some sort of bulk role to avoid condemning him to relief. However, his swing-and-miss stuff might work better in the late innings; time will tell.
Next
