The Braves are making some changes in the ninth inning, as manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman) yesterday. While incumbent closer Raisel Iglesias “may close games” going forward, he won’t “necessarily” be the team’s primary closing option moving forward. Snitker did not name a new primary closer, leaving the door open to a committee approach to the ninth inning.
It would have been unthinkable just a few months ago that Iglesias could be anything other than the surefire closer in Atlanta. The right-hander put together a season for the ages in 2024, when he pitched to a 1.95 ERA in 69 1/3 innings of work while striking out 26.3% of his opponents and walking just 5.0%. It was an elite season even by the standards of the veteran righty, who had fashioned himself into one of the league’s most reliable relief arms since the start of the decade with a 2.44 ERA and 2.71 FIP in 278 appearances from 2020-24.
That’s all come crashing down this year, however, as Iglesias simply hasn’t looked like himself in his age-35 campaign. In 24 innings of work this year, Iglesias has surrendered a 6.75 ERA with a 5.65 FIP. While his 23.1% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate are more or less in line with last year’s numbers, he’s watched an eye-popping seven home runs leave the yard already this year. That’s already tied his high-water mark in a Braves uniform. At least some of his struggles can be attributed to poor luck; 21.9% of Iglesias’s fly balls have left the yard, and that’s simply not a sustainable rate even with an inflated 14.5% barrel rate. Even as his fastball velocity has lost a tick this year, the veteran’s 3.26 SIERA remains strong. It’s not at all difficult to imagine the talented righty turning things around moving forward.
Even so, the fact that the Braves felt a change was needed shows what dire straits the club finds itself in. Atlanta started off with a brutal 0-7 start to the season but actually managed to fight its way back over .500 and into the NL Wild Card conversation last month. Unfortunately, since that return to relevance the club has lost its first six games of June. That losing streak is part of a larger stretch where the Braves have won just 3 of their last 16 contests. It’s left them with a brutal 27-36 record that puts the team nine games back in the Wild Card race and 12.5 games out of the NL East. That’s the sort of deficit that can be difficult to bounce back from, even for an organization that is as talented (at least on paper) as Atlanta.
As the club tries to work its way back into relevance for the second time this year, they’ve decided to pull the plug on Iglesias in their effort to find a spark. If moving out of the ninth inning for a while can help Iglesias recapture his dominant form from previous years, that could help the Braves even if they don’t end up returning to contention as Iglesias (alongside DH Marcell Ozuna) is one of the team’s few pending free agents. If the club ends up selling at the deadline, they’ll surely want Iglesias looking as good as possible in the weeks leading up to a deal to maximize his trade value.
If there’s a silver lining for Iglesias’s odds of recapturing the closer role at some point this year, it’s that no one else seems primed to step up and take it for themselves so far. In the two games Atlanta has played since Snitker’s announcement, Pierce Johnson was the final pitcher to take the mound for the club. He was tagged with the loss in both outings, including a blown save opportunity earlier this evening. Johnson still has a decent 3.86 ERA in 26 appearances this year with 16 career saves (including one this season) under his belt, but he hardly seems especially close to locking down the ninth inning. Johnson and perhaps Iglesias can continue to get opportunities, while southpaws Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer could also get turns in the ninth inning given their solid results this year and late-inning experience.
Braves are toast. Zero depth.
Aaron is the appropriate closer. Not because of Hanmerin’ Hank, but because Atlanta’s season is going to end as a real bummer.
Great catching depth, though
Why hasn’t anyone signed David Robertson??
The $6 million question…
He wants $10M
Well the Braves just spent $1.26 million for 1 day of work. Surely Robertson would at least be used in 10 appearances to make it worthwhile
“We know what kind of team we are and at the end of the year we’ll be where we always are: In the playoffs.”- Marcel Ozuna 2 days ago (and the Braves team for the most part this year
“We’re gonna turn this thing around. We’re a really good team ” Brian Snitker every other day this year
* “I didn’t get the job done.”-Bryce Elder (After striking out 12 Giants). *
I partially just wanted to give a shout-out to Elder. But the only person I’ve heard all year besides him say “I didn’t get the job done.” is Austin Riley. Although it’s easy to say when you just threw a gem I guess.
Teammates ought to remember to listen to their Elder.
We’ll give them Tanner Scott for Grant Holmes.
Hmm team goes cheap on bullpen in offseason to save a few bucks and now paying for it.
You should go cheap. Always plenty of good relievers for under 5m. Heck you can find decent to even good on waivers. They just didn’t target the right ones or they been unlucky. This guy just has been unlucky with hrs and in general. He isn’t as good as he once was but still good enough.
Well they did get De Los Santos which was good. Hes throwing filthy pitches.
Lee is always solid, not blowing anyone away but he would be fine in that role. Snit has always used him in high leverage spots. This might be the year to give some other guys a look anyway. I hope they don’t trade away much to reinforce the bullpen.
Lee is the best reliever they have. But I like having your best reliever able to throw in any situation cause it’s usually not the 9th that is highest leverage. And Lee has always been used as that guy who comes in whenever it’s most needed. Same with Bummer.
Why is Snitker even bothering?
Ownership is going to fire him and Alex Anthopoulos soon anyway – things badly need to change in Atlanta, as the problems in the organization are widespread – not just the closer role.
Some of the issues include:
-Albies and Harris not hitting
-Strider very hittable post TJS with reduced velocity.
-No quality SS or OF depth beyond Harris/Acuna.
-Multiple albatross contracts (Strider, Olson, Murphy, potentially Riley.)
-Empty farm system.
A new GM is needed badly to completely implode this roster and rebuild – because AA isn’t the one who should be doing it. Remember, he inherited a championship-contending club from Copolella – and now 4 years after winning it all, he’s wrecked the franchise, just like he did in Toronto (he left a mess after the 2015 run for Shapiro/Atkins to clean up.
None of those contracts are albatross. Just an underperforming group collectively. Some of it was losing all the core clubhouse guys probably. From Freeman and Swanson to Darnaud, Morton, & Fried. Lots of quiet go about your business guys mixed in with a couple flamboyant high energy guys (Acuna & Arcia). Nothing wrong with those guys (Acuna???) but there is something they lack. Ron Washington was everything they now lack. Snitker is like an empathic low energy grandpa kinda guy. They need to be called out. They need some fire.
Those are nowhere close to albatross contracts. The Braves have way less of those than most teams, not to mention the team-friendly Acuna and Albies deals.
Those two team-friendly deals for Acuna and Albies make them trade bait in July or this offseason if ownership decides to blow it up (very likely if the team keeping playing poorly) – because this organization needs a massive overhaul.
Acuna’s not going anywhere unless some team wants to give the Braves their top 4 or 5 prospects ala the Soto deal.
Those aren’t as team friendly as they once seemed. Albies is hurt and sucks. Acuna is good every 3rd year and great every third year then hurt for an entire year. All in all that’s average. Not to mention the ego posts and on-field antics he’s played.
You can definitely add Riley to the albatross contracts list! He had all that pre-season talk about winning a Gold Glove! More like COLD Glove. In fact the way balls have been getting by him lately, I doubt if he could even catch a Cold!
Lots of ball getting past his bat too. He has really regressed this year, sometimes comical the way he plays!
Wow that’s funny af, cold glove and he couldn’t catch a cold. Baziiiiiing!!
Damn, did you just catch riley with your significant other?
This entire take is just awful drivel.
This all started with AA trading for an overrated first baseman with a terrible swing that anyone could recognize was susceptible to get exposed and extending him to a big contract then turning around the very next year and trading a perfectly good young cheap controllable catcher for an overrated injury prone catcher who they extended with another big contract.
These two decisions have crippled the Braves. No idea what he was thinking. Regardless of how the Freeman situation went down it’s on AA to get that deal done. People want to blame the agent but Freeman was a player they had to retain. The agent had all the leverage and if you don’t believe me look how things have turned out. I don’t see things breaking down for Freeman or his agent because of that breakdown in negotiations. I do see AA and the Braves suffering though. He absolutely had to make that deal happen, everyone knew it, and he botched it.
Then he doubles down and trades for Olson who has an awful long swing. He’s basically Adam Dunn but with less power. Not shocked he’s been basically average despite handing him an elite contract for a 1B at the time
Then AA burns more resources dealing Contreras and spending more money on another downgrade at catcher.
A lot of what you mentioned is also true. They have holes in the pen, outfield, SS… partly because AA is burning money on terrible catchers instead of having Contreras back there on the cheap.
Albies and Harris isn’t AA’s fault but when you couple their struggles with all the glaring holes because of AA you get a compounded effect that can’t be overcome offensively.
AA has completely depleted the farm with below average returns so that’ll us not even an option to leverage any more.
The only thing I disagree with is Strider. Needing some time to regain form after TJS is normal. If you were expecting him to hit the ground running looking like Cy Young right out of the gate you just had the wrong expectations which is pattern with a lot of Braves fans. The Braves team is not good on paper yet talking to the fan base you’d think the Braves are WS front runners coming into this season. The fact they are playing .500 baseball shouldn’t shock anyone which is basically what they’ve done since the 0-7 start. That was a bit strange, but the roughly .500 play since is pretty much about right
They need to keep Riley, Schwellenbach, and Baldwin and deal everyone else to start rebuilding now.
Riley has been teetering on useful himself but he’s done just enough that he’s worth keeping for now.
Braves offered more than LA. Freeman misread his market. LA swooped in to get a bargain. Freeman cried.
If AA can’t build a farm system he needs to extend what he has right? So you can’t criticize him for both.
lol and everyone thought the A’s got fleeced!
Get your own column. You’re wrong on so many points and utilizing complete hindsight still didn’t help your argument. Not going to lay down a 5000 word response like you but will address your most glaring error…love Freddie but he knew AA would only move so far on contract and Freddie and agent played that to save face to the fact he was heading back home regardless..
Back these claims up with statistics. You go on these rants and don’t back them up with anything. Analytically, Olson has been great. Same with Murphy, when he’s been healthy. Even last year, Murphy was one of the unluckiest players in baseball when it comes to his predictive stats based on exit velocity, launch angle, etcetera. If you lazily only look at batting average, it’s easy to make these claims, but using batting average as the be all and end all is to completely misunderstand how offensive production actually works. But my guess is that you’re still bitter that Braves didn’t re-sign Freddie, refuse to place any blame on Freddie for his part in that whole situation, and are more than happy to throw Olson under the bus simply because he’s not Freddie, no matter what he actually does in the batters box
Here’s an idea. When your starter is cruising through 8 innings just leave him in the game.
That’s the best idea of all lately!
Teams just won’t leave them in because
of pitch counts, 3rd time through lineup, etc.
I know there are stats to back the 3rd time rule, but in a lot of cases, it’s ridiculous!
Just let them finish the damn game!
But he had passed the magical taboo 100 pitch barrier already. Surely his arm would fall off. Maybe they brought in Johnson because (insert generic hitter) has a low expected OPS off of right handed curve balls while playing day games in June.
FIRE🔥SNITKER AND BE DONE WITH IT!
“a season for the ages” it’s quite an overblown description of Iglesias’ very good 2024.
It’s a really good 2024 season but Kimbrel in his prime had way better years.
Sports writers are prone to hyperbole, especially those who just look at stats and don’t actually watch the games.
Trade Albies, trade Murphy, trade Strider…do whatever but change this team. 2023 was a outlier offensive season and the playoffs that year was the start of this disaster.
Albies is the only one that’s movable.
Strider and Murphy are albatross contracts that would likely require Atlanta eats tons of money – and Strider may not even be movable because of his velocity loss post TJS and backloaded deal.
2023 was an outlier offensive season in the history of baseball, not just for this team.
It’s a lost yr. We need a SS, not having Jimenez really hurt the pen. Need a closer and front line starter. We will move ozuna, maybe Murphy at break. DeRo next manager or skip s.
That sounds reasonable.
With Sale, Schwellenbach, and a recovering Strider do you really need a front line pitcher? Is that why the club has lost these games?
If Atlanta does decide that the diamondbacks and giants are going to take their WC spot, they should trade ozuna and iglesias and ask sale if he wants to stay or prefers to be with a contender
I could also see some buying at the deadline for next year, Sandy Alcantara?
Alcantara doesn’t work because the Marlins aren’t going to trade him within the division while his value is low.
I don’t think being in the division is gonna make much of a difference to Miami. It’s not like he would be going from Philly to Atlanta or the Mets. Also not sure how much Atlanta wants to risk financially with a guy still trying to get back to being a decent MLB pitcher. They have 6 solid rotation options if they are healthy next year and some potential young guys. If they add a SP it probably would be a more reliable option (although Alcantara could re-establish himself before the off-season).
DeRosa will never manage the Braves. He’s too busy preening on MLB TV and claiming the Braves can’t win because the extensions took all their motivation away.
I don’t get it either. What has DRo done to jump him towards the front of the line of candidates? Managed the WBC team (largely a team of veteran/solid MLB players who are basically managing themselves probably)? Big deal. It’s a big ticket job. There is no reason to give it to some inexperienced talking head (regardless of any potential talent he may have). Guys on the team are probably not gonna like that either.
Dumpster diving in February and March leads to dumpster fires in June/July which leads to empty seats in Truist in August and September. Go back to spending next year and this team will be fine.
The core is solid, and they have more starting pitching depth than they’re given credit for. Need a couple of new pen arms, good health from Joe Jiminez, a move to the pen for Reynaldo Lopez, and a SS who can provide league average defense. Those calling for a Braves fire sale and total rebuild have the right to post their “my opinions are facts” takes. They also have the right to be disappointed when nothing they want happens.
No need to panic. Aa built this team with a number of long term deals. They’ll trade the pending free agents and retool for next year. I’m seeing them as how the Yankees have been playing the past few years. Great seasons then bad then retool then better seasons forward. Braves budget didn’t allow much off season signings. Who’s wondering now if Corbin burnes would have helped?
Burnes wouldn’t help but Fried would.
AI GM, what will you say when Frieds annual forearm tightness crops up with his current contract over age 30?
28 29 30 33 games a year so I wouldn’t care at all about his annual injury problem.
Since you don’t have to pay his contract
Fried went for the most money, hope he’s happy. Yankee fan will turn on you in a minute. The Braves fans would not have. Hope you’re happy Max. Freddy Freeman, could and should have been worked out. The way I see it is a baseball season has high and lows, our problem is the bullpen, when you replace with castoffs it’s going to get you in the end. Its an adventure every day.
That’s New York. Players know what they signed up for. Rondon was booed last year. Even Jeter got boos during deep slumps.
Rondon always pitches decently pre free agency year then injured in the signing year
But I’ve been assured by bots not watching the actual games and merely watching the Fangraphs game scores, that Iglesias is fine thanks to his xFIP