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Jesse Chavez

Braves Select Jesse Chavez

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The Braves announced this morning that they’ve selected right-hander Jesse Chavez to the big league roster. Left-hander Dylan Dodd was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Chavez on the big league roster, while Spencer Schwellenbach was transferred to the 60-day injured list to create 40-man roster spot for Chavez.

Chavez, 41, has made two appearances for the Braves already this year that saw him surrender two runs in three innings of work. He’s been something of an up-and-down depth arm for Atlanta this year, signing minor league deals with the Braves and getting called up to the roster for a day or two before being designated for assignment, electing free agency, and re-signing with Atlanta on a fresh minor league deal. It seems to be a situation both sides are comfortable with, and it’s fairly easy to see why. Chavez has spent more time with the Braves than any other organization in his 18-year MLB career, and he’s had great success with a 3.13 ERA in 224 1/3 innings of work during his time in Atlanta.

Now in his early forties, it’s hard to imagine Chavez being quite as dominant as he was for Atlanta earlier in his mid-thirties. With that being said, he’s remained excellent at Triple-A this year with a 2.05 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work. It’s certainly possible he still has something left in the tank and can be successful in the majors. With that being said, it could be difficult for Chavez to hold onto a roster spot over the longer term given how dominant the few optionable relievers like Dylan Lee and Daysbel Hernandez have been this season.

Making room for Chavez on the active roster is Dodd, who made his big league debut as a starter back in 2023. He struggled mightily in that role across seven starts, but has reconfigured himself into a reliever this season to solid results. In the majors, Dodd sports a 3.75 ERA across 12 innings of work with a 20% strikeout rate against a walk rate of just 4.4%. His work at Triple-A has been less impressive, as he’s pitched to a 5.40 ERA in 19 appearances at the level, but if Dodd can maintain even league average production his ability to pitch multiple innings and status as a lefty pitcher should make him a very useful depth arm for the Atlanta bullpen going forward.

As for Schwellenbach, the news of his placement on the 60-day injured list is hardly a surprise. The right-hander was shelved with an elbow fracture this past week. Now that he’s been transferred, Schwellenbach is officially ineligible to return until August 31, though that’s very unlikely to be a meaningful obstacle given that even the most optimistic expectations have him returning at some point in September. The righty has been a phenomenal asset for the Braves since he was promoted to the majors last year, with a 3.23 ERA and 3.25 FIP in 38 career starts.

Braves Re-Sign Jesse Chavez, Zach Thompson

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The Braves re-signed righties Jesse Chavez and Zach Thompson to new minor league contracts, per their transaction log at MLB.com. Both players were recently designated for assignment and passed through outright waivers unclaimed. Both elected free agency, and both had short stays on the market.

It seems that with regard to Chavez in particular, this cycle will play out in perpetuity. He can’t simply be optioned to the minors, but he’s clearly content to continue functioning as what’s effectively the 41st man on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. The team will likely continue to summon Chavez to the majors when a fresh arm is needed, then run him through the DFA/waiver process and re-sign him.

The 41-year-old Chavez has now pitched with Atlanta in each of the past five seasons. He’s departed on minor league deals with several other clubs but always found his way back to Truist Park. Chavez has pitched three big league innings this year, allowing a pair of runs on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts. He’s been outstanding in 8 1/3 Triple-A innings (one run, five hits, one walk, 13 strikeouts) and has a terrific 2.96 ERA in 204 MLB innings over the past five years, nearly all of which have come with Atlanta.

Thompson, 31, pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings with Atlanta this season but was roughed up a bit in 4 1/3 minor league innings. The right-hander had a nice showing as a rookie with the Marlins in 2021 but struggled following a trade to the Pirates in the 2021-22 offseason. He’s totaled 200 1/3 innings at the MLB level and carries a 4.36 ERA, 18.3% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. Thompson sits in the low 90s with his heater and doesn’t miss many bats, but he’s a nice spot start option to have stashed in Gwinnett — particularly with both Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Strider on the injured list at the moment.

Jesse Chavez Elects Free Agency

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April 29: Chavez cleared waivers and elected free agency yet again, as relayed by David O’Brien of The Athletic. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he signs a new minor league deal in the next day or two.

April 27: The Braves announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Jesse Chavez for assignment. The move makes room on the active roster for right-hander Davis Daniel, who has been recalled to the majors.

Chavez, 41, made just one appearance in his latest stint with the Braves when he surrendered one run on two hits and a walk while striking out two in an inning of work against the Diamondbacks. He’s so far posted a 6.00 ERA in three innings at the big league level for Atlanta this year, his sixth season in a Braves uniform. The veteran journeyman has pitched to a 4.24 ERA (99 ERA+) and 4.22 FIP in his 18 seasons as a big leaguer but has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years.

In 2018, Chavez posted a 2.55 ERA and 3.54 FIP for the Rangers and Cubs across 95 1/3 innings of work. It would’ve been easy to think of that performance as a flash in the pan after he returned to Texas and struggled in both 2019 and the shortened 2020 season, but he signed with Atlanta in 2021 and has looked quite good ever since with a 2.96 ERA and 3.50 FIP in 204 innings of work since then. That ERA drops to an even more impressive 2.59 when looking just at the time he’s spent in Atlanta over the past five seasons, and a strong relationship between the organization and player has seen him return to the club repeatedly in recent years after brief stints elsewhere.

It seems likely that relationship will continue even after today’s DFA. The Braves now have one week to either trade Chavez or pass him through waivers going forward, but if he does clear waivers it would hardly be a shock to see Chavez reject an outright assignment before re-signing in Atlanta on a minor league deal, as he did the last time he was DFA’d by the Braves earlier this month. Should he accept an outright assignment return to the Braves organization on a fresh deal, he’ll remain available to Atlanta as a non-roster depth option who can be called upon to provide length out of the bullpen as needed.

Chavez’s departure from the roster makes room for Daniel, who Atlanta acquired from the Angels back in December. The righty was a seventh-round pick by Anaheim in the 2019 draft and made his big league debut in 2023. In total, he’s pitched 42 2/3 innings of work across nine appearances (six starts) with a 5.06 ERA and 4.41 FIP during that time. Last season, Daniel struck out 20.9% of batters faced at the big league level while walking just 4.5%, but was held back by the long ball as he surrendered five in just 30 1/3 innings of work. For a Braves club that doesn’t have a clear starter for Monday’s game against the Rockies after losing Spencer Strider to the injured list, Daniel could be an option for a spot start if he’s not needed out of the bullpen against the Diamondbacks this evening.

Braves Select Jesse Chavez

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The Braves announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Jesse Chavez from Triple-A Gwinnett. He’ll head to the big league roster in place of righty Nathan Wiles, who’s been optioned back to Triple-A after making his MLB debut last night. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Chavez, Atlanta transferred infielder Nacho Alvarez Jr. to the 60-day injured list. Alvarez has been out all season due to a wrist injury.

The 41-year-old Chavez keeps finding his way back to the Braves. He’s pitched for Atlanta in each of the past five seasons despite signing contracts with the Angels, Cubs, Rangers and White Sox along the way. Most of those were minor league pacts — including his 2025 deal with Texas — and each time Chavez has opted out of a non-roster contract he’s wound up back with Atlanta.

It’s been a successful pairing. Chavez has a 2.56 ERA with the Braves dating back to 2021. He’s pitched in a variety of roles, ranging from long relief to opener to setup man. This is his second stint of the ’25 campaign with Atlanta. He was selected to the roster on March 31, designated for assignment after a two-inning appearance, and quickly re-signed a new minor league deal after electing free agency.

Chavez allowed one run on a pair of hits and a pair of walks in his lone Braves appearance of the season. He’s been outstanding in Gwinnett, firing 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball while setting down 12 of his 25 opponents on strikes (48%). He’s yet to issue a walk. It’s possible he’ll stick around a bit longer with the Braves in this latest stint, particularly given the struggles of veterans Enyel De Los Santos and Rafael Montero through the season’s first month. If the Braves do opt to shuffle him out for a fresh arm, he’d have to again be designated for assignment, at which point a similar process — clear waivers, elect free agency, re-sign — could play out again.

Alvarez, 22, made his big league debut last year but only got into eight games. He’s considered one of the organization’s better prospects after a strong three-year run in the minors that saw him produce a .284/.400/.396 batting line as he climbed the ladder toward MLB. Alvarez exited a game early in spring training after an awkward swing and opened the year on the 10-day IL due to wrist inflammation. The move to the 60-day does not reset his IL clock; he’ll need to be on the injured list for at least 60 days dating back to his original placement. He’ll be out until at least late May.

Braves Re-Sign Jesse Chavez To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have re-signed right-hander Jesse Chavez to a fresh minor league deal, as reflected in his transaction tracker at MLB.com. The Apex Baseball client has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett.

The news is not surprising in the least. Chavez is a 41-year-old veteran who has bounced around to various teams in the league, but in recent years, he always seems to wind up back in Atlanta. Going into the 2021 season, he signed a minor league deal with the Angels. When he didn’t make that club’s Opening Day roster, he was released and signed with Atlanta. Going into 2022, he signed with the Cubs but was traded to Atlanta before the end of April. He was flipped to the Angels in early August as part of the Raisel Iglesias trade but was released and back in Atlanta before September. He re-signed with Atlanta for 2023. Going into 2024, he signed a minors deal with the White Sox but didn’t make the Opening Day roster and was with Atlanta before the end of March. The same thing happened this spring, only with the Rangers instead of the White Sox.

Chavez was added to Atlanta’s roster earlier this week and tossed two mop-up innings in Monday’s game. With the pitching staff fairly taxed and Chavez likely unavailable for a day or two, they designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency but is now back with the club on a new deal.

Despite his age, he has managed to stay very effective in recent years. Dating back to the start of the 2021 season, he has thrown 203 major league innings with a 2.93 earned run average, 24.3% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 42.4% ground ball rate.

He got squeezed off Atlanta’s roster but is now back to provide them with some non-roster depth. Given recent patterns, he should be back in the big leagues as soon as the bullpen is gassed again and they need a fresh arm.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.

Jesse Chavez Elects Free Agency

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The Braves announced that reliever Jesse Chavez elected free agency after being designated for assignment on Tuesday. He cleared outright waivers and retested the market rather than accept the assignment to Triple-A.

This was the expected outcome, though there’s a decent chance Atlanta will look to bring the 41-year-old righty back on a new minor league contract. He signed his most recent minor league deal with the Braves on March 23, two days after he was released by the Rangers. Atlanta called him up on Monday but squeezed him off the roster after one game. Chavez tossed 41 pitches to get through two innings of mop-up work. He would not have been available for at least a day or two, so Atlanta swapped him out for Zach Thompson to add some length to the bullpen.

Over the past four years, the Braves signed Chavez to four separate contracts, claimed him off waivers once, and traded for him once. He has provided Atlanta 186 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball while striking out a quarter of batters faced between those various stints. Chavez hasn’t had anywhere near that level of success anywhere else. He has also spent time in the Angels, Cubs, White Sox and Rangers organizations (at least during Spring Training) in recent years, but he has continually circled back to the Braves.

It would not be a surprise if that continued. It’s common for players to decline an outright assignment before re-signing with that team. (Phillies infielder Buddy Kennedy took that approach on Tuesday.) That allows the player to renegotiate opt-out or upward mobility provisions that may not have been in the previous deal.

Braves Designate Jesse Chavez For Assignment, Select Zach Thompson

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The Braves announced that they have selected right-hander Zach Thompson to the major league roster. Fellow righty Jesse Chavez has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

The moves are seemingly a response to the club’s pitching staff getting heavily used early on. Atlanta is starting the year with seven straight games and lost the first five. On Sunday, AJ Smith-Shawver started and only lasted four innings. The club lost on the road, meaning the bullpen only had to cover four additional frames, but swingman José Suarez tossed three of them. Reliever Héctor Neris also tossed an inning and was designated for assignment afterwards.

Ahead of yesterday’s game, the club selected Chavez to take the place of Neris. Yesterday’s starter Grant Holmes also lasted just four innings. Losing on the road again, the bullpen needed to cover another four frames. Raisel Iglesias and Enyel De Los Santos each covered one. Chavez took two, throwing 41 pitches in the process.

The club didn’t use any of Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson or Daysbel Hernández in the past two days but the rest of the group got a lot of work, particularly the multi-inning options. They also had to recall Bryce Elder to start tomorrow’s game when Reynaldo López landed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.

Surely, the club will be hoping for a good outing from Chris Sale tonight, but he’ll be facing a tough Dodger lineup. Whether it’s after Sale tonight or after Elder tomorrow, Thompson might be needed to cover some long relief innings before the club’s much-needed off-day on Thursday.

Thompson, 31, has some major league experience under his belt. He debuted with the Marlins in 2021 and posted a 3.24 earned run average, working both in the rotation and the bullpen. Prior to 2022, he was traded to the Pirates for Jacob Stallings but his ERA jumped to 5.18 with Pittsburgh that year.

He hasn’t been in the majors since then. The Bucs designated him for assignment and flipped him to the Blue Jays ahead of the 2023 season. The latter club kept him in the minors that year, where Thompson posted a 4.61 ERA in 24 Triple-A starts. He was outrighted off Toronto’s 40-man during that season and elected free agency at season’s end. He required flexor tendon surgery in October of that year and missed all of 2024 while recovering.

That led to a minor league deal with Atlanta a few months ago. He tossed nine innings over two spring appearances, allowing one earned run with five strikeouts and three walks. He’ll give the club another multi-inning arm for now, though the need for such a player could dissipate fairly quickly. As mentioned, they have an off-day on Thursday. They will have another on Monday, giving them some more breathing room. Spencer Strider could be reinstated from the IL in the next week or two and López could potentially be back in the mix if his issue proves to be minor. Thompson still has options and could potentially be sent to the minors while hanging onto his 40-man spot.

As for Chavez, he always seems to find his way back to Atlanta, even he gets pulled away from time to time. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers this winter but was released when he wasn’t going to crack the Opening Day roster. That led to a minor league deal with Atlanta. Their tough start to the season meant they needed to quickly call him up. But after he tossed those two frames and 41 pitches last night, he was probably going to be unavailable for a day or two, so he’s been hastily bumped off as well.

Though he’s now 41 years old, Chavez has remained effective. From the start of 2021 to the present, he has a 2.93 ERA in 203 innings pitched. That includes a 24.3% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 42.4% ground ball rate. He’ll now be in DFA limbo for a maximum of one week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any potential trade talks would have to happen in the next five days.

He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’d likely end up in free agency if he goes unclaimed on waivers. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him back with Atlanta after that but he’s also been with the Pirates, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs in his career.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

Braves To Select Jesse Chavez, Designate Hector Neris For Assignment

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11:08am: Atlanta has opted to designate right-hander Hector Neris for assignment, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Chavez will take his spot on the 26-man and 40-man rosters.

11:03am: The Braves are selecting the contract of veteran right-hander Jesse Chavez from Triple-A Gwinnett, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Atlanta has a full 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will need to be made.

The 41-year-old Chavez and the Braves can’t seem to help finding their way back to one another. This is his fifth stint with Atlanta in five years, despite never pitching on more than a one-year deal with the Braves over that half-decade stretch. He’s signed minor league deals with the White Sox, Cubs, Rangers and Angels since 2021 but each time wound up landing back with the Braves.

Despite his age, Chavez has remained effective during that span. In 201 innings since 2021 — all but 16 1/3 coming with Atlanta — the well-traveled righty has compiled a 2.91 earned run average with a 24.5% strikeout rate and a 7.4% walk rate. He’s most frequently held a long relief/multi-inning role in the bullpen but has garnered 26 holds and a save along the way.

Neris, 35, appeared in only two games with the Braves but was still tagged for five runs in that small sample. He yielded three runs without recording an out in his Atlanta debut on Opening Day and was tagged for another two runs in one inning of work yesterday. The Braves could’ve optioned Daysbel Hernandez, moved Joe Jimenez to the 60-day injured list — he’s likely out for the season following late-October knee surgery — and preserved some depth, but Neris’ early struggles were enough for the club to move on entirely.

It’s a rough sequence for Neris, who didn’t even sign with Atlanta until March 3 and only pitched one official inning during spring training before being selected to the Opening Day roster. The extent to which the lack of a more traditional build impacted him is impossible to pin down, but Neris averaged just 91.9 mph on his four-seamer during his pair of Braves appearances; he averaged 93.6 mph on his four-seamer during his first appearance of the 2024 season.

That said, Neris isn’t exactly coming off a dominant 2024 campaign. He finished the year with a 4.10 ERA between the Cubs and Astros but also blew five of his 30 save opportunities, walked nearly 11% of his opponents and posted a 24.6% strikeout rate that was his lowest since his 2015 rookie campaign in Philadelphia. Neris struggled enough in Chicago that the Cubs released him in mid-August.

As recently as 2023, Neris turned in a pristine 1.71 ERA in 68 1/3 innings for Houston. That never looked sustainable, not with a .219 average on balls in play and bloated 91% strand rate, but he still logged a sharp 28.2% strikeout rate and logged 31 holds and a pair of saves. Even with some regression expected, metrics like FIP (3.83) and SIERA (3.89) felt that Neris was a perfectly solid option in the ’pen.

The Braves have the opportunity to explore trade scenarios for Neris, but the likelier outcome is that he’ll become a free agent — whether by way of release waivers or rejecting a minor league assignment after clearing outright waivers. Neris has a lengthy track record in the big leagues and has continued to pitch effectively into his 30s — 3.27 ERA in 267 1/3 innings from 2021-24 — so another club will likely take a look on a minor league deal and hope that a lengthier buildup in the minors will get him back on track.

Braves Sign Jesse Chavez To Minor League Deal

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Fans in Atlanta have been reunited with an old friend today, as veteran right-hander Jesse Chavez signed with the Braves on a minor league deal this morning as relayed by David O’Brien of The Athletic. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that Chavez is in the mix for a spot on the club’s Opening Day roster, with the final spot on the club’s pitching staff seemingly likely to come down to either him or youngster AJ Smith-Shawver.

Chavez, 41, will now have the opportunity to suit up for the Braves in a fifth consecutive big league season. The journeyman reliever was drafted by the Cubs in the 39th round of the 2001 draft but did not sign, only to then be drafted in the 42nd round of the 2002 draft by the Rangers. He kicked off his career in the majors with the Pirates back in 2008 at the age of 24, and since then he’s pitched for nine clubs across 17 big league seasons. The veteran journeyman struggled a great deal early in his career, with a 5.99 ERA in his first 156 big league outings, but he improved with time to become a roughly average middle relief arm in his early to mid 30s with a 4.18 ERA in 755 2/3 innings of work from 2013 to 2020.

The righty’s most notable step forward, however, came in Atlanta. More than a decade after he made his Braves debut (he made 28 appearances for the club back in 2010), Chavez returned to Georgia in 2021 and dominated to the tune of a 2.14 ERA in 33 2/3 innings of work with an even better 2.01 FIP. He went on to pitch 6 1/3 scoreless innings during the club’s run to the World Series, and since then he’s remained a fixture of Atlanta’s pitching staff even as stints with the Cubs, White Sox, and Angels have either seen him depart the organization without making a big league appearance or struggle in a brief stint at the big league level. All of those forays into other organizations have ended in him returning to Atlanta, and it appears this winter’s minor league deal with the Rangers was no different as the veteran was released on Friday prior to his reunion with Atlanta.

Now that he’s back with the Braves organization, it would hardly be a surprise to see him return to the big league roster given that he’s posted a sterling 2.53 ERA over the past four seasons while pitching in the club’s uniform. To crack the Opening Day roster, the veteran will need to beat out Smith-Shawver. The 22-year-old has looked quite good this spring, with a 3.94 ERA and a 28.2% strikeout rate in 16 innings of work. Those big strikeout numbers have gotten the attention of the club’s brass and appear to have even entered him into the conversation for starts alongside Grant Holmes and Ian Anderson behind the club’s regular starters Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Reynaldo Lopez. Chavez won’t be in the mix for starts, but if the club opts to round out its rotation with Anderson and Holmes he could slide into a long relief role with the club as Smith-Shawver heads to Triple-A.

Rangers Release Hunter Strickland, Jesse Chavez

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The Rangers announced that they’ve released veteran relievers Jesse Chavez and Hunter Strickland from minor league contracts. Both pitchers are again free agents.

As MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote yesterday, Chavez and Strickland are among at least three dozen players around the league with upcoming opt-out opportunities. The Rangers presumably expected both to trigger their out clauses and weren’t willing to carry them in the MLB bullpen. Neither player showed much in camp. Chavez gave up seven runs over 6 2/3 innings, allowing 10 hits while issuing four walks. Strickland just signed last Wednesday. He was only able to make two appearances and gave up three runs while recording four outs.

Strickland, 36, spent last season with the Angels, where he managed decent numbers in middle relief. He posted a 3.31 ERA across 73 1/3 innings, picking up 12 holds and a save. A below-average 19.4% strikeout rate is the primary reason he nevertheless needed to settle for a minor league deal.

Chavez is trying to get to the big leagues for the 18th straight year. The 41-year-old swingman has bounced around the league but only appeared in the majors with Atlanta over the last two seasons. He turned in a productive 3.13 ERA over 63 1/3 frames as a long man last year. Chavez struck out 20.8% of opponents against a 7.2% walk rate.

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