Jackson Stephens

The Braves have re-signed righty Jackson Stephens to a new minor league contract, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett. Stephens previously cleared waivers and rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Ultimately, he’ll stick with the club for the time being, though it’s possible the new deal has new opt-out language down the road.

Stephens pitched 3 1/3 innings for Atlanta earlier this season, allowing a run on five hits and a walk with two strikeouts. The 30-year-old right-hander has spent the past three seasons in the Braves organization, with much of that time coming in Gwinnett. Since 2022, Stephens has a 3.52 ERA in 69 big league innings (3.78 FIP, 4.13 SIERA). Stephens’ 19.7% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate are less appealing than that baseline earned run average, but he’s nevertheless generally been effective with the Braves. He’s posted similar mid-3.00s ERA marks with Gwinnett dating back to 2022 as well.

An 18th-round pick by the Reds back in 2012, Stephens ranked among Cincinnati’s most promising arms through 2018. He pitched in two seasons with the team that drafted him, recording a 4.83 ERA in 63 1/3 innings from 2017-18. Stephens spent the entire 2019 campaign in the minors and became a free agent after the Reds outrighted him following that season. He was out of baseball for the shortened 2020 season (and canceled minor league season) and then spent the 2021 season with the Mexican League’s Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos before joining the Braves in the 2021-22 offseason.

Born and raised in Oxford, Alabama — just 90 miles west of Atlanta — it’s not that surprising that Stephens has come to feel at home in the Braves organization. He could certainly have found a minor league deal elsewhere — perhaps with a club that has a less-established bullpen group in the majors — but the proximity to home and the familiarity he’s developed over three years in the organization both likely appealed to him. He’ll head back to Gwinnett and try to pitch his way back onto the big league roster this summer.

The Braves announced that right-hander Jackson Stephens was outrighted to Triple-A.  The move was necessary to remove Stephens from the 40-man roster since he is out of minor league options, but the righty will remain in Atlanta’s organization.

Stephens first joined the Braves on a minor league deal last winter, and he ended up seeing quite a bit of Major League work in tossing 53 1/3 innings out of the bullpen (including three innings as the designated starter of a bullpen game at the end of the regular season).  Stephens posted a 3.69 ERA and did an excellent job of inducing soft contact, even if his strikeout and walk rates were both below the league average.

It was a respectable showing for Stephens’ first MLB action since 2018 as a member of the Reds, and the performance earned Stephen a new contract with the Braves back in December.  Since that deal was a split contract that wasn’t fully guaranteed, however, Stephens will only earn his $740K salary if he appears on Atlanta’s active roster at any point during the season.

Stephens didn’t acquit himself well in Spring Training, with a 33.75 ERA to show for 1 1/3 frames over two appearances of Grapefruit League work.  (The Orioles tagged Stephens for five runs in one-third of an inning on March 13.)  The outright assignment puts Stephens out of the running for a job in the Braves’ Opening Day bullpen, and the club also has another 40-man roster spot to work with in contemplating other moves.  Most immediately, the Braves might have that space earmarked for one of Dylan Dodd or Jared Shuster, who are competing to be the team’s fifth starter.

The Braves announced this evening they’ve signed reliever Jackson Stephens to a one-year contract. It’s a split deal that pays him at varied rates depending on whether he’s in the majors or minors. Stephens secures a 40-man roster spot, bringing Atlanta’s roster to capacity. Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Twitter link) the 28-year-old will be paid at a $740K rate for any time spent in the majors.

Stephens is coming off a solid season in the middle innings for Atlanta. He was called upon by skipper Brian Snitker for 39 appearances out of the bullpen. Stephens tallied a career-high 53 2/3 innings while posting a personal-low 3.69 ERA. His 20% strikeout rate was a bit below average, but he generated grounders at a solid 46.3% clip. Stephens averaged 94.1 MPH on his fastball and generated high-end spin but middling velocity on his 76.8 MPH curveball.

That marked the Alabama native’s first MLB action in four years. He’d previously pitched with the 2017-18 Reds. He spent 2019 in Triple-A, didn’t pitch with the cancelation of the minor league season the following year, then spent 2021 in Mexico. Stephens returned to affiliated ball on a minor league deal with Atlanta during the lockout. He cracked the MLB roster a week into the season and spent the rest of the season in the majors.

After acquiring Dennis Santana from the Rangers in mid-November, Atlanta designated Stephens for assignment. That was just days before the deadline for clubs to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible or pre-arbitration players. The Braves kept him in DFA limbo and non-tendered him, sending him directly into free agency without first needing to clear waivers. A month later, the front office circled back to bring Stephens back to the organization.

Stephens is out of minor league option years, meaning the Braves can’t send him to the minors so long as he’s on the 40-man roster. That they nevertheless agreed upon a split deal may indicate Atlanta plans to place him on outright waivers in the coming weeks. That’d be the only way to get him back to Triple-A Gwinnett, where his lower base salary would come into play, although it’d require him going unclaimed on waivers.

While the idea of signing a player to an MLB contract to subsequently run him through outright waivers might seem counterintuitive, it’s not unheard of. The minor league salary involved could come at a higher rate than is typical for a player who signs a straightforward minor league contract. That could serve as an incentive for the player to accept a minor league assignment if he clears waivers. Earlier in the offseason, the Orioles signed a pair of players — Anthony Bemboom and Jake Cave — to split deals shortly before trying to run them through waivers. The gambit was successful in Bemboom’s case, as he agreed to stick around at Triple-A upon going unclaimed, but didn’t pan out with Cave, whom the Phillies claimed.

That’s a speculative scenario at this point, to be clear. Stephens will take a spot on the 40-man roster for now. If he still holds that job come Spring Training, he’ll battle for a middle innings role at Truist Park for a second straight year. Atlanta has Raisel Iglesias, A.J. Minter, Joe Jiménez, Collin McHugh, Kirby Yates, Dylan Lee and Santana locked into Opening Day bullpen roles, though Stephens could battle with the likes of Nick Anderson, Seth Elledge and Michael Tonkin for lower-leverage innings.