The Braves announced Tuesday morning that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Danny Young to a one-year, major league contract. It’s a split deal, paying the 31-year-old at different rates for time spent in the majors versus time in the minors. Young, a client of Dynamic Sports Group, goes onto Atlanta’s 40-man roster. He’ll be paid at a $925K rate in the majors, MLBTR has learned.
This will be Young’s second stint in Atlanta. He spent the 2023 season with the Braves organization as well, pitching 8 1/3 terrific innings in the majors and struggling in 15 2/3 minor league frames. Injuries limited his time on the field that year, and that’ll be the case in 2026 as well. Young has spent the past two seasons pitching well out of the Mets’ bullpen but underwent Tommy John surgery last May. By signing in Atlanta, he’ll reunite with Jeremy Hefner — his pitching coach with the Mets who has left and taken the same title with the Braves.
Young will open the ’26 season on the injured list as he finishes off the rehab from that Tommy John procedure. A source tells MLBTR that he began throwing last month and is targeting a return to game action before the All-Star break.
Young has pitched in parts of four major league seasons. He’s totaled 60 2/3 innings in that time and logged a 4.01 earned run average with far more intriguing rate stats: 29% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate, 53.3% ground-ball rate. Metrics like SIERA (3.02) and FIP (3.23) feel he’s been far better than his ERA would indicate, which isn’t a surprise considering his solid rate stats but bloated .344 average on balls in play.
Once spring training opens, Young will very likely be transferred to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. If Atlanta needs that spot sooner, they could run him through waivers in the offseason. The salary terms might allow Young to go unclaimed, and while he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, doing so would require forfeiting the guaranteed money on his split major league and minor league rates of pay.
If Young stays on the 40-man roster/60-day injured list until the time of his activation, he’ll give Atlanta another southpaw option in a bullpen that already includes Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer. Out-of-options lefties Dylan Dodd and Joey Wentz are also penciled into bullpen spots at the moment.
Should Young bounce back to form, he’s a potential long-term piece in the Atlanta ’pen. He enters the 2026 season with only 1.160 years of major league service time, meaning he can be controlled for five more seasons — all the way through 2030. Obviously, there’s a long way to go before that long-term control comes into play, but the fact that the Braves put him directly onto the 40-man roster suggests an openness to plugging Young into the mix beyond the current season if he performs well; notably, Bummer is a free agent following the 2026 campaign.
I guess now that the Danny You g sweepstakes are over, we should start to see all the other dominos fall soon.
Looks like another FA contest signing I got wrong….
Is it me or is this a max effort picture of the pitcher.
As a Mets fan, I held my breath every time he came in.
You should be well practiced for Devin Williams then!
vaderzim:
Yeah I’m sure the careers and ability of those two really compare…
Miken31: I have to admit that both of them have more pitching ability than I have. Now after stating the obvious, Devin Williams couldn’t hack it as a starting pitcher. The same can be said about (supposedly) the “best relief pitcher” & only unanimous elected HOF nominee Mariano Rivera. Health & opportunity sometimes is as important as talent & skill when it comes to being a successful relief pitcher in the Majors.
They do relative to situational leverage. Williams is high leverage with great stuff, but I don’t trust him. Young is low leverage with decent stuff, but I also wouldn’t trust him.
Prospectnvstr:
I think I’m completely missing your point here. Danny Young is in no way shape or form anywhere near Devin Williams. He’s had opportunities. They are relief pitchers. I’m not getting it.
vaderzim:
At the end of the day, Williams has an exceptional track record, besides last season. And as a set up guy, he was very good as opposed to not being as good as a closer.
Agreed, Williams is significantly better. I don’t trust him in the 9th inning at this point. The Mets should definitely push to re-sign Edwin Diaz (who I also once thought was cooked).
Sometimes, even with the historically strong free agent maker for closers this Winter… you gotta throw the dice and hope for the Yahtzee.
Another reclamation project.
Now all we need is Hector Neris and Rafael Montero to fill out our bullpen…all set!
Who would you rather they have signed then? If you go with Diaz, then you’re likely not getting an upgrade at SS nor in the OF.
Iglesias was a good deal, he had offers for multiple years, but came back to Atlanta on a 1 year contract, or so it was reported. Iglesias missed spring training last year, and his slider never found its groove. It got crushed and once he basically ditched it he became the Iglesias of old.
Now, you can bet he has been working on regaining his slider back this off-season, and if it doesn’t work out he already proved he doesn’t need it. Now, there is the possibility he regresses, but nothing he showed on the mound would imply he is due for a major regression.
I think it was an excellent deal without having to give Diaz, Williams, Helsey a multi-year major contract. They desperately needed a closer, and if they got outbid for the remaining three, then they would have been S.O.L
I don’t see how it can be looked at as a bad deal for Atlanta. If anything, I only see it as a positive. Plus, the closers role is filled now, so now they can turn their attention elsewhere to either the SS position, the OF/DH/bench, a SP, or the remaining parts of their bullpen that need fine tuning.
Miken31: Devin Williams was drafted as a SP in the 2nd rd out of high school. Danny Young was drafted strictly as a reliever in the 8th rd out of college. After 3 full seasons as a starter & an injury Williams was converted to a reliever. A 2nd rd investment will receive a lot more opportunities for success. Don’t get me wrong, both of them had opportunities & injuries but Young had the tougher hill to climb.
Pretty underwhelmed with how AA is filling up 40-man spots so far this offseason.
Wow, AA loves to dumpster dive!! What a joke!
When the Braves miss the playoffs by 1 or 2 games, they can thank AA for signing Danny Young. He stinks
He won’t pitch until 2027 after TJ surgery
@TBrave you should hope so
lol
I appreciate trying to be sensible with contract lengths, especially for those over 32 or so. But Diaz opted out of a deal that has two years left on it. The Mets had/have to know that adding just one year is not going to cut it.
That old deal was structured to pay Diaz only $13.5 mil and defer the rest. Offer him 4 years, at a higher salary, very little of it deferred, plus a club option for the 5th year.
If he turns that down, then maybe you draw the line in the sand. But to stand on just three years is just posturing, and only wastes everybody’s time.
The dude was signed on a split contract which means if he isn’t in the majors he doesn’t get major league pay. Surely the Braves realize that there is a strong possibility that Young might not even make it into a major league game this season. I don’t ever get upset about this type of buy low signing especially when the underlying numbers show that he has some untapped upside. Worst case scenario is that the braves try to sneak him off the 40 man roster and someone else steals him. Not something to get disappointed about either way.
I trust the process and Anthopoulos enough to say that this is NOT the last move of this off season for Atlanta and it is far too early for anyone to worry.
And as far as Iglesias goes, after he finally pulled things together last season he was his normal lights out self. It was reported that the dodgers supposedly offered him $16 million as well. If that was the cost of getting him back AND keeping him from the dodgers I certainly don’t mind a slight overpay.