Braves Place Ronald Acuna Jr. On IL, Reinstate Spencer Strider
6:07PM: In another move announced by the Braves today, Joel Payamps cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett. The right-hander was designated for assignment earlier this week, and he has enough MLB service time to reject the outright assignment and opt for free agency. However, becoming a free agent would mean surrendering the roughly $1.78MM in remaining salary Payamps is owed for 2026, so the righty is probably more likely to accept the outright and continue in Gwinnett.
11:00AM: Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. is heading to the injured list with a hamstring strain, the team announced. Jose Azocar was selected to the roster as a replacement. Atlanta also reinstated right-hander Spencer Strider from the IL. Righty Hunter Stratton is headed back to Triple-A to clear a spot.
Acuna was removed in the second inning of Saturday’s game against the Rockies after a groundout. He was replaced by Eli White in right field. The Braves had an opening on the 40-man, so no corresponding move was needed to add Azocar.
The 28-year-old Acuna is off to a slow start this season by his lofty standards. He’s slashed .252/.362/.378 across 152 plate appearances. Acuna has just two home runs in 34 games. Atlanta’s offensive production has been just fine, though, as the club leads the league in scoring by 15 runs.
The Braves will likely lean on a mix of White, Azocar, and Mauricio Dubon for additional reps in the outfield. Michael Harris II is back from a minor quad issue, so he’ll lock down center on an everyday basis. That leaves the aforementioned trio and Mike Yastrzemski to cover the corner spots. Yastrzemski has a .642 OPS in his career against lefties, so he’ll probably remain in a platoon role.
Azocar returned to the organization on a minor league deal in December. He initially latched on with Atlanta in May after a brief stint with the Mets last season. Azocar only appeared in two games with the Braves before getting designated for assignment. He went back to New York and spent the rest of the year in the minors, then elected free agency.
The 29-year-old Azocar has spent parts of four seasons in the majors, mostly with the Padres. He debuted for San Diego in 2022 and earned semi-regular work at all three outfield spots. Azocar posted an 81 wRC+ in 216 plate appearances. He was up and down with the big-league club over the next couple of seasons. Azocar hasn’t hit enough to stick for an extended stretch in the majors, but he provides some speed along with competent defense in the outfield.
Strider has been sidelined since Spring Training with an oblique injury. He’ll make his season debut against the Rockies. The righty ramped up to 82 pitches in his final Triple-A outing, so he should be in for close to a normal workload in his return.
Injuries have limited Strider to 25 starts over the past two seasons. He missed nearly all of 2024 with an elbow injury. Strider returned in April of last year, only to go right back on the IL with a hamstring issue. He made 23 starts in 2025, pitching to a 4.45 ERA across 125 1/3 innings.
All eyes will be on the Coors Field radar gun in Strider’s return. His fastball averaged a career-low 95.5 mph last year. The pitch sat at 96.3 mph in his brief 2024 stint. Strider was consistently in the upper-90s with the heater during his elite years in 2022 and 2023. He introduced a curveball to help expand his arsenal, though he used the pitch just 8.9% of the time in 2025.
Stratton will head back to Triple-A after just one appearance with Atlanta. He came up on Friday with Anthony Molina after José Suarez and Joel Payamps were designated for assignment. Stratton lasted longer than Molina, who was sent back down yesterday with Carlos Carrasco returning to the squad.
Atlanta acquired Stratton in a minor trade with the Pirates last summer. He pitched well in 12 appearances with the club, posting a 2.20 ERA with nearly a strikeout per inning. Given how frequently the Braves have shuffled pitchers on and off the roster, Stratton will likely get another shot in the majors at some point this year.
Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel, Imagn Images
Braves Designate José Suarez, Joel Payamps For Assignment
The Braves have designated relievers José Suarez and Joel Payamps for assignment, per a club announcement. Right-hander Hunter Stratton has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett, and fellow righty Anthony Molina has had his contract selected from Gwinnett as well.
Suarez has been with Atlanta in each of the past two seasons and has totaled 35 2/3 innings of 4.04 ERA ball. The 28-year-old has been tagged for a 6.61 ERA in this season’s 16 1/3 frames, however, and is out of minor league options. Suarez has piled up strikeouts at career-high levels in 2026 (26.6% strikeout rate, backed by a sharp 12.8% swinging-strike rate), but his already wobbly command has deteriorated even further; he’s walked 15.2% of his opponents this season.
Back in 2021-22, Suarez looked to be emerging as a quality fourth starter in Anaheim. He gave the Halos 207 1/3 innings with a 3.86 ERA with a slightly below-average strikeout rate but a walk rate that was a bit better than average. The wheels came off in 2023, due in no small part to a shoulder strain that sent him to the injured list for several months. He posted an 8.29 ERA in 33 2/3 innings that season and was only marginally better in 52 1/3 frames the following season (6.02 ERA).
Suarez has experience working both as a reliever and a starter. He’s making just $900K this season, so a team in need of some left-handed depth or a swingman to provide long relief could have some interest — if said club can look past this year’s ugly walk rate. Metrics like SIERA (4.12) and xERA (3.97) feel Suarez has been a good bit better than his more rudimentary earned run average would indicate. If he clears waivers, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment, though doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of that $900K guarantee, so he’d probably accept an assignment to Gwinnett.
The 32-year-old Payamps has had a tougher season. He’s pitched 7 2/3 innings with Atlanta, who plucked him off waivers from the Brewers last September, and been tagged for seven earned runs on nine hits and four walks. Two of those nine hits left the yard.
Payamps was a solid middle reliever for the A’s in 2021-22 and a revelation with the Brewers in 2023-24 after Milwaukee picked him up alongside William Contreras in a three-team trade that turned out to be a heist on their end of things. (Sean Murphy went to the Braves; Esteury Ruiz, Kyle Muller, Freddy Tarnok, Royber Salinas and Manny Piña went to Oakland.) Payamps was dominant with the Brew Crew in ’23-’24, logging a 2.78 ERA, 48 holds and nine saves with a 26.1% strikeout rate against a 6.7% walk rate.
The 2025 season saw Payamps falter, however. He was roughed up for a 7.23 ERA in 23 2/3 innings before eventually being designated for assignment late in the year. Atlanta clearly still believed in the right-hander’s stuff, as the Braves not only claimed him in September but tendered him a $2.25MM contract over the winter. Any team that claims or acquires Payamps would be responsible for the remainder of that $2.25MM sum.
As is the case with Suarez, Payamps has enough service time to reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers, but not enough to do so while retaining the remainder of his salary. Given that salary and the fact that his struggles date back to 2025, it seems likely that Payamps will indeed pass through waivers. If that happens, he’ll surely head to Gwinnett to retain that salary and hope to pitch his way back into the major league mix.
Stratton pitched well in 16 1/3 innings with Atlanta last year and is out to a decent start in Gwinnett this season. Molina was a December waiver claim out of the Rockies organization. He’s a four-pitch reliever (four-seamer, slider, curveball, changeup) with good command but well below-average strikeout numbers in the majors. He was tagged for a 6.96 ERA in 94 1/3 innings with the Rox from 2024-25, but he’s worked to a 4.50 ERA with the Stripers while enjoying a nearly two mile-per-hour spike in velocity and a big 51.1% ground-ball rate.
In addition to the shaky performance from Suarez and Payamps this season, both were out of minor league options. That left Atlanta with minimal flexibility in the bullpen. For a chunk of the current season, the Braves’ only optionable reliever was lefty Dylan Lee, who is deservingly entrenched in the setup ranks and was never going to be sent down. Today’s pair of DFAs and Raisel Iglesias‘ trip to the 15-day IL have created some extra wiggle room. Lee, Stratton, Molina and prospect Didier Fuentes (a starter in the minors but currently in the Braves ‘pen) all have options left, which should give the club more flexibility when they need to bring up a fresh arm.
Braves Re-Sign Joel Payamps
The Braves announced that they have signed right-hander Joel Payamps to a one-year, $2.25MM deal. Payamps is represented by agents Larry Reynolds and Rosie Lopez-Herrera.
After Payamps was designated for assignment by the Brewers in September, Atlanta stepped in to claim the righty on waivers, and Payamps logged two appearances and 2 2/3 innings with his new team before season’s end. The Braves then outrighted Payamps off their 40-man roster and (since he has been previously outrighted in his career) he elected free agency rather than accept the assignment.
The move was essentially an early non-tender on the Braves’ part, as Payamps was projected to earn $3.4MM in his second trip through the arbitration process. This new contract brings Payamps back into the fold on a lower price tag, and a number that the Braves were surely more comfortable paying in the wake of a disappointing 2025 season for the veteran reliever.
Payamps posted okay but unremarkable numbers over his first four big league seasons before taking things up a notch as a member of Milwaukee’s bullpen in 2023-24. The reliever posted a 2.78 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, and 6.7% walk rate over 129 2/3 innings, emerging as a trusted setup man in front of closer Devin Williams.
In 2025, however, Payamps’ effectiveness suddenly went south, with a 6.84 ERA, 20.5 K%, and a 7.7 BB% over 26 1/3 combined innings with the Brewers and Braves. While his 4.16 SIERA was nothing special, it at least reflected some of the misfortune (such as a .346 BABIP and a 60.4% strand rate) that went into Payamps’ performance.
The Braves are investing $2.25MM in the idea that Payamps can regain his old form with a change of scenery. Payamps is out of minor league options and thus can’t be sent to Triple-A without first being designated for assignment, though his guaranteed contract provides leverage for the team. Because Payamps has less than five full years of MLB service time, he would have to forfeit any remaining guaranteed salary if he refused another outright assignment in favor of free agency. The added salary might also act as a bit of a deterrent for other teams who might otherwise be interested in claiming Payamps off waivers following a DFA.
Payamps was one of several arb-eligible players (along with the likes of Alek Manoah, Vidal Brujan, and Jake Fraley) picked up later in the season by the Braves, as the club was basically getting an early start on its offseason by auditioning some intriguing depth candidates. Manoah was non-tendered and Fraley was waived, but Brujan agreed to an arbitration-avoiding contract and now Payamps is back in the mix.
If the 2023-24 version of Payamps resurfaces, Atlanta has added a solid bullpen arm at a budget price. The Braves also re-signed Raisel Iglesias to return as closer, and more relief additions seem likely given the continued uncertainty over Joe Jimenez‘s health status. It is possible Iglesias could be the priciest of the Braves’ bullpen adds, as the team might prefer to save its larger dollars for the other needs and aim for less-expensive hidden gems on the relief front.
Braves Decline Option On David Fletcher, Outright Four Players
TODAY: Payamps, Cox, Robinson, and Rodriguez all elected minor league free agency, as per the MILB.com official transactions page.
NOV. 6: The Braves have declined their $8MM club option on infielder David Fletcher, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The team also announced today that they have outrighted LHP Austin Cox, RHP Joel Payamps, catcher Chuckie Robinson, and outfielder Carlos Rodríguez to Triple-A Gwinnett.
Fletcher, 31, was acquired from the Angels in December 2023 alongside catcher Max Stassi in exchange for minor-league first baseman Evan White and reliever Tyler Thomas. That was a financially-motivated move. Fletcher and the Angels had signed an ill-fated extension in 2021. White had also signed an extension that didn’t pan out, with the Mariners, though that deal was flipped to Atlanta. The Fletcher/Stassi/White/Thomas swap allowed the Angels to clear up some short-term cash while Atlanta saved money in the long run. Atlanta passed Fletcher through waivers shortly after acquiring him. He was selected back to the roster in 2024 but outrighted again shortly thereafter.
Broadly speaking, Fletcher has been a poor hitter but a good defender. He has a career .276/.323/.358 batting line, which translates to an 86 wRC+. He was more passable from 2018 to 2020 but his bat has tailed off in recent seasons. Atlanta presumably never viewed him as much more than an emergency depth option. His connection to an illegal gambling ring presumably didn’t improve his status in any way. Naturally, the club has gone with the $1.5MM buyout instead of the $8MM option.
The other moves clear out some roster space ahead of upcoming offseason business. Payamps is the most experienced of the four names here. Atlanta claimed him off waivers late in the season. Payamps didn’t have a good season in the majors, posting a 6.84 earned run average. He was eligible for arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $3.4MM salary. Atlanta didn’t want to pay that. Since Payamps cleared waivers, it appears no other club wanted to pay it either. He has at least three years of service time and therefore has the right to elect free agency.
As a free agent, he should garner interest from clubs looking for a bounceback. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Payamps logged 129 2/3 innings in the big leagues with a 2.78 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate. His major league results backed up in 2025 but he still showed some potential in the minors. His 4.73 ERA in 26 2/3 Triple-A innings wasn’t impressive but his 27.3% strikeout rate and 5.5% walk rate were in line with his peak.
Cox, 29 in March, has thrown 57 big league innings between Kansas City and Atlanta. In that time, he has a 6.16 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 40.2% ground ball rate. He doesn’t have three years of service time or a previous career outright but should qualify for seven-year minor league free agency.
Robinson, 31 in December, is a longtime depth catcher. Atlanta claimed him off waivers late in the year while Sean Murphy was on the injured list. His defense is well regarded but he has a .131/.169/.192 batting line in his big league career. He has been outrighted previously in his career and therefore has the right to elect free agency.
Rodríguez, 25 in December, was signed by the Brewers a year ago. He had no major league experience but was coming off a good season in the Brewers’ system. He couldn’t keep it going in 2025, as he hit just .247/.317/.323 in Triple-A for a 76 wRC+. He doesn’t have three years of service or a previous career outright but should qualify for minor-league free agency.,
Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images
Braves Claim Joel Payamps, Designate Connor Seabold For Assignment
The Braves have claimed right-hander Joel Payamps off waivers from the Brewers, according to announcements from both clubs. Milwaukee had designated him for assignment a few days ago. In a corresponding move, Atlanta has designated fellow righty Connor Seabold for assignment.
Payamps, now 31, had a strong run with the Brewers in the previous two seasons but has been struggling a bit more this year. He tossed 129 2/3 innings for Milwaukee over the 2023 and 2024 campaigns, allowing just 2.78 earned runs per nine. His 26.1% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 42.6% ground ball rate were all better than league average. He gave the Brewers nine saves and 48 holds over those two years.
But as mentioned, 2025 hasn’t been as smooth. His first 18 1/3 innings this year resulted in an ugly 8.35 ERA. Some of that was surely luck, as his .373 batting average on balls in play and 52.2% strand rate were both to the unfortunate side. But he also saw his strikeout rate drop to just 19% and his grounder rate to 29%. His 4.51 FIP and 4.40 SIERA weren’t nearly as bad as his ERA but still pointed to him being worse than previous seasons.
Payamps is out of options, so the Brewers designated him for assignment in late May. Given his previous success, he could have been grabbed by any club, but he passed through waivers unclaimed. Perhaps his $2.995MM salary this year played a role, as most of that was still to be paid out at the time.
Players with at least three years of service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, those with less than five years of service have to forfeit their remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right. Payamps is in that three-to-five window and therefore reported to Nashville.
He actually got back on track with the Sounds, tossing 26 2/3 innings. The 4.73 ERA wasn’t good but he got his strikeouts back up to a 27.3% clip and his grounders to a 38.9% rate. The ERA was seemingly spiked by a tiny 47.8% strand rate, which is why he had a 2.90 FIP for that Triple-A run.
The Brewers called him back up in early September, selecting him to the roster when Shelby Miller landed on the injured list. Since then, he has had decent numbers in a small sample, pitching 5 1/3 innings with a 3.38 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 46.2% ground ball rate, though a high walk rate of 12.5%. Though the recent trends were somewhat encouraging, he was designated for assignment again recently when the Brewers called up Bruce Zimmermann.
With just a week left in the season, the vast majority of Payamps’ salary has now been paid out. That makes it relatively inexpensive for Atlanta to claim him today. They can now get a close-up look at him and decide if they want to tender him a contract for 2026. Since his big league results this year have been lacking, he shouldn’t be able to push his salary up much beyond the $3MM range he was in this year. His service time is still shy of five years, so he could also be controlled for 2027 via arbitration if Atlanta tenders him a contract for next year and things go well.
Atlanta is playing out the string on a season that has been a lost cause for a long time. The club has therefore been making moves focused on improving the 2026 club. They acquired Tyler Kinley from the Rockies at the deadline. They have also claimed players making notable salaries like Jake Fraley and Ha-Seong Kim off waivers, with Payamps now added to the list.
When teams are faced with a losing season like this, they usually find ways to save some money, but Atlanta has taken the opposite approach. Back in February, chairman Terry McGuirk said the club had “dry powder” to make deadline additions. Instead, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has used that powder to make that aforementioned moves. Kinley is making a $3MM salary this year, Fraley $3.125MM and Kim $13MM. As mentioned, Payamps is making $2.995MM.
Atlanta only took on a portion of those salaries, given that each player was acquired later in the year. But in each case, the hope was seemingly that the investment would allow them to bring in a current player who could help in 2026. In most of those cases, they didn’t really commit themselves to anything for next year. Kinley has a $5MM club option for next year but also a $750K buyout. Fraley and Payamps are both arbitration eligible, meaning Atlanta will still have a chance to non-tender them this offseason if they so choose. With Kim, they have less flexibility, as he has a $16MM player option for next year. They were seemingly happy to pay that out but he has been playing well lately and seems to be trending towards a return to free agency.
Seabold was also a waiver claimee this year but a more conventional one as he is still in his pre-arbitration years and isn’t making a notable salary. Since being claimed from the Rays in August, he has mostly been on optional assignment, only making four big league appearance for Atlanta.
Between those two clubs, he has thrown 69 2/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 6.07 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 36% ground ball rate. His major league career now consists of 119 innings spread across four different clubs and four different seasons. In that time, he has a 7.79 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 33% ground ball rate.
Since the trade deadline has passed, he’ll be on waivers in the coming days. He doesn’t have a previous career outright nor three years of service time. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed, he would not have the right to reject an outright assignment. However, he has appeared in at least seven different minor league seasons, meaning he would qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end if he’s still not on the 40-man at that time.
Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images
Brewers Designate Joel Payamps, Select Bruce Zimmermann
The Brewers announced that right-hander Joel Payamps has been designated for assignment. Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann‘s contract was selected from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and he’ll replace Payamps on both the 28-man and 40-man rosters.
This is the second time Payamps has been DFA’ed this season, and his first designation resulted in Milwaukee outrighting the reliever off the 40-man roster and down to Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers selected Payamps’ contract back up to the big league roster at the start of September, and while he posted a 3.38 ERA over 5 1/3 innings after his return, it wasn’t enough to keep Payamps from being sent back to the waiver wire.
Payamps was one of the more underrated relief arms in baseball in 2023-24, recording a 2.78 ERA and 48 holds over 129 2/3 innings out of Milwaukee’s bullpen. Payamps appeared in 137 games over those two seasons plus three more appearances in the playoffs, and it is possible this workload simply caught up to the righty in 2025.
Over 23 2/3 frames and 28 games this year, Payamps struggled to a 7.23 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, and 8.3% walk rate. A 4.24 SIERA is a more flattering look at Payamps’ performance, as he received some bad luck on both the strand rate (58.7%) and batted-ball luck (.361 BABIP) fronts.
However, these caveats weren’t enough for the Brewers to keep him around, and Payamps’ status is complicated by his lack of minor league options. The Brew Crew have therefore been forced to DFA the reliever rather than just send him to Triple-A, and because Payamps has been outrighted once, he can now elect to reject any future outright assignments in favor of free agency.
Should he clear waivers after this DFA period, Payamps could leave the Brewers organization altogether. A parting of the ways this winter seems likely anyway, as Milwaukee will probably decline to tender Payamps a contract. He is earning $2.995MM in 2025, and is eligible for arbitration for the third and final time this offseason.
Zimmermann signed a minor league deal with the Brewers back in December, then opted out of that contract in July only to sign a fresh new deal with the club a few days later. After almost a full season in Nashville, Zimmermann now gets a chance to log his first big league innings since the 2023 season, when he was a member of the Orioles. All four of Zimmermann’s MLB seasons came in a Baltimore uniform, as the southpaw posted a 5.57 ERA over 158 1/3 innings and 38 games (27 stars) for the O’s from 2020-23.
The left-hander spent the entirety of the 2024 season in the Orioles’ farm system before moving to the Crew, and Zimmermann has a 4.11 ERA and an impressive 5.2% walk rate across 138 innings in Nashville. Zimmermann has worked as both a starter and as a long reliever this year, so the Brewers could use him to soak up some late-season innings to keep other pitchers fresh for the playoffs.
Shelby Miller Likely Headed For Tommy John Surgery
3:00pm: Miller spoke with the Brewers beat in the dugout today and suggested that a second Tommy John procedure is likely (video link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). The veteran righty effused praise for the Brewers organization and said he’d be on hand to support the club however he can. Asked about the possibility of this being a potential career-ending injury, Miller said there’s “no doubt” in his mind that he can come back — likely in 2027 — and continue to pitch effectively, but that’ll be a conversation he has with his family when he’s further down the road.
Notably, the right-hander acknowledged that surgery was mentioned as a possibility when he was on the injured list with the D-backs. That would have been an internal brace and flexor repair, but a full UCL replacement now seems like it could be on the table. The Brewers surely knew of that possibility at the time of the swap (hence the purely financial cost of acquisition), but that doesn’t make his loss any less impactful.
Fans will want to check out Rosiak’s full five-minute video clip, as Miller provides a wealth of candid quotes on his career, his current mindset, his injury, his time with the Brewers and more.
2:12pm: The Brewers announced Wednesday that they’ve placed right-hander Shelby Miller on the 60-day injured list due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The 34-year-old exited a game earlier this week after telling manager Pat Murphy that he’d felt a “pop” in his elbow, and it seems he’s encountered a worst-case scenario. Milwaukee has selected the contract of righty Joel Payamps to take Miller’s spot on the 40-man roster and in the big league bullpen.
The Brewers haven’t specified whether Miller will undergo Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure, but surgery is the most common outcome when pitchers suffer UCL sprains. If Miller does require Tommy John surgery, it’d be the second time in his career. He also underwent Tommy John surgery back in 2017 while pitching with the Diamondbacks.
Losing Miller is another notable blow for a Milwaukee bullpen that is also without closer Trevor Megill (flexor strain), lefty DL Hall (oblique strain) and righty Grant Anderson (ankle tendinitis). The Brewers acquired Miller at the trade deadline, knowing there were some health risks. He was on the injured list with a forearm strain at the time. Perhaps in a reflection of that uncertainty, Milwaukee effectively purchased Miller rather than sending any prospects to the D-backs; they took on the remainder of Miller’s deal and $2MM of the roughly $7MM still owed to injured starter Jordan Montgomery — a free agent at season’s end.
Miller has pitched 9 2/3 innings with the Brewers and sports an unsightly 5.59 ERA, though that’s a bit misleading. Prior to the outing when he felt that “pop,” he’d pitched in 10 games with the Brewers and held opponents scoreless in eight of them. The main blemish was a three-run hiccup against the Bucs on Aug. 13, but generally, Miller had been strong: a 3.72 ERA with a 14-to-4 K/BB ratio in those 9 2/3 frames. He was tagged for two runs without recording an out in what will go down as his final appearance of the season, however, and he’ll close out the 2025 campaign with a 2.74 ERA, 10 saves and nine holds in 46 innings.
In place of Miller, the Brewers will take another look at the veteran Payamps. The 31-year-old righty was a rock-solid bullpen arm for the Brew Crew in 2023-24, pitching a combined 129 2/3 innings with a 2.78 ERA, a 26.1% strikeout rate, a 6.7% walk rate, a 42.6% ground-ball rate and just 1.04 HR/9. He saved nine games along the way and piled up 48 holds between those two excellent seasons.
Payamps got out to a miserable start in 2025, however, allowing 17 runs in his first 18 1/3 innings of work. The Brewers designated him for assignment and placed him on waivers. His $2.995MM salary made it easy to pass him through outright waivers, and Payamps has shown signs of righting the ship with Milwaukee’s top affiliate in Nashville. His numbers are somewhat skewed thanks to a six-run meltdown in his third-most-recent appearance, on Aug. 23, but Payamps carried a tidy 3.04 ERA into that outing and has bounced back with a pair of perfect frames during which he punched out five of his six opponents.
Overall, Payamps has a 4.73 ERA in 26 2/3 innings, with a disproportionate amount of the damage against him coming in that Aug. 23 hiccup. He’s posted a sharp 30-to-6 K/BB ratio with Nashville and allowed only two home runs. If he’s back to his 2023-24 form, or even 80-90% of the way there, Payamps could be an impactful bullpen addition for the final few weeks of the regular season — and perhaps even into the postseason if he shows well enough.
Brewers Outright Joel Payamps
Right-hander Joel Payamps passed through outright waivers unclaimed and has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville after his recent DFA, the Brewers announced Thursday. Payamps has enough service time to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would require surrendering the rest of this year’s $2.995MM guarantee. As such, he’s overwhelmingly likely to accept the assignment and hope to pitch his way back to Milwaukee in short order.
Prior to the season, few would’ve predicted Payamps would be in a situation like this. The 31-year-old had a solid 2022 season and broke out as a quality, high-leverage reliever with the Brewers in 2023-24. Milwaukee acquired Payamps alongside William Contreras in the heist of a three-team trade sending Esteury Ruiz to the A’s and Sean Murphy to the Braves.
Contreras was the clear headliner there, but Payamps’ contributions in Milwaukee ought not to be overlooked. In his first two full seasons as a Brewer, he pitched 129 2/3 innings with a crisp 2.78 ERA, a 26.1% strikeout rate and a 6.7% walk rate. The right-hander picked up 48 holds and saved nine games along the way as well.
The 2025 season has been a struggle for Payamps. There’s no getting around that issue. He’s pitched 18 1/3 innings and been hammered for 17 runs (8.35 ERA) on 25 hits (three homers) and six walks against just 16 strikeouts. There’s been no velocity dip or radical change to his pitch selection, but Payamps is generating far fewer chases off the plate, far fewer whiffs and allowing a good bit more contact.
Any team could’ve claimed Payamps, who’s controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration, but doing so would’ve meant taking on the remaining $1.98MM in guaranteed money on his contract. Most clubs are pretty stingy about adding guaranteed money via waivers during the season, as they tend to only have a small amount of financial flexibility with regard to the trade deadline (relative to their typical slate of offseason resources, anyhow).
Were Payamps to reject his outright and be available on a minor league deal with a minimal base, he’d surely have a long line of interested teams vying for the right to take a flier on that track record. Instead, his salary pushed him through waivers. He’ll now head to Nashville and look to get back on track. Passing Payamps through waivers like this was the only way Milwaukee could send him to Nashville, since he’s out of minor league options. If he can start missing bats more in line with his past levels, he could return at any point this season.
Payamps is still under club control through 2026, at least. If he spends fewer than 82 more days on the big league roster but is selected back to the majors prior to season’s end, he’d fall shy of five years of service and see his path to free agency pushed back another year. That’s a moot point if he doesn’t pitch well enough to garner another big league look, though, and that’s where his focus will rest for the time being.
Brewers Designate Joel Payamps For Assignment
The Brewers announced today that right-hander Aaron Civale has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. They have also recalled righty Carlos Rodríguez from Triple-A Nashville. In corresponding moves for those two, they have optioned righty Easton McGee while righty Joel Payamps has been designated for assignment. Milwaukee’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
Payamps, 31, is having an ugly season so far. In 18 1/3 innings, he has allowed 17 earned runs, translating to an 8.35 earned run average. That has apparently exhausted the patience of the Brewers, getting bumped off the active roster. Since he’s out of options, they had little choice but to remove him from the 40-man.
It was that out-of-options status which led him to Milwaukee in the first place. He exhausted his final option season in 2021. Even before getting to that point, he had already been a frequent waiver claimee. The Red Sox claimed him from the Diamondbacks after the 2020 season. Before the 2021 campaign began, he went to the Blue Jays, back to the Red Sox and then the Blue Jays again on subsequent waiver claims. The Jays held him through mid-July that year before designated him for assignment and trading him to the Royals for cash.
Despite being out of options in 2022, he stuck with the Royals into August, before he went to the A’s on another waiver claim. Going into 2023, he was sent to the Brewers as a throw-in piece of the three-team, nine-player trade which sent Sean Murphy to Atlanta and William Contreras to Milwaukee.
Based on all of those transactions, several clubs clearly saw potential in Payamps, but the Brewers got the best results out of him. At the time he came to Milwaukee, he had thrown 113 innings with a 3.35 ERA. His 47% ground ball rate and 7.6% walk rate were strong marks but he only struck out 17.6% of batters faced.
Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he had a 2.78 ERA in 129 2/3 innings for the Brewers. His 42.6% grounder rate was a drop from his previous work but still roughly league average. His 6.7% walk rate stayed strong and he also punched out 26.1% of opponents. He was trusted enough to earn nine saves and 48 holds over those seasons.
But as mentioned, things have gone off the rails a bit this season, though it’s surely not quite as bad as his ERA indicates. His .373 batting average on balls in play and 52.2% strand rate this year are both on the unfortunate side. But on top of that bad luck, his strikeout rate has fallen to 19% while he’s only getting grounders on 29% of balls in play. His 4.44 FIP and 4.21 SIERA suggest he deserves far better than an 8.35 ERA but there are still some concerning trends.
For now, he heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Brewers could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. Even though he’s out of options and his numbers this year are poor, it’s possible there will be interest from other clubs based on his previous two campaigns. He is making $2.995MM this year and can be controlled via arbitration in 2026 as well.
Turning to the rotation, the return of Civale is a nice boost. He made just one start before landing on the IL due to a left hamstring strain and then suffered a setback while trying to get healthy. He has been a solid starter in his career, with a 4.08 ERA in 639 1/3 innings. He had a 3.53 ERA for the Brewers after being acquired from the Rays last year.
The Milwaukee rotation has been a bit of a revolving door this year, with Civale one of several pitchers to hit the shelf. Brandon Woodruff, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, Nestor Cortes, Robert Gasser and Jose Quintana are all still on the IL.
Civale jumps into the rotation next to Freddy Peralta, Quinn Priester, Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick. Additional reinforcements appear to be on the way. Woodruff was nearing a return from shoulder surgery when an ankle injury set him back a little over a week ago. He restarted his rehab assignment last night and will probably make one more rehab start, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hall is also on a rehab assignment and shouldn’t be too far off. Quintana is throwing a bullpen with the club today, per Rosiak, with next steps to be determined after that.
Ashby is on a rehab assignment but his five minor league outings have all been two innings or less. The two most recent appearances were of the single-inning variety, so perhaps he’s being brought along as a reliever rather than a starter.
Photo courtesy of Dave Nelson, Imagn Images
NL Notes: Lindor, Blackburn, Barnes, Payamps
After exiting early on Friday and sitting out on Saturday, Mets superstar Francisco Lindor was pulled in the second inning of today’s series finale against the Phillies. Back discomfort has been a problem for the NL MVP candidate all weekend, and as it turns out, significantly longer. Lindor told reporters, including Tim Britton of The Athletic, that he has been playing through back pain for the past two weeks. Ever since he further irritated the injury on Friday, it has become too difficult to ignore.
Lindor will go for an MRI tomorrow, after which the Mets will have a better sense of the severity of his condition. Needless to say, they’ll be hoping it’s nothing serious and the star shortstop can get back on the field as soon as possible. The Mets are in a dead heat with the Braves in the race to secure the third and final NL Wild Card berth.
In further injury news out of Queens, starting pitcher Paul Blackburn is dealing with a spinal fluid leak in his back (per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). President of baseball operations David Stearns suggests the injury isn’t quite as bad as it might sound, but nonetheless, the team does not know when Blackburn will be able to return. The right-hander has not pitched since August 23. Thankfully for the Mets, their pitching staff, and particularly their starting rotation, has been a strength as of late. Their starters rank third in MLB with a 2.32 ERA since Blackburn landed on the IL. Meanwhile, Blackburn had a 5.18 ERA in five starts after joining the Mets at the trade deadline.
More from around the National League:
- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says he would be “shocked” if catcher Austin Barnes doesn’t wind up on the injured list tomorrow, according to Juan Toribio of MLB.com. The veteran backstop got hit by a foul ball on his left big toe and was forced to make an early exit from today’s game against the Braves. Barnes spent time on the IL with a fracture in the same toe in August, and while Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic points out that today’s contusion is in a “different spot,” it’s quite possible Barnes re-aggravated his old injury. Ardaya notes that Hunter Feduccia – one of four catchers on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster – is already on his way to join the big league club.
- Brewers reliever Joel Payamps felt discomfort in his forearm during his appearance today against the Diamondbacks, manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). The right-hander recorded one out in the bottom of the seventh inning and did not return for the eighth. The Brewers have not yet provided any further details about Payamps, who has been one of the team’s most trusted and dependable relievers over the past two seasons. Across 130 games with Milwaukee, he has a 2.90 ERA and a 3.45 SIERA in 124 innings pitched. He has not looked quite as sharp in 2024 as he did the year before. Still, his 3.38 ERA and 3.73 SIERA are respectable numbers, while his six saves, 18 holds, and high average leverage index are proof that the Brewers continue to rely on him in plenty of important spots.