The Braves announced this evening they’ve signed reliever Jackson Stephens to a one-year contract. It’s a split deal that pays him at varied rates depending on whether he’s in the majors or minors. Stephens secures a 40-man roster spot, bringing Atlanta’s roster to capacity. Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Twitter link) the 28-year-old will be paid at a $740K rate for any time spent in the majors.
Stephens is coming off a solid season in the middle innings for Atlanta. He was called upon by skipper Brian Snitker for 39 appearances out of the bullpen. Stephens tallied a career-high 53 2/3 innings while posting a personal-low 3.69 ERA. His 20% strikeout rate was a bit below average, but he generated grounders at a solid 46.3% clip. Stephens averaged 94.1 MPH on his fastball and generated high-end spin but middling velocity on his 76.8 MPH curveball.
That marked the Alabama native’s first MLB action in four years. He’d previously pitched with the 2017-18 Reds. He spent 2019 in Triple-A, didn’t pitch with the cancelation of the minor league season the following year, then spent 2021 in Mexico. Stephens returned to affiliated ball on a minor league deal with Atlanta during the lockout. He cracked the MLB roster a week into the season and spent the rest of the season in the majors.
After acquiring Dennis Santana from the Rangers in mid-November, Atlanta designated Stephens for assignment. That was just days before the deadline for clubs to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible or pre-arbitration players. The Braves kept him in DFA limbo and non-tendered him, sending him directly into free agency without first needing to clear waivers. A month later, the front office circled back to bring Stephens back to the organization.
Stephens is out of minor league option years, meaning the Braves can’t send him to the minors so long as he’s on the 40-man roster. That they nevertheless agreed upon a split deal may indicate Atlanta plans to place him on outright waivers in the coming weeks. That’d be the only way to get him back to Triple-A Gwinnett, where his lower base salary would come into play, although it’d require him going unclaimed on waivers.
While the idea of signing a player to an MLB contract to subsequently run him through outright waivers might seem counterintuitive, it’s not unheard of. The minor league salary involved could come at a higher rate than is typical for a player who signs a straightforward minor league contract. That could serve as an incentive for the player to accept a minor league assignment if he clears waivers. Earlier in the offseason, the Orioles signed a pair of players — Anthony Bemboom and Jake Cave — to split deals shortly before trying to run them through waivers. The gambit was successful in Bemboom’s case, as he agreed to stick around at Triple-A upon going unclaimed, but didn’t pan out with Cave, whom the Phillies claimed.
That’s a speculative scenario at this point, to be clear. Stephens will take a spot on the 40-man roster for now. If he still holds that job come Spring Training, he’ll battle for a middle innings role at Truist Park for a second straight year. Atlanta has Raisel Iglesias, A.J. Minter, Joe Jiménez, Collin McHugh, Kirby Yates, Dylan Lee and Santana locked into Opening Day bullpen roles, though Stephens could battle with the likes of Nick Anderson, Seth Elledge and Michael Tonkin for lower-leverage innings.
Solid move
Surprised they brought him back. Despite his ERA, he looked awful whenever I saw him vs the Mets. He needs to lose weight
Awful is how I would describe those last starts against the Braves by Scherzer and DeGrom. And you’re talking about a 7th relief pitcher? Yikes.
Never said they didnt look awful vs the Braves. They should of performed better. Thats why they didnt resign Bassit and Degrom. Stephens was terrible yet they resigned him. Its not good to have an ego
If you think they didn’t resign deGrom because of that than the only one who convinced you of it is yourself.
@LFGMets you obviously didn’t watch many Braves games. If you ask anyone who did, they’ll tell you that Stephens did great in any situation he was put in.
He ate up innings on lop sided games, he pitched multiple inning in extra innings games, and when the bullpen was depleted and there were no other options, he was a lock down clutch pitcher.
He won’t be the first or even second option off the pen, but he’s a great safety net when needed
@SocalBrave the only thing Jackson Stephens ate was whatever the team serves for the after-game buffet
@LFGMets (Metsin7)
Listen to this guy talking about Jackson Stephens. Apparently Bartolo ate everything in the dressing room too if you want to go on about Stephens’ weight, what a joke.
Furthermore, you didn’t watch many Braves games at all, because a lot of the time Stephens pitched in bad situations and did a very good job. .
Lol Scherzer is the one who looked awful in the playoffs against the padres like was throwing batting practice .
Jackson was very solid for the Braves
You can’t sprain fat.
No need to make unnecessary comments about anyone’s size, weight or appearance. It’s rude.
Terry Forster 2.0
@acmeats a baseball player should not be fat. It seems that common sense isn’t so common anymore
and yet you guys resigned Vogelbach
@socalbrave I didn’t want Vogelbach back, hes way too slow, only hits lefties, and has no position but DH
At $1.5 mill Vogelbach is good value. 120 ops+ v. Rhps, will hit 7th or 8th in a stacked lineup and keeps the door open to having Alvarez on the roster. He’s not fat he’s big boned. Mike Ford is fat.
@LFGMets
Vibe check, my dude. That’s a lot of negative energy to be bringing to the message boards during the holidays.
It’s the time of year for peace and merriment, not for pudgy shaming.
*thinking Bartolo Colon here
So do I.
Good to see u back
Solid depth move. Should see alot of this stockpile of BP arms coming next few weeks – especially MiLB deals
Dude pitched some meaningful innings.
Atlanta needs to sign Reynolds ASAP.
Who?
When want and need are used as interchangeably as sign and trade.
No, dumbo — they actually NEED to do this…
What “Reynolds” do they need to sign? You talking Pirates star who is already under contract?
Give us idea of your trade package, one that Pittsburgh would win and us Braves fans could live with or endure.
It would have to include grissom and Richie I assume more as well. With the team locked up for the future you rebuild through draft and international signing. Will take a few years. Plug in a good glove worker at short and your good.pray no major injuries cause farm and possibly financially your tapped out.
Not sure I understand how this split contract would work.
Jackson Stephens is out of minor league options. If he’s on the 40-man roster, the Braves can’t just assign him to the minor leagues. He’d need to get passed through waivers. What am I missing?
Guessing that since nobody claimed him when he designated for assignment that there isn’t a lot of interest in him. With a lot of teams with full 40 man rosters Atlanta likely try sneaking him through at some point
Thanks for the additional info added to the article. Guess we’ll just see how long Stephens sticks.
I can confirm that 740K fits into the Braves miniscule budget. Your move Cohen.
Miniscule budget? Someone hasn’t been paying attention
They came into the offseason with $4M to spend.
Can you show me where they’ve set that as the number? They have over 200 mil towards the luxury tax and said they’d go over it if the right deal presented itself.
Don’t confuse the small minds with facts. The Braves are cheap and no amount of facts will change their minds.
The Braves payroll was nearly 182 million. That’s good for 9th most last year. Being in the top 10 in payroll might not be impressive but it’s not miniscule. Saying it’s miniscule by only considering what they’ve spent just THIS off-season isn’t an honest evaluation. I wish they would be willing to spend a bit more as well but there are a lot of teams that are worse off than the Braves.
Budget and payroll are two different things
They’re related though. Budget describes their payroll. Complaining about what they spend this year contributes to payroll which is kind of on the high side. Even though you didn’t specifically mention the word payroll, when you describe it the way I did, it takes any real complaint away. Their budget is small this season because their payroll is large. You can’t just divorce the two.
There is a difference in payroll that is actual payroll and then the payroll that the league uses for luxury tax purposes. Spencer Srider and Michael Harris II salaries are much higher for luxury tax purpose that actual being paid next year.
So many Braves fans forget that Atlanta spent big during the season of long term deals for their players. Eddie Rosario everyone was excited about when we signed him for 2022 he had an eye injury; think of people think that he will have a bounce back year.
How nice that he got a contract just as MLBTR wrote a piece on the top relievers last season
Anybody else get a vibe the Santana signing can turn into another Matzek type result
Seems like Braves always pull a rabbit out the hat with RP
Still wondering why ATL selected Tonkin’s contract
Braves signed Stephens based off Anthony’s reliever best seasons article from earlier this afternoon. Hopefully Jackson sends you a Varsity gift card, Anthony. 🙂
LOL! Who knew Anthony had so much clout.
Anthony > Heyman 🙂
Stephens was pretty meh during the regular innings but during extra innings he was an assassin
y’all the dopiest bunch of people I’ve ever read comments from. Nobody can stick to the subject at hand without veering off on personal attacks. Bless your hearts!
But you just veered off the subject of the Braves signing Jackson Stephens into a personal attack by calling everybody the “dopiest bunch of people I’ve ever read comments from.”