A.J. Minter takes his place among the best Atlanta Braves relievers

Now the franchise leader in holds, Minter joins other long-time Braves relievers with elite career availability.

What’s that old trope people love to throw around in sports and business?

“The best ability is availability.”

The older I’ve gotten, the more I have come to appreciate the sentiment behind that statement. If someone has an elite skill, that’s great when they use it, but if they aren’t able to provide that skill consistently, the doubt and inability to plan can be detrimental to an organization.

In baseball, availability shows up during a season and over span of a player’s career. Players with elite skills and elite availability are inner-circle, no-doubt-about-it Hall of Famers. Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, Mariano Rivera are a few of the names that come to mind that fit that criterion.

Some players’ skills aren’t or weren’t elite enough to be in the Hall of Fame, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have elite availability. For pitchers – and specifically relief pitchers – there can be a lot of year-by-year volatility in performance; combine that with the impact of injuries and it makes for a rarity for a pitcher to have a long, lasting career.

While not all relievers are Rivera, that doesn’t diminish the value of long-time bullpen arms like Michael Jackson, LaTroy Hawkins, Mike Timlin, Mike Stanton and all-time leader in games played by a pitcher, Jesse Orosco.

With left-handed reliever A.J. Minter’s assention into Atlanta’s top three in games played by a relief pitcher – and now the team’s all-time leader in holds – there is no better time to appreciate the career of relievers who, like Minter, may not have all been Hall of Fame players, but whose career availability was elite – and underappreciated.

The Braves, as a franchise, have been the home for a significant number of pitchers who were able to find long-lasting success in the big leagues.

As of April 21, 2014, off those pitchers still considered active, the top 50 includes current and former Atlanta Braves pitchers: Chris Sale (49), Minter (48), Charlie Morton (44), Ken Giles (41), Joe Jimenez (39), Chasen Shreve (37), Kirby Yates (36), Raisel Iglesias (18), Will Smith (9), Jesse Chavez (8), Craig Kimbrel (4) and Kenley Jansen (1).

In the long history of baseball, the Braves are well-represented at in the top 50 of games played a pitcher in their career. This list includes current and former hurlers: Jansen (48), Julian Tavarez (47), Steve Reed (46), Bob Wickman (45), Billy Wagner (39), Phile Niekro (37), Don McMahon (25), Jeff Reardon (34), Alan Embree (33), Paul Assenmacher (31), Kyle Farnsworth (29), Cy Young (25), Gene Garber (23), Roberto Hernandez (17), Hoyt Wilhelm (6) and Stanton (2).

Only four active pitchers rank in the top 50 in appearances as a Brave, Julio Teheran (42), Luke Jackson (37), Kimbrel (20) and Minter (13). For pitchers who were exclusively relievers, Minter is behind Gene Garber, who is the franchise’s all-time leader in appearances by a reliever, Mark Wohlers and with his April 22nd appearance he tied Peter Moylan and Eric O’Flaherty for third.

Minter, who debuted in 2017, and has spent most of his career as a high-leverage, late-inning reliever, as seen by his afore mentioned place as the franchise’s leader in holds (a stat that only goes back to 1986). Assuming he is able to stay healthy this season, he should easily surpass 400 career appearances with Atlanta, a total that would rank him behind only Garber.

With the exception of his 2019 season, Minter has been a workhorse while picking up 35 saves with a career 131 ERA+, 1.190 WHIP and averaged striking out more than 11 batters per nine innings pitched.

Eleven appearances into his 2024 campaign, many of Minter’s advanced metrics are still in the elite range, including his K% xwOBA, wOBA, xBA and xERA. Thus far, he has relied more heavily on his four-seam fastball as the three-year trend of reduced usage of his cutter continues. Additionally, his chase rate and spin rate on this fastball all continue to be amongst the best in the league, as they have since the 2022 season.

Minter is a free agent after the 2024 season. His possible pending departure hasn’t made as many headlines as that for fellow pitcher Max Fried, but at age 30, his future in Atlanta should be worth significant consideration. The Braves retained multiple relievers through contract extension this past offseason, and Minter’s performance shows no signs of decline.

Like dozens of other relievers in the past, including fellow left-handed Texan Stanton – and current teammates Jimenez, Iglesias, Chavez (and maybe at some point this season, Giles) – Minter could be in for a long career providing teams with elite availability.

The big question mark is whether or not Minter will continue to build his legacy with Atlanta or elsewhere in 2025.