The Braves have added right-hander Yacksel Rios on a minor league deal, according to his agent Gavin Kahn of Enter Sports Management. The deal includes an invite to big league spring training.
Rios, 29, spent the past year at Triple-A with the White Sox, but failed to make a big league appearance. At the top level of the minors he tossed 33 innings of 4.91 ERA ball, combining a 24.2% strikeout clip to an 18.4% walk rate.
Originally drafted in the 12the round in 2011 by the Phillies, Rios made his big league debut in 2017 and has seen a decent amount of time in the majors since, appearing in games for the Phillies, Pirates, Mariners and Red Sox. Over that time he’s compiled a 5.77 ERA over 96 2/3 innings. The control issues that plagued him in 2022 have generally been an issue throughout his career, and his 11.5% walk rate in the bigs is well above the league average of 8.6%. He’s generally fared better in the strikeout department, owning a career 21% punch-out clip, just a tick below the league average.
Rios throws a 97mph fastball, and combines that with a slider and splitter. He’ll join the Braves and provide them with a bit of relief pitching depth heading into the new season.
Everyone picked Atlanta to not finish first last couple of seasons. I thought that was funny. This is what, 4 or 5 minor league deals in a row. Whole open positions on the roster and he keeps making these types of deals. I had faith Atlanta would do well. This season they will get shalacked hard. 3rd or 4th. Atlanta will not make the playoffs next year or the year after. What a shame too. Hell the Marlins will finish better than the Braves next year. Not to mention we have to go back to counting on Charlie Morton at an overpaid rate of $20 million. I can’t wait to hear the first dumb person, because there are many and holy crap do they need to speak. I love how stupid people tell you your wrong but can’t provide specifics or go into details.
I don’t know, I think your pessimism may be misplaced. Their team will likely mesh better with their newer acquisitions from last year (ie, Olson, Grissom, etc) and they also acquired Murphy. They still have a stout pitching staff and if Ian Anderson can correct his yips, or whatever, they may be more solid overall than their championship roster was.
I should clarify: Grissom & Harris aren’t acquisitions, but they were just promoted to the big league club so the meshing theory is still applicable.
Yackety-yack don’t talk back!!!
Notice all of these replies and only 1 sorta kinda delves into actual issues. But I’m a homer because I state certain issues and everyone around becomes a charged moron. Not you clipper, referring to the afters.
Yackety-yack your a moron and so are the people who uptick you for some reason.
What open positions do you think are not being addressed? Grissom and Arcia will compete for short in ST.
Based off of recent history if neither of them is managing it competently, they will address it.
And LF? We may not like them, but there are at least 4 guys that will see time there in ST: Ozuna, Rosario, Luplow, and White. Not every position needs to be an All Star dude.
And all 6 of those names you mentioned Elmedius, we will lucky to hit above their weight. All of them would be extremely happy to hit over .260 next season. That’s too comical. No, not every position needs to be a All Star but this isn’t the National League Central with the Brewers and the Reds, you will not make it to the Playoffs anymore in the NL East anymore with .180-.250 players, all I see in those 6 names is question marks and more names, a few more names too.
It’s more comical that you have your panties bunched over batting average.
Agreed, making contact at the plate is so yesterday’s news.
Get rid of the GM, he’s clueless
You go on to write a vague wall of text why the Braves won’t make the playoffs, even though you also admitted they’ve constantly outperformed expectations..
Then, you go on to write about how you cannot wait to hear vague responses from “stupid people” telling you why you’re wrong.
Do you not see the irony here?
Or are you one of those people that considers naming one rotation piece, saying they have a flawed roster, and then saying they suck a list of facts??
Stupid is as stupid does…
I’m staying that the people who call me stupid or whatever their little D energy tells them to do that second, don’t actually provide a counter stance because your all to dumb enough to have an actual position of your own so you lomb a little attack to never be replied to. The only irony I see is that when I share my opinion, morons always seem to gravitate towards it.
THe biggest counter to your dumb comments is always time. Braves are in first and not missing a beat.
Also calls other people stupid while failing to correctly spell “you’re”. What a sad little man.
DrewWaters: I was just referring to pessimism about where the team was going to finish, man. I wasn’t speaking to the second half about some of the negativity experienced on the boards.
I try to have fruitful discussions, bro. I know what you meant, but I was only addressing where I believe the Braves may finish. I wasn’t intending it to be an admonishment. As a perennially disappointed Yankees fan, I get trying to be realistic with the team’s weaknesses, and feeling like they should be doing more (ie: Yankees failing to address LF).
I have the advantage of looking at the Braves a bit more objectively because I don’t have the emotional ties; therefore if they don’t finish as well, I don’t experience the associated disappointment. But, as a Braves fan, you also know them more intimately than I do.
Honestly, much of it depends on players playing to their potential & players staying healthy, all of which is unpredictable. If it goes right, they look like rock stars. If not, they squeak into the postseason.
I’m pretty bullish on the Braves roster overall though. I feel like last year was a down year for them considering their potential. I respect your opinion though. Plus, there’s still time for AA to make moves.
Lol
Clipper, there may be more time but I believe the Braves are past that that point. Any mid season addition now I think will be a trade or these small contracts. He has locked to much up in extensions.
you also completely ignore the essentially lost seasons from Albies and Acuna who are due to have a serious uptick in production
Lost seasons of Acuna and Albies….. I love Albies and his Hustle but Acuna and his unwant to leg out down the line is getting scary lazy. And that was before his knee injury and after. He hustled more the last more I will say.
Drew, I grade you a D- for your blog performance art.
LordD99, not art, it’s an opinion who everyone needs to crap on to feel better about their lives.
Trolls getting lazy these days. You hate dumb people not going into detail why “you’re” wrong. Won the division 5 years in a row, but won’t this year (or an expanded playoff spot, making it easier) b/c why? Swanson? A below-avg bat in 3 of those 5 division titles? Morton? Overpaid though guys his age are getting more years and twice AAV he is, despite his track record. MIA finishing ahead of ATL despite adding any offense. All these bc of a MiLB signing with 0 risk? lol.
RunDMC, I truly expected more from you but can’t really say I’m surprised, notice how I’m trying to respond to each message but only yours even has a baseball players name in it so far and barely but does scratch the surface of wanting to have a conversation, others not so much. It’s funny that your, I don’t care how you spell it, it such a big deal that it triggers you and others, so much. It’s funny the grammar fiends who are just crappy people, truly are, they know they are but continue with their values, for some reason I have no idea. I’m not saying they will win it. I’m saying 3rd or worse. We couldn’t compete with the Phillies or the Mets and the end and we all know it. The Mets have added, well, a Haul. The Philles got a little better which is bad for the Braves and even the Marlins are starting to sign bigger and bigger bats. Their rotation is almost on par with ours. Why do you think every game in Miami it seems comes down to the eighth or ninth inning for a team to score the last couple of years. Thankfully the Nationals are still bad. It’s not about Swanson being a below average bat. It’s about he was the biggest voice for a season after Freddie leaves. Now who is it? Quiet Olson? It’s about the hole of an out teams saw every night when it got hit to shortstop, no matter what Dansby always gobbled up the ball. Then to hear about how hard Swanson was trying to stay here but AA decided the money was gonna be better spent on Murphy, holy crap this is gonna be bad. I knew the last 5 seasons they would out perform as a team. Maybe those guys that are getting paid double what Morton is getting paid, didn’t have to watch that pitcher asking the whole ballpark to take him out by the 4th. It happened way to many times last season that Morton looked in second that he wouldn’t make it past the fourth and would already be at 44 pitches with 1 or no outs in the 2nd. To many times for what he is getting paid. I don’t understand your second to last sentence. The Braves haven’t added any offense. The Marlins have, yes that is correct but I haven’t seen where they added a bat. I’d be interested to learn I was wrong but didn’t see one. And for the last sentence it has nothing to do with risk or no risk. It’s that none of those players should be hopefuls for a team 1 year removed from a Championship. There is no risk because there really isn’t a reward either. You know the top of the ceiling you will get from them. They aren’t hoping for starters with them. They are fillers. Not wall sections. I hope I addressed your points to a nice level of satisfaction. It’s been real and it’s been fun but it hasn’t been real fun. Thank you.
This is hilarious. Yes, you respond to every message bc you’re good at trolling. Grammar is fine by me until you comment on “dumb people” & “stupid person”. Quite poetic. No facts, just generalizations though you watch every game. Maybe pay attention more. Cute you value clubhouse leadership for Swanson, though not even being in the clubhouse. Better spent on Murphy? Murph was $100M less…and that includes prime years — and he’s already a top-3 catcher. It’s arguable Swanson is a top-10 SS in a bad lineup. 1 full season of above-avg offense gets you $177M…? LOL. No reward? No reward in 6-bWAR players…rrright.
Drew: very below average comment. Suspended for 3 days. Go sit in your room with no comic books and think about your life and who you are.
You didn’t go into any details on why they’ll finish 3rd or 4th, you just gave a poor opinion. Here’s why I think you’re wrong. The rotation is very freakin good and has plenty of depth. The bullpen is very good and has some depth. The offense is about as good as it gets and will have a 100% healthy Acuna and Albies. Grissom has a much higher offensive upside than Dansby ever thought about. The OF defense will be good for the entire yr since Harris will start the season in CF. Catcher defense has improved with no drop off offensively. Rosario will be a yr removed from his eye issues. Ozuna, despite the crappy person that he is, was near the top of the league in barrels and hard contact rate with an unlucky babip. The shift going away will help Olson who was constantly hitting piss missiles right into the teeth of it. Strider will be in the rotation for the entire year. Morton will be there worst starter, that’s a heck of a number 5. Murphy goes from a terrible hitters ballpark where he put up good numbers to a more hitters friendly ballpark. The Phillies improved but they still don’t have the depth of overall team Atlanta does. The Mets are the Mets. Until they prove they can seal the deal, they don’t get the benefit of the doubt.
Congratulations, Sir! You are the front runner for Comedian of the Year, so far!
First, we have one of the best rosters in baseball. I’d argue the only glaring need is left fielder that can both field the position competently and hit at least league average. I’d prefer someone with pop and walks a decent amt. i don’t care about avg. I just want to ensure it’s not Ozuna defense out there. 2nd this post is way too dramatic. I’m a pessimist, but this is just insane
Yeah. Let’s overreact and pretend a lineup with Ozzie, Acuna, Riley, Olsen, Murphy, and Harris is a JV squad that can’t put up runs. Also, not that long ago, Osuna was a top 50 bat. Winning the off-season has never translated to winning during the regular season.
The Braves went out and got probably the best Catcher in Baseball right now (Murphy). Acquired 3 Outfielders (Hilliard, Luplow, White). Added three pretty good arms to the bullpen (Anderson, Jimenez, Luetge) while addressing their Closer need for this coming season last July and still have enviable starting pitching depth. Also, the Braves went to the World Series in 1999 with a worse SS group than the one they have now (Walt Weiss, Ozzie Guillen, and mid-season acquisition Jose Hernandez)
Spending doesn’t equate to winning. Just because they Braves didn’t try to out spend Cohen and the Mets (nor should they) doesn’t mean they are going to get “shalacked” next season
What positions are “open” for the Braves?
I know, right? At worst, there’s only 1 position open and it’s either at LF or SS, because Grissom will be at one of these.
These idiots acting like signing minor league deals for depths are indicators of a lost season will be the first ones to say they always knew the Braves were gonna win the division and how no one but them had faith in the team.
you know you yourself don’t even go into specifics why Atl will suck. or is the 4-5 minor league deals YOUR specifics. it isn’t unrealistic to say the Mets and Phillies might pass them. what makes YOU a homer is the whole Marlins take.
I’m sorry but how exactly do you expect the Braves to keep up with the Mets, when the Yankees and Dodgers are not? You should be grateful that AA is being smart and only signing extensions because in 2 to 3 years the Mets and Phillies are gonna find out why teams like Boston and the Yankees quit sending out record setting payrolls. Someday those FA vets with huge contracts get old. Atlanta will be right in the thick of the WC race and admission to the playoffs is all that is needed to win it all. Worse than the Marlins? Their pitching staff could toss nothing but 1 run games all year and still find a way to lose. Loria loved his old Expos so much he decided he would turn the Marlins into a clone when he was forced to swap them for the Expos. Even new ownership and someone as experienced as Ng can’t fix that mess. Last question, do you think Rockies, D-Backs, Orioles, B-Jays fans expect their teams to keep up with the Yankees, Dodgers and even Boston spending when they get going? Besides the Braves just won it all a couple years ago! I’ll finish with a Tony Soprano quote “You are like an old lady with a Virginia ham under your arm, going around crying because she has no bread.”
Getting a lot of chuckles out of this dumb comment from 4 months ago
Decent enough depth signing, maybe they get his walks down in AAA, and he can add some depth to the end of the pen at some point??
Likely nothing more than AAAA depth, but I like Anthopolous staying active improving the AAA team and working on improving their backups backups. lol
You make me sick to my stomach, Jacobim!!
These minor depth deals are the ones that help playoff bound teams manage to navigate their way through the long seasons whenever they go through a rash of injuries.
Whether it was needing a Rafael Ortega, a Jackson Stephens, a Josh Tomlin, a Darren O’Day, a J. Chacin, G. Heredia, A.Hechavarria, Pablo Sandoval, Matt Adams, Jesse Biddle, Nate Jones, E. Adrianza, C. Culberson, C. d’Arnaud, O. Arcia, A. Dickerson, T. Thornburg, etc. throughout different seasons, most of these guys played at least a minor role in helping the Braves win.
They may only need some of these players for a couple weeks, and then they’re gone when AA is able to find a more suitable replacement, but some of the players end up sticking around and becoming extremely valuable depth pieces for a division winning team.
Often times it hasn’t always been the teams with the most talented 25-26 man rosters that won their divisions each and every year. More often than not, it has been the teams with the deepest 40 man rosters that truly stay atop baseball..
That is how and why the Braves were able to win a World Series without one of the best and most dynamic players in baseball, and how they were able to win it all at the time, despite not receiving any contributions from their young stud and former ace, Mike Soroka…
I hope AA continues making some fine adjustments around the edges of the Braves roster, it can and will only help…
You must not watch them every game like I do. They didn’t gel at the end of last season and to be honest, I don’t blame them. Grissom wasn’t acquired, he was promoted. But down the stretch they didn’t trust his bat or his defense but guess what, now for some reason they trust him to be the starting Shortstop with what was available this offseason. Thats a load of garbage and a slap to the face of fans if/when he fails, and he will. Olsen did awesome with doubles. Anderson was great before but something is wrong with him. We didn’t upgrade anything with the Murphy deal, except the payroll to lock out future moves. AA gave far, far too much years of service for 1 player. Looking at the players it’s almost or over 20 years of service for Murphy. Then give him an extension, even though he was still under control through 2026.?????? Why? Why not have him actually play out what he already has. The amount of money teams are paying mediocre players is what is really insane. Won’t be another 10 years and a decent bench player will cost you 20-40 million, each. We can thank sites like this for pushing each contract for a player to set a record of the amount of money and aav wise. Won’t be another 30 years you will have players that cost 200 million a season and won’t be worth it but they will be the best of their time. This game has been ruined by money. I wouldn’t call it pessimism, realism, yes. I find it hard to believe that we couldn’t get rid of another player or 2 and kept Contreras out of it. He should have made the deal without Contreras when he lied to everyone about not talking and setting frameworks for Murphy later on. He had to have known the cost the entire time. But yet he gave away one our 4 best bats. Looking at all the time he gave up for 3 seasons of Murphy, was a massive, massive overpay. Then he really overpaid him. Hope your day is going great.
TL;DR
It’s a lot easier to read if you used paragraph breaks
Sign ender, yeah, I should do that. But then I’m aware of how many paragraphs I have. Right now it’s just 1 haha but yeah, I do need to cap it more.
Lol yeah it’s whatever man my dyslexic self gets scared lol
If $12 million per season for the best Catcher in Baseball is an overpay than the Cardinals really broke the bank for one of the worst ($18 million per year after 2023 for Willson Contreras)
DrewWatersBat comes here to troll and feed off his asinine comments!!!! Dont feed the troll!!
Yackety Yack, now don’t slack!
Projection systems have the Braves in the top 3/5 in all of baseball. They have a top 5 player in all of baseball in center, right, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and catcher. I believe in Soroka and he will be the 5th starter to a very strong 5 man rotation. Morton with a regular off season will be again mfing Charlie Morton as the 4th starter. With Fried as 1–Strider 1A—and 20 game winner wright as your 3rd. Awesome. The pen is very good. The defense across the team is excellent with more info needed about ss. The only questions about ss, left, and dh will be answered and addressed during the season. The starters are basically set, the pen is mostly filled out, the position players are signed for the next 6 years. The team is set and ready to compete well for the next five years at least.
Left and dh are generally the easiest positions to trade for. As far as SS goes all the Braves need is a good defender who will bat 9th—and that can be traded for if Grissom, Shewmake, or Arcia can’t get it done. If someone roots for the Braves these things should be simple truths. Saying the Braves will be 4th etc may make sense emotionally/reactionary issues only. The ‘only’ issues are SS, left, and dh and they will roll with what they have and adjust to what is as the season unfolds. Sorta like every year. This year the Braves are set up better than last year with wright and strider and MHII established. Pitchers and catchers report sometime around Valentine’s Day—-very exciting.
@Braves83
You wrote an extremely well thought out and written comment, We need more people like you. great job!!