The Braves announced that they have selected right-hander Zach Thompson to the major league roster. Fellow righty Jesse Chavez has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
The moves are seemingly a response to the club’s pitching staff getting heavily used early on. Atlanta is starting the year with seven straight games and lost the first five. On Sunday, AJ Smith-Shawver started and only lasted four innings. The club lost on the road, meaning the bullpen only had to cover four additional frames, but swingman José Suarez tossed three of them. Reliever Héctor Neris also tossed an inning and was designated for assignment afterwards.
Ahead of yesterday’s game, the club selected Chavez to take the place of Neris. Yesterday’s starter Grant Holmes also lasted just four innings. Losing on the road again, the bullpen needed to cover another four frames. Raisel Iglesias and Enyel De Los Santos each covered one. Chavez took two, throwing 41 pitches in the process.
The club didn’t use any of Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson or Daysbel Hernández in the past two days but the rest of the group got a lot of work, particularly the multi-inning options. They also had to recall Bryce Elder to start tomorrow’s game when Reynaldo López landed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
Surely, the club will be hoping for a good outing from Chris Sale tonight, but he’ll be facing a tough Dodger lineup. Whether it’s after Sale tonight or after Elder tomorrow, Thompson might be needed to cover some long relief innings before the club’s much-needed off-day on Thursday.
Thompson, 31, has some major league experience under his belt. He debuted with the Marlins in 2021 and posted a 3.24 earned run average, working both in the rotation and the bullpen. Prior to 2022, he was traded to the Pirates for Jacob Stallings but his ERA jumped to 5.18 with Pittsburgh that year.
He hasn’t been in the majors since then. The Bucs designated him for assignment and flipped him to the Blue Jays ahead of the 2023 season. The latter club kept him in the minors that year, where Thompson posted a 4.61 ERA in 24 Triple-A starts. He was outrighted off Toronto’s 40-man during that season and elected free agency at season’s end. He required flexor tendon surgery in October of that year and missed all of 2024 while recovering.
That led to a minor league deal with Atlanta a few months ago. He tossed nine innings over two spring appearances, allowing one earned run with five strikeouts and three walks. He’ll give the club another multi-inning arm for now, though the need for such a player could dissipate fairly quickly. As mentioned, they have an off-day on Thursday. They will have another on Monday, giving them some more breathing room. Spencer Strider could be reinstated from the IL in the next week or two and López could potentially be back in the mix if his issue proves to be minor. Thompson still has options and could potentially be sent to the minors while hanging onto his 40-man spot.
As for Chavez, he always seems to find his way back to Atlanta, even he gets pulled away from time to time. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers this winter but was released when he wasn’t going to crack the Opening Day roster. That led to a minor league deal with Atlanta. Their tough start to the season meant they needed to quickly call him up. But after he tossed those two frames and 41 pitches last night, he was probably going to be unavailable for a day or two, so he’s been hastily bumped off as well.
Though he’s now 41 years old, Chavez has remained effective. From the start of 2021 to the present, he has a 2.93 ERA in 203 innings pitched. That includes a 24.3% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 42.4% ground ball rate. He’ll now be in DFA limbo for a maximum of one week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any potential trade talks would have to happen in the next five days.
He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’d likely end up in free agency if he goes unclaimed on waivers. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him back with Atlanta after that but he’s also been with the Pirates, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs in his career.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports
Wtf
Zach Thompson is a better option for multi-IP than Uncle Jesse. He pitched well in ST.
Yep. Doubt Chavez is claimed on waivers, so if he chooses to continue playing he can provide depth at Gwinnett.
@NashvilleJeff He may be claimed by someone just knowing the Braves will wind up trading back for him. lol
The Angels will claim him! The Braves already have a trade lined up to bring Jesse back for the Jesse Chavez “Rocking Chair Bobble Head” giveaway in late August! Jesse will also have a new pitch called the “Rocking Chair Knuckleball”!
Did he even get into a game?
Chavez got hit around in Chavez-Ravine last night. 2 IP, 2 hits, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 ER (HR to Kiké).
and it was Cesar Chavez day (3/31)
by that logic you must think brewers are cutting half their pitching staff….
Yeah, he got into the game last night!
1st batter (KiKi Hernandez), hit a homerun off Jesse!
Ok…nooowww the season is officially over. 🙁
Well he didn’t stay very long.
Nobody puts Jesse in a corner. F U Braves.
Wait, the Braves took Jesse Chavez OFF their roster?
They can do that now?
I would rather have this mess happen early, like last season. I stopped caring and watching after Strider got hurt. Hopefully, by the time I start caring again, Snit, AA, Kelenic, Arcia, Albies are gone.
lol. Find a new team then cuz it’ll be a while before all those guys are gone
Braves are very lucky to have you as a fan
You can just stop caring at all if that’s the way you feel.
@Trade: Unreasonable, demented hatred for Albies. Of course you do—NoMadBumNoNLCS.
Demented hatred of AA too. You’re lost.
and the only reason to like AA is because of his lucky trades in 2021. To be honest, though, I’m still grateful for a championship and can accredit it to him.
Albies is just horrific to watch hit. How can you objectively watch him approach the plate and expect a good at bat? He swings at everything, swings to hit homeruns every at bat, and has zero care in the world to get on base with his long and loopy swing.
If that is how you feel then be quiet cause you literally said you don’t watch them anymore.
It you care so little, please stop commenting.
Great screen name. Some of my friends had a drinking game when Dion was a Brave. When he got a hit, the first one to scream “Dion!” got to pick one of the participants to drink. Dion wasn’t a terrible hitter—for average anyway—so the game was pretty rowdy. Lucky for me I quit drinking as a young man so I only watched.
Not many players rocked the cap beneath the batting helmet look better than Dion James.
He’ll be back, no doubt…
Braves really are clueless
I feel so for Jessie.
I feel sorry for Jessie.
Back to Gwinnett until next time
This is what happens when you have no flexibility in the bullpen and play 7 games in 7 days
*lose 7 games in 7 days
How about posting the winning Powerball and Mega Millions winning numbers for the next couple of drawings while you’ve got your crystal ball out. You could post the results of the next day’s games while you’re at it too.
He’ll be back by next week.
Braves season is officially off the tracks. This is the nail in the coffin.
In the first week, playing the cream of the NL crop? In the “juggernaut” NL East? This is premature by MONTHS, even with the loss of Profar.
But they just got rid of Chavez, nothing can be right in this world anymore
I think the NL EAST can be won by 90-92 wins. It’s gonna be a dogfight. Braves are far from out of it, not to mention the WC. Just too much talent.
We got 157 more games to go, we strike a fire and go on a 5 game win streak then the 0-5 start will be forgotten about,
Thank you for the optimism hasn’t been a great start people saying that this season is over is funny but is getting really annoying!!
this is a complete mess.
Destined to make these type BP moves from the start due to only having 2 optionable relievers—-Lee and Hernandez.
pitching i can understand. too many uncertians back there. Offense needs to wake up. Not helping that Riley is 2/18 and Olson is 2/14. They need to carry us.
jesse knew they’d be doing this stuff with him
Maybe AA needs to consider calling Posey & see if Luciano, McCray or Meckler are available. Could be a fresh start for either player
Lately somethings changed that ain’t hard to define.
Jesse got himself knocked around, someone please tell him that it’s time.
The carousel of mediocre has continued!!!!!!
Rearranging chairs on the Titanic.
Chavez won’t make it through. Such a long track record somebody will grab him and see what he has left.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the brewers pick him up there decimated with there pitching anyone that can eat innings is a plus for them right now
Jesse Chavez has been around long enough that he was actually traded NINE times for at least one player. Most relievers now are traded for just cash unless it is within one week of the deadline, but he was traded for actual human players nine times.
Chavez has become sort of a peculiar joke that, oddly, both he and his team seem to be in on. Like Colon and the Mets at the end. This ought to be it for him, but I won’t be surprised if the Braves bring him back again, later in the season or next season, just for giggles.
Jesse simply can get major league hitters out anymore. Good career but it’s time to hang em up brother. Zach Thompson probably up to relieve Elder in the second inning tomorrow night! He’ll go back down after that. Braves bullpen is a mess.
if he can get them out….why would he hang them it up?
Typo… can’t get hitters out anymore.
@outfield
late April fools
I understand from good authority that when AA told Chavez he was being DFA’d, he also told him, “You know I can’t quit you, babe.”
I’m going to put you down for a little while.
And he’s already gone?
To paraphrase Arnold: “Jesse’ll be back.”
DFA’d Sanchez so they can sign him again. Working on that record
Sanchez?
This is a dirty, fat stinking dose of pure smelly garbage.
Starters aren’t stretched out at this point. Likely to use a lot of bullpen arms. Only 3.5 back but getting swept by San Diego and potentially the dodgers is concerning
Jesse Chavez out! Nothing in this world makes sense now
Pathetic and abysmal offseason will make this a major waste of a season but knew that well before this circus began!
Instead of addressing the lack of pitching depth this off season AA bought high on an OF coming off a career year…. how’s that working out???
Not so well. There was plenty of starting pitchers this off-season and AA just sat on his fingers.
The link is to the wrong Jose Suarez yet again. I guess I can give mlbtraderumors credit for consistency.
Jesse can now go fishing in L.A.! The Braves batters were fishing all last night so they must know where the good fishing holes are!
This is past embarrassing…
And that’s why you can never have too many starting pitchers AA. Should’ve went after 1 or 2 pitchers. Verlander was cheaper than the $20 million they were paying Morton.
By May, they could have Strider, López, Thompson, and Chavez all in play, turning an early-season stumble into a pitching surplus.