The Braves announced the signing of reliever Ian Hamilton to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract. Atlanta opened a 40-man roster spot this afternoon when they ran Anthony Molina through waivers. Hamilton is represented by ALIGND Sports Agency.
Hamilton hit the market last month when he was non-tendered by the Yankees. His projected arbitration salary wasn’t far above the league minimum, but he had spent the final two months of the season on optional assignment to Triple-A. Hamilton made 36 appearances before being sent down. He pitched 40 innings of 4.28 ERA ball, striking out a quarter of opponents against a worrisome 13.3% walk rate.
The 30-year-old righty has pitched parts of six MLB seasons between the White Sox, Twins and Yankees. He had a career-best 2.64 ERA behind a 29% strikeout rate for New York back in 2023. His production hasn’t been as strong over the past couple years. Hamilton’s grounder rates have fallen while the free passes jumped this year. He gets plus swing-and-miss rates on his slider but hasn’t gotten great results on his 95-96 MPH sinker.
The 2025 season was Hamilton’s third and final minor league option year. He’ll battle for a middle relief spot in camp. If he doesn’t make the Opening Day roster, the Braves would need to take him off the 40-man and either trade him or run him through waivers.
Hamilton has between three and five years of MLB service time. He’d therefore have the right to decline an outright assignment and elect free agency if the Braves get him through waivers unclaimed, but doing so would mean forfeiting his salary. If he pitches well enough to stick on the roster, Atlanta could control him via arbitration through 2028.
Atlanta doesn’t have a ton of roster flexibility with regards to the bullpen. Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez and Aaron Bummer are locked in at the back end. Dylan Lee has two minor league options but is certainly going to be on the roster. Hamilton, Joel Payamps, Danny Young and swing types Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes, José Suarez and Joey Wentz are all out of options. While an injury or two in Spring Training could open roster space, they’re certainly not going to have room for all those pitchers on Opening Day.
Image courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images.
Note: This post initially incorrectly referred to Hamilton’s contract as a split deal.
Good luck. Another teams Trash could be ones Treasure
Ian had a lot of good games for us the last three years. Dude had some rough patches last season like a few others, but trash? Come on now.
Sal- yeah I liked Hamilton also, and definitely wouldn’t call him trash either. Great stuff, when he could stay healthy.
Definitely not trash, but definitely replaceable.
I agree Salzilla, he made it to the major leagues, that’s something itself, and to call him trash
AA signing major leaguers. My heart leaps.
your username has Ryan Helsley triggered
Ugly walk rate, but apparently decent strikeout stuff. I have no problems with guys like this on split contracts.
This is not the name beginning with “I” that I was hoping for!
I know it is unrealistic but I really want Atl to sign Imai
Grossly overused in 2023. If he finally recovers from mistreatment, he’ll be decent.
@why
Grossly over used? Yeezus, stop it. He only threw 58 innings in 2023 but that wasn’t even his career high. He threw 59 innings in the minors in 2021. He never made more than 9 appearances a month that year.
I still say he was overused. The guy had next to nothing at the majors level and was all of a sudden one of the top 5 pitchers used out of the bullpen. Some of the guys from that staff either didn’t pitch last year at all or were hardly used at all. Very much the Yankee culture.
He had 3 saves for the Yankees the last few years, surprised the Mets didn’t scoop him.
Smart buy-low deal.
This guy was pretty reliable 6th-7th inning arm for a couple of years. Wish him luck.
Time to move to the major league starter signings
That’s 4 gone from the Yankees pen and still the silence if defining.