Braves Notes: Jimenez, Holmes, Alvarez

It’s been more than a year since right-hander Joe Jimenez pitched in a big league game. The now-31-year-old righty was terrific for the Braves in 2023-24, pitching to a combined 2.81 ERA and compiling 40 holds and three saves while fanning 30.1% of opponents against a 7.2% walk rate. Jimenez missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing surgery to repair cartilage in his left knee and underwent a second “cleanup” procedure this past November.

Atlanta transferred Jimenez to the 60-day injured list as soon as camp opened — thereby clearing a roster spot for the reacquisition of infielder Brett Wisely — but it sounds like the team is bracing for a potential absence much longer than two months. Manager Walt Weiss told the team’s beat yesterday that Jimenez is dealing with a “very complex injury” while explaining that he’s not sure whether Jimenez will be available at all during the upcoming season (link via Mark Bowman of MLB.com).

Obviously, there’s no timetable for Jimenez’s return at present. His absence is both a notable loss in the bullpen — where he’d be join Robert Suarez as a key setup arm for closer Raisel Iglesias — and a weight on the club’s payroll. Jimenez signed a three-year, $26MM contract immediately following the 2023 season. He gave Atlanta one excellent year in 2024 but could now miss the entirety of years two and three on that contract. He’s being paid $9MM this year for a Braves club that’s about $20MM over the luxury threshold, per RosterResource. Jimenez will become a free agent at season’s end.

There’s better news on the health front when it comes to righty Grant Holmes. The 29-year-old was diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow last July and opted to rehab the injury rather than the more commonly taken route of UCL surgery (be it Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure).

Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Holmes is full-go in spring training and hasn’t had any setbacks in his recovery. He expects to build up as a starting pitcher but said he’ll be open to whatever role the organization has in store for him. President of baseball ops Alex Anthopoulos tells Bishop that Holmes had a “normal” offseason and called his progression a “significant change” relative to where things stood back in July.

Holmes’ health will be all the more pivotal in the wake of continued elbow troubles for fellow righty Spencer Schwellenbach, who’s already been placed on the 60-day IL due to bone spurs in his elbow and implied this week that he will  likely require an arthroscopic procedure.

A former first-round pick, Holmes joined the Braves as a minor league free agent back in 2022. He’s since re-signed on a pair of minor league deals and eventually pitched his way onto the big league roster. He hasn’t looked back. Holmes broke out with a 3.56 ERA and terrific rate stats through 68 1/3 innings with the ’24 Braves and followed up with 115 frames of 3.99 ERA ball out of the rotation last season. His results and his command eroded over his final few starts, however, prompting the team to take a look at his elbow and discover the damage. If he’s back to full strength, he’ll give the Braves a rotation option alongside Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, Hurston Waldrep and others; Atlanta is also actively exploring the market for veteran starters.

Elsewhere in camp, infielder Nacho Alvarez Jr. is adding a new and unexpected skill to his repertoire. In a separate piece, Bishop writes that the 22-year-old third baseman (23 in April) quietly began working out as a catcher during the Arizona Fall League. He’s still only acclimating to the position and isn’t going to be a catching option come Opening Day, but Alvarez said he views the experiment as a means of putting “an extra tool in the toolbox” as he looks to carve out a big league role.

“It’s a nice piece to have, for us, and for (Alvarez) — for his career, really,” Weiss tells Bishop. “We look at him as an infielder, first, but we’re just introducing it to him and he’s handling it well so far.”

Alvarez is clearly blocked at the hot corner by Austin Riley, who’s entering the fourth season of a ten-year, $212MM contract. He’s played plenty of shortstop in the minor leagues, but the Braves used him exclusively at third base and second base last season despite lacking an obvious big league answer at short, likely indicating they don’t feel he can be a real option there.

In 240 big league plate appearances, Alvarez carries a tepid .216/.277/.298 batting line. The 2022 fifth-rounder shot quickly through the minor leagues, however, and is still younger than most big leaguers when they make their debut despite already having 66 games under his belt. In the 82 games he’s played at the Triple-A level, Alvarez touts a stout .288/.399/.440 slash with 11 homers, 12 doubles, a triple, 10 steals and nearly as many walks (48) as strikeouts (60), so it’s easy to see why Atlanta is eager to expand his versatility and find additional ways to mix him in at the big league level. There’s no telling when or even whether he’ll be even an emergency catching option in the majors, but it’s nonetheless notable that the team is embarking on the experiment.