The Braves have announced that they have selected the contract of reliever Darren O’Day, who they had signed to a minor league deal in November. To make room on the 40-man roster, fellow reliever Luke Jackson was placed on the 60-day IL. Additionally, Kyle Muller was optioned to Triple-A.
O’Day, 39, is a veteran side-arming righty who made his MLB debut with the Angels back in 2008. After spending some time with the Mets and Rangers, he landed with the Orioles and stayed for his longest stretch with any one club, spending seven seasons in Baltimore from 2012 to 2018. He then spent two seasons with Atlanta before donning Yankee pinstripes last year, and will now rejoin the Braves this year.
Over his 587 1/3 career innings, he holds an ERA of 2.53, strikeout rate of 25.8% and walk rate of 6.8%, all excellent numbers. However, he was limited to just 10 2/3 innings last year due to various injuries. He had a player option that could have kept him in the Bronx this year with a $1.4MM salary, but he chose the $700K buyout instead. His deal with the Braves will guarantee him $1MM, meaning that he earned himself an extra $300K by opting for the buyout.
As for Jackson, his IL placement isn’t terribly surprising after yesterday’s news that he may require Tommy John surgery. Although that surgery is not yet guaranteed, this move assures that he will be out of action for at least a couple of months. The 30-year-old had a tremendous breakout season last year, throwing 63 2/3 innings of 1.98 ERA ball, helping the club win the NL West and eventually hoist the World Series trophy. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to build on that campaign due to this injury. The club has bolstered their bullpen this offseason with the additions of Collin McHugh and Kenley Jansen. With Jackson landing on the shelf, O’Day will step in as yet another veteran presence.
This is going to work out juuuuuuust fine for some late game blowups.
“BuT LuKe jAcKsOn WaS LiKe OuR 10th Best ReLiEvEr”……
I don’t even know which team you root for but I guarantee they didn’t win a championship last year. Pipe down.
I think the Mets. Funny enough, he thinks Braves fans are pouring tears with Jackson out. Guess it makes him feel better knowing Jackson’s loss will lessen the heartbreak for the loss of deGrom/Max S.
For me, there are 2 things we will miss
1. His nasty slider
2. His tendency to well… suck – well I guess this will not be missed.
Get better soon Night shift spare tire.
You guys walked all the way from your backwoods trailers to use the computer in the public library and that’s the best you’ve got?
Public libraries still exist? The people I know that live in the backwoods are pretty wealthy. Big city, loud noise, mass crime, and $hit filled scent in the air isn’t a place that’s exactly comforting to most people. Welcome to 2022, old fart. Is that the best YOU’ve got? Btw, stop liking your own posts, it’s pathetic.
@You Can Put It In The Books
You guys spent all those hundreds of millions of dollars and 77 wins is the best you’ve got?
@Books: Do you always like your own posts?
They don’t know what GDP is, njbirdsfan… you need to explain it in terms they understand: pickup trucks, smokeless tobacco, welfare and unemployment checks…
I’m assuming you’re referencing grand daddy purple? Not really sure where all the politics came into play either.
Really? A quick search shows California (506.66 Billion) number one and New York (358.15 Billion) number two on the list of states with the most outstanding debt. New Jersey’s in the top 10 as well. Those states may produce at a great rate but they borrow at a much higher rate so tell us again about making versus taking!
Ok, Darth. But why you mad?
NL East*
It’s apparently 1993…
Glad we have the depth. If o’day is the next man up, then that bullpen is deep
So the Blue Jays are winning the World Series!!!
Probably not Joey. I would put my money on the Braves right now if I had some to play with. But high fuel prices are currently prohibiting that.
With the White Sox roster taking damage, I now have Braves/Blue Jays.
Jackson may be done he already had a Tommy john surgery early in career when with texas.
Luke will drive you crazy sometimes when he pitches, but he’s pretty darn good overall and seems like a good dude. I hate this for him.
Use the Force Luke!
Luke had a career low inherited-runners-scored in 2021. It was still a not-good 26%, but it lowered his career average to 38%. He should probably only come in with the bases empty.
I wish him well in his recovery.
Being a free agent next season hard to see his future in Atlanta. Hope he gets healthy and continues his career .
Need to find another arm. Not Shane Green but maybe Mike Fiers
DENVER — After saying that he would miss “nothing” about former teammate Freddie Freeman on an Instagram Live with Dominican journalist Yancen Pujols on Wednesday, Braves star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. stood by his locker on Thursday to try and clear things up.
“I think the reporters exaggerated,” Acuña said in Spanish. “I didn’t say anything bad about Freeman. I talked about what happened in 2018 when I was a rookie. The rest was blown out of proportion.”
Acuña explained that some of his displeasure with Freeman stems from an incident in 2018, the outfielder’s rookie season. According to Acuña, Freeman and some other veterans pulled the young outfielder aside and wiped the eye black off his face.
“When you come up as a rookie, there’s always somebody who wants to stick it to you,” Acuña explained. “You come with your swagger from the Minor Leagues. … A lot of people look at it as wrong and I don’t look at it as wrong because it’s part of the game.”
mlb.com/news/ronald-acuna-jr-freddie-freeman-comme…
Man, he held this grudge for four years? He’s lucky he didn’t come up before 2016 when MLB changed the rookie hazing rules. Besides having to carry veterans’ luggage before then, rookies had to walk in public dressed as cheerleaders in skirts, or wearing Speedos, or with a pink backpack.