The Braves announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Nate Jones for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for fellow righty reliever Carl Edwards Jr., whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Gwinnett. Atlanta also optioned right-hander Edgar Santana to Gwinnett.
Jones, 35, inked a minor league deal with the Braves over the winter and parlayed a dominant Spring Training effort into an Opening Day spot in the Atlanta ’pen. Unfortunately, the regular season didn’t bring about the same results as Jones enjoyed in Grapefruit League play. Through 10 1/3 innings this season, Jones has walked 10 batters, hit another and allowed eight hits (three homers). He’s limited the damage to six runs (four earned), but that lack of control ultimately cost him his roster spot.
The oft-injured Jones has scuffled in recent seasons but at one point was a lights-out setup man for the White Sox. He spent parts of eight seasons with the South Siders, pitching to a 3.12 ERA over the life of 291 1/3 innings out of the Chicago bullpen. Whether he can ever reclaim that form remains to be seen, but Jones came out of the gates in 2021 with a still-very-healthy 95.8 mph average velocity on his heater. The Braves will have a week to trade him, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He has more than enough service time to refuse an outright assignment if he clears waivers.
Edwards, 29, will be looking to bounce back from what has been a relatively swift decline in recent years. From 2016-18, he was one of the Cubs’ primary bullpen arms and was quite impressive along the way, compiling a 3.03 ERA while striking out nearly 35 percent of his opponents. Control was an issue (13.5 percent walk rate), but Edwards looked the part of a high-quality, late-inning arm.
However, Edwards began to unravel in Sept. 2018, when he walked 12 of the final 38 batters he faced in a total of just seven innings pitched. He began the 2019 campaign in similarly shaky fashion, pitching to a 5.87 ERA with nine walks, a hit batter and eight hits (three homers) allowed in 15 1/3 frames. The Cubs somewhat surprisingly moved on, and he’s been unable to find his stride again since that time. He looked sharp in a brief stint with the Mariners in 2020 but ended up missing the bulk of the season due to a forearm strain.
If Edwards is able to recapture his peak form, he’ll give the Braves a high-octane strikeout artist who can be controlled for another season via arbitration. Walks will likely to continue to be an issue even if he does find some success, however, which isn’t ideal for a club whose bullpen already has the fifth-highest walk rate in the Majors (12.2 percent).
Whether Edwards rebounds or not, Atlanta could eventually turn to the trade market to augment a bullpen that currently ranks 23rd in the Majors in ERA (4.58), 21st in FIP (4.41) and 25th in SIERA (4.23).
Jones seems like someone the tigers should pick up
It doesn’t matter. The Tigers aren’t going anywhere so they might as well get younger pitchers some experience. Adding Nate Jones just prevents someone’s development considering that Detroit is already around 15 games below .500.
I think this line of thinking mistakes losing or getting lit up as development. I remember early in the Braves rebuild guys like Matt Wisler, Aaron Blair, Lucas Sims, Williams Perez, and Mike Foltynewicz were getting starts. Folty eventually put it together for a season or two, but everyone else is either out of baseball or not starting. Then there’s guys like Max Fried, Mike Soroka, and Ian Anderson who look good, sometimes take their lumps, but you can tell they’ll be productive big leaguers if healthy for a long time.
And consider, I’m sure Avila and Hinch like being employed, so having guys who can help them win works in their favor. That’s not specific to Jones, but just in general to the idea that rebuilding teams shouldn’t sign guys because those innings should go to younger guys that may just get lit up.
I want to make a comment on the pitchers named by brandon-3. Lucas Sims was not acquired during the rebuild. He was a 1st round draft pick and the top rated (or near top) starting pitcher on Braves farm when they decided to rebuild. He struggled in rotation for Braves and was traded to Reds (along with Wisler) in the Adam Duvall deal. Sims has been a decent reliever for the Reds, with spot start (to my knowledge).
Braves traded for a lot of starting pitchers during rebuild. Only 2 look like keepers, Fried and Ynoa. Newcomb looks like a keeper but as a reliever Folty is in the rotation for Rangers with fair results (decent ERA-bad W,L record). Other young pitchers acquired by trade during rebuild have not stuck in the majors on any other team either.
Coppy’s goal was to flood a farm lacking significant pitching with young pitchers and hope for the best because you never know how pitching prospects will develop. Btw, Soroka, Anderson, Wilson and Wright were acquired during rebuild through the draft.
I did not say those guys were acquired during the rebuild. I said those young pitchers (not them SPECIFICALLY, but them among a group of others not named) drew starts and didn’t produce. My point was that teams shouldn’t just give out playing time to young players just because they’re young. Make them earn it and, above all, do not rush them even if you’re not playing for anything.
Carl Edwards Jr looked poised to become a pretty good set-up man not too long ago.
Edit: I guess 2018 is longer ago than I remember haha. Anyway, good luck CEJ.
Edwards had a good relief outing at Gwinnett, so he is next man up. Braves had such a good pen last year and their best season in more than a decade. Coincidence? I think not. AA must place high emphasis on the pen going forward.
Of course, can’t express how important getting Chris Martin back will be. I wouldn’t doubt eventually seeing Smith/Martin platoon closer role, similar to what I think OAK is doing with Trivino (RH) / Diekman (LH).
I think AA let Melancon (and Greene for that matter) go because he thought Smith would dominate at closer like he did for the Giants. That hasn’t entirely been the case so far. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it is a saying for a reason. Smith has improved from last season so there was a chance to make the pen even better than last year’s pen. That’s not the case.
Newcomb had a good relief outing at Gwinnett yesterday. If he repeats that a time or 2, he will be back up in high leverage innings.
Will Smith is 7 out of 7 in save opportunities. He a been pretty Damn good as of late. I think they should only use him in save situations though. He seems to do better in that situation.
It was careless to let all of those relievers go and not bring in a reliable late-inning arm. I know there was no realistic way to bring back all of Melancon/Greene/O’Day but they needed to bring at least one of them back or add another reliable veteran to go along with Smith and Martin.
Smith has 7 saves but with 2 losses. ERA is 2.77. Mathis helped him out yesterday with a man on 3rd, 1 out to get the save. He has been good, not dominant….so far.
This is not a Mathis board, but I still cannot get over that vacuum cleaner yesterday.
I would be ok, with Mathis catching Smyly and Morton tbh. He knows how to call a game better than any catcher I’ve seen. I’d rather have him start maybe 2 times a week over flowers. Or maybe carry 3 catchers so you can have Contreras pinch hit for Mathis late in games. I think Contreras needs to be the #1 catcher with Mathis starting once or twice a week. I honestly don’t know why they brought back flowers. I also agree that they should have been bringing back there relievers for last year. Losing Melancon for like 3 million was just stupid and not picking up O’Days cheap option. The bullpen was the strength of the team last year and now it’s probably the biggest weakness. I was just saying that Smith has been pretty Damn good in Save situations. I wasn’t trying to argue that the Braves shouldn’t have brought back Greene and Melancon.
I can see your point, especially now, but O’Day was bound to break down. Braves fans speak so highly of him, yet he pitched 21.2 regular season IP in a ATL uniform from 2019-20, while his 2020 postseason was a forgettable 2.1 IP (7.71 ERA). It’s no surprise he hasn’t gotten to 10 IP with NYY and already on the IL – and with it being a right rotator cuff strain it could take away quite a bit of time. Considering he cost ATL a total of $22.25M for only 21.2 IP – he should be seen as a salary dump from BAL that netted us Gausman who never quite made that deal worth it.
Edwards will make you think he’s a dominant reliever one day, and the next day, you’ll be wondering how he ever reached the majors.
So this is a wash.
just shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic
Jones has about 1 free pass per inning and almost that many hits per inning. Giving up some long balls too. Ouch!
The NL East will be feasting on Carl’s, Jr.
I believe they call it Hardee’s back there
Correct. It is called Hardee’s in the Atlanta area.
I was confused earlier this week when reports said he was optioned. I was really hoping for the best with him, but I think it’s best time just to move on. Let’s not even be tempted to call him back up by resigning him to the minors …
A move I can support.
Yeah buddy, Jones has been absolutely terrible.
He’s perfect for the Angels :/
Then he’ll thrive when he gets to the Giants
About time!!! Now they need to make a decision on Grant Dayton. He was lucky yesterday when he got that call from the Ump on that curveball that got him out of a jam.
Eh he isn’t the problem just yet. I think he’ll be fine but not great. Wish the LOOGY was still a thing, he seems like a person you would bring in to get that one pesky lefty.
Ohh and just go get Shane Greene already.
He must be asking for like 7 or 8 million a year or something like that. I think if he would take 3-5 somebody would have got him by now. But yes please, I’d love to have Greene back.
Agree. Greene must be asking a bit too much for any team to bite. He had no spring ball and would start late. His value is dropping.
I’m starting to think it’s the amount of years he’s asking for and not the money. I’m sure some desperate team would give him $8 million right now for this year but I doubt they’d give him $25 million over three years.
$8M…seriously? Who knows what kind of shape he’s in. His stuff wasn’t great last year. I’d honestly be surprised if he got half that at this point. Not saying he’s not worth it, just where the market was and is at, but that could change with a few more injuries and the further we get into the season (with races being determined). There’s what ~2 games separating first and last place in the NL East.
I never suggested that the Braves would give him $8 million…but I’m sure some team out there would if they need bullpen help that badly. It would only be for one year so even if it backfires, it won’t be a problem next year. I think the biggest problem is that he wants multiple years.
Sorry to see EDWARDS leaving NASCAR !!
Melacon got 2M for the Friars, Greene should get offered a Prorated deal go to AAA or extend ST. He was at the last home stand in the bleachers watching the team play BTW. AA needs to get it done and have another righty in the BP.
Carl Jr is the best and his dad recently said he’d return to NASCAR for a one-off race at a road course and possibly run for Senator. Great family
Every time I see Carl Edwards Jr.’s name in print I think he should own a hamburger joint.
And Luke Jackson remains…
Luke Jackson has been better then Jones. I don’t expect it to last but he’s been able to keep runs of the board. His WHIP is ridiculous and he’s been extremely lucky but Jones was the one who needed to go first. In my opinion they shouldn’t have tendered him a contract this off-season and used the money on real help but Nate Jones no question has been the worst reliever.
When you let Melancon, Greene and O’Day leave and then sign these ‘projects’, your bullpen is already weaker and it has already been showing. The Braves bullpen is definitely not as good as it was last season..
Nate Jones is the perfect example of a player with elite ability who can’t stay healthy.