The Braves announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Jesse Chavez for assignment. The move makes room on the active roster for right-hander Davis Daniel, who has been recalled to the majors.
Chavez, 41, made just one appearance in his latest stint with the Braves when he surrendered one run on two hits and a walk while striking out two in an inning of work against the Diamondbacks. He’s so far posted a 6.00 ERA in three innings at the big league level for Atlanta this year, his sixth season in a Braves uniform. The veteran journeyman has pitched to a 4.24 ERA (99 ERA+) and 4.22 FIP in his 18 seasons as a big leaguer but has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years.
In 2018, Chavez posted a 2.55 ERA and 3.54 FIP for the Rangers and Cubs across 95 1/3 innings of work. It would’ve been easy to think of that performance as a flash in the pan after he returned to Texas and struggled in both 2019 and the shortened 2020 season, but he signed with Atlanta in 2021 and has looked quite good ever since with a 2.96 ERA and 3.50 FIP in 204 innings of work since then. That ERA drops to an even more impressive 2.59 when looking just at the time he’s spent in Atlanta over the past five seasons, and a strong relationship between the organization and player has seen him return to the club repeatedly in recent years after brief stints elsewhere.
It seems likely that relationship will continue even after today’s DFA. The Braves now have one week to either trade Chavez or pass him through waivers going forward, but if he does clear waivers it would hardly be a shock to see Chavez reject an outright assignment before re-signing in Atlanta on a minor league deal, as he did the last time he was DFA’d by the Braves earlier this month. Should he accept an outright assignment return to the Braves organization on a fresh deal, he’ll remain available to Atlanta as a non-roster depth option who can be called upon to provide length out of the bullpen as needed.
Chavez’s departure from the roster makes room for Daniel, who Atlanta acquired from the Angels back in December. The righty was a seventh-round pick by Anaheim in the 2019 draft and made his big league debut in 2023. In total, he’s pitched 42 2/3 innings of work across nine appearances (six starts) with a 5.06 ERA and 4.41 FIP during that time. Last season, Daniel struck out 20.9% of batters faced at the big league level while walking just 4.5%, but was held back by the long ball as he surrendered five in just 30 1/3 innings of work. For a Braves club that doesn’t have a clear starter for Monday’s game against the Rockies after losing Spencer Strider to the injured list, Daniel could be an option for a spot start if he’s not needed out of the bullpen against the Diamondbacks this evening.
Ground Hogs Day.
Any guesses on tomorrow’s article title? Lolol.
Seven times and counting. It’s got to be a record, right, stat cast? He’ll be re-signed before the week is out.
If I were a GM and had a roster spot to burn I would claim Jesse just to troll the Braves lol
Jesse Chavez = greatest frequent flyer miles card holder ever.
Phil? Hey. Phil?!? Phil Connors? youtube.com/watch?v=XqSYC_vwhDg
To Be Continued
D F A
Braves sign Jesse Chavez.
D F A
Braves sign Jesse Chavez
Adam Ottavino up next!
Ok this is getting ridiculous lol…in other news Eli White needs push Kelenic to the bench, even if he’s just on a mini hot streak he deserves to get the bulk of the playing time until Acuna is back (or traded like TradeAcuna would prefer lol)
Chavez belongs in the HoF.
More like the HoDFA.
The cycle of signing back on a minor league deal, getting selected and then DFAd continues
Who knew the 80s rock band White Snake could see into the future. Here we go again was a tribute to Chavez and the Braves!
I was thinking more of the song ‘Should I stay or should I go’ by Clash I believe lol
No, that was Chuck Finley’s song.
Of course,he was. See you tomorrow,Jesse
Just have one running article at this point
I thought he was traded the brewers I missed the Braves pick up
The Billy Martin-George Steinbrenner hiring/firing scenario with a player
Lite Beer from Miller. Everything you want from a beer. And less.
Deja vu all over again. Something like that.
We laugh at this DFA-and-then-resign stuff, especially when it repeatedly involves the same player and same team, and especially when it involves a slightly ridiculous player like Chavez (he is ancient and should have just retired long ago)–but in fact it isn’t really funny and in fact is a bit dreadful, a bad trend for fans. Fans need to know who is on their team and who isn’t. The roster will change over the course of the season, certainly, but it should not change day-to-day, based on overactive GMs’ efforts to gain minute advantages. The roster should have some integrity, in both the literal and extended sense of the word.
Lighten up, Francis
Not having stability of the 7th and 8th arms out of a bullpen is definitely going to destroy MLB. Smh
Easily explained why Chavez/Atlanta may do this a few more times this season. The Braves only have 2 optionable relief pitchers—–Dylan Lee and Daysbel Hernandez. Those two and Aaron Bummer have been the most reliable arms out of the pen this season. Chavez is able to throw multiple innings in low leverage spots and isn’t likely to be claimed when dfa. This is the second time in as many appearances that the Braves have waived him. Maybe the Braves sweeten his minor league deal each time he’s dfa and re-signed. Unless the Braves trade for or promote another optionable relief arm or two, Chavez may keep setting records for being dfa and re-signed by the same team.
Why even write an article at this point?
The dates were changed. The mlbtr intern is responsible for Jesse Chavez articles.
Second verse, same as the first.
Let it be. Let it be. Let it be.
Lost in all this is Davis Daniel getting called up. He had some promise with the Angels but they gave up on him. Not sure if his slightly better stats shoe improvement but I hope he does well with Atlanta
“Good night, Jesse. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely DFA you in the morning.”
– The Dread Pirate Anthopoulos
This is objectively a good post.
“You use those words designate for assignment a lot. I dont think you know what that means.”
Does anyone know if he gets screwed out of pension credit this way or is 10 years service time full pension and it doesn’t go up from there?
Bopper,
Looks like he has 14.038 years of service time, so he’s hit the pension max already. So to my understanding, he’s good on that regardless.