The Braves announced that they’ve signed right-hander Jhoulys Chacin to a one-year, Major League contract. The 32-year-old Chacin, who was cut loose by the Twins recently, also spent part of the 2016 season with Atlanta. Chacin is represented by Rep 1 Baseball.
Chacin stumbled through the worst season of his career in 2019, recording a 6.01 ERA and serving up an average of 2.2 homers per nine innings pitched. The long ball has never been an Achilles heel for Chacin, though, and he’s only a year removed from a strong showing in Milwaukee (3.50 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 in 192 2/3 innings). In fact, from 2013-18, Chacin notched a 3.96 ERA/4.02 FIP in 804 1/3 innings.
In recent weeks, the Braves have seen veteran Felix Hernandez opt out of the 2020 season, while it’s become increasingly clear that Cole Hamels won’t be ready for the season opener. Hamels has been plagued by shoulder and triceps issues since the original Spring Training, and while he’s on a throwing program, he’s also likely to begin the year on the injured list.
Youngsters Mike Soroka and Max Fried project to lead the Atlanta rotation, with inconsistent-but-clearly-talented names like Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb to follow. Kyle Wright might’ve been the favorite for the fifth spot, but Chacin gives the Braves a viable alternative with a good bit of big league success if they’d prefer to add some experience to the starting staff. If not, he can join Josh Tomlin as another multi-inning relief option on which manager Brian Snitker can lean.
Not a bad pick up
good depth
Braves logic:
Let’s draft an endless stream of pitching prospects because you can never have too much depth
But when the time comes to use that depth, let’s sign guys like Chacin instead of giving the starts to guys like Wright/Wilson/Davidson even though they’re as ready as they’ll ever possibly be.
Makes total sense
You know what MJ I would argue with you that you can never have enough pitching, but you couldn’t have said it better. We draft these talented guys and let them rot in AAA for 3 years and when the braves finally give them a chance they only see a spot start here and there or maybe some multi inning relief appearances and they can never settle into a grove at the Major League level, then they max out their prospect status and eventually burn out. I’d rather give innings to Davidson, Weigel, Wilson, and Wright instead of guys like Chacin and Tomlin. It doesn’t hurt to have a guy like Tomlin, who is a veteran, and can eat innings in a blow out, and can provide that veteran leadership plus he pitched well enough last year to take on the long relief role again, but we only need one person to do that. I’m sick of us drafting pitching in the first round every year and have all this pitching depth and then end up wasting half of it. If we aren’t going to use it then trade some of these high end prospects we have and get another big bat in the middle of the line up that will be here for more than a year instead of signing guys like Ozuna to a one year contract. Depth never hurts especially when it’s full of young guys that have a good amount of potential but don’t waste it.
It’s important to have depth, and options, especially this season with such a condensed schedule. Braves are World Series contenders. Makes sense to add talent if it’s cheap and available. Chacin doesn’t preclude any of those other pitchers from getting major league innings this year. Don’t view it as him blocking those pitchers, view it as he is replacing Felix Hernandez as a back of rotation option IF Wright, Newsome, or others struggle. No one wants those prospects to pan out more than the Braves, but they can’t afford to let them take lumps all year in a shortened season with little margin for error when the rest of the roster is constructed to win now.
How do you pronounce this guy’s name
You-Liss Sha-seen
You-lease Cha-seen
Char-lie Sha-seen
lol…well played sir
His father pays too much for prescriptions.
Not with SingleCare he doesn’t. You watch your GD mouth. 😉
Sorry, had a West Wing moment.
Hahaha that’s good
Finally got are ace!!! Nah in all serious I’m cool with being on the roster. Kinda surprised though
our*
I mean, if it’s the 2018 him then awesome. If not, I don’t mind it so long as it doesn’t take away innings from the youngsters. Like even Wilson needs serious reps this year out of all years.
Wasn’t he actually pitching pretty good when the Braves traded him?
I think he had an ERA around 4.50 which in reality is actually pretty good considering a quality start is pitching 6 innings and giving up 3 runs or less. So if a pitcher pitches 6 innings and gives up 3 runs his ERA would be 4.50
Agreed
That’s where my mind went. Please God give us the 2018 version of him. I think we should all count our blessings if we got 2017 Chacin. But as it’s been pointed out frequently, this is a short season so we could have just about any version of the man.
Just as long as he didn’t sign with the Indians. Then I don’t care.
I’m happy to see that he was picked up. He had a couple of good years with the Padres and the Brewers. Hopefully he’s got something left in the tank for Braves fans.
Yes no worries. The Braves will be a wild card team with or without him anyway. With the Cheesesteaks 3rd and the Mutts 4th in the division
Didn’t the Brewers pass over Chacin the year they made the PO in a crucial game and go with several relievers?
I think I recall that as well? The Braves are in a bit of a pickle though. With Hernandez opt out and Hamels not being ready for his first couple starts, maybe worse, because you know..Hamels..the Braves had to go out and pick up a starter from the scrap heap.
Not sure where you’re getting that…. he was 2-1 with a 1.46 era in the playoffs for the Brewers and started Game 7 of the NLCS.
THANK YOU!!!!
Reminds me of when the Twins released Anibal Sanchez and he was picked up by the Nationals
*picked up by the Braves
I can see swing guys/multiple inning reliever guys being pretty valuable this year. There aren’t a lot of rest days and bullpen leverage will be crazy high. Somebody to soak up innings while up or down a few runs will be nice.
What a waste.
Maybe they think he can rebound and look more like the guy from 2018 (and before)… But I’ve got to say as a Red Sox fan watching him last year… that is definitely NOT a guy you want starting games for you… his outings were like batting practice. But having said that pre-2019 he was quite effective at times… so maybe he can rediscover what made him such a solid innings-eater in years past and get things back on track. Even though it feels like he’s been around forever he is still only 32 years old — so hypothetically he could certainly have plenty more left in the tank if he can indeed get things back on the rails.
They could have just kept Julio.
We are bringing back every player from the rebuild just like television shows bring back old characters in the series finale.