The Braves have attacked their bullpen questions this off-season by embracing the variance.
When it was announced on November 4th that Joe Jimenez underwent surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee and that he would miss most (maybe all) of the 2025 season, it became crystal clear the Atlanta Braves would be making a significant addition to their bullpen sometime in the offseason that had just started.
Joe Jiménez could miss all of next season after undergoing surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee. The Braves say he could be sidelined 8-12 months.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) November 5, 2024
It was even believed the primary reason the Braves unexpectedly declined the $8M team option they had on Travis D’arnaud, a popular and productive player, was they needed those funds to specifically address a new bullpen need. That feeling became if even more prevalent on January 17th when it was announced that bullpen stalwart and high leverage option AJ Minter was signing a 2-year deal with the New York Mets.
Left-handed reliever A.J. Minter and the New York Mets are in agreement on a two-year, $22 million contract, pending physical, sources tell ESPN. The deal includes an opt-out after the first season. Mets keep adding talent. @martinonyc and @JonHeyman were on the news.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 17, 2025
The Braves had lost their two best set-up men, one to injury and one to free agency, and just banking on internal options to fill those crucial rolls seemed like a silly gamble for a team trying to win a World Series. And even sillier when there was reportedly still room in the budget for strong additions.
But here we are, the first full week of Spring Training and full-squad work outs in North Port, Florida, and the Braves have yet to make a proven, high-leverage addition to its bullpen, despite the major subtractions.
What they’ve done instead, is bring in an army of relievers on minor league deals to go along with the unproven guys they have on the 40-man roster, and essentially just thrown numbers at the problem. You bring in enough low cost, high-variance options, you can at least reasonably expect (or hope and pray) one or two of them will hit. Here’s the full list of potential relievers the Braves have brought in this spring:
Buck Farmer, Jake Diekman, Dylan Covey, Chad Kuhl, Chasen Shreve, Dany Jimenez, Brian Moran, Enyel De Los Santos, Jordan Weems, Wander Suero, Kolton Ingram, and Enoli Paredes. All brought in on minor league contracts. (Please memorize the list, there will be a quiz at the end.)
And of course all those names were brought in to compete with the collection of bullpen options the Braves already have on the 40-man roster. Those names include Domingo Gonzales, Daysbel Hernandez, Rolddy Munoz, Angel Perdomo, Anderson Pilar, and Amos Willingham. Then you have to add the starters on the 40-man that could end up contributing out of the bullpen at some point: Ian Anderson, Davis Daniel, Dylan Dodd, Grant Holmes, AJ Smith Shawver, and Hurston Waldrep. And on top of those names, there are even more prospects who aren’t currently on the 40-man who, through strong performance, could ascend all the way up to Atlanta at some point during the 2025 season. Examples being guys like Drue Hackenberg, Jhancarlos Lara, JR Ritchie, Blake Burkhalter, and more after that.
The four guys we know pretty comfortably will be in the bullpen to start the year, pending good health, are Raisel Iglesias, Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson, and Aaron Bummer. That group certainly has the potential to be a really good top 4, though one more proven name added to that group to maybe knock one of those guys down a peg certainly wouldn’t hurt.
That means there are 4 potential bullpen spots available that need to be filled. Holmes and Anderson are both out of options, but it looks like both will be needed in the rotation to start the season (another area the Braves could afford to add), and aren’t current options for the bullpen. An addition to the rotation sometime before Opening Day could change that, as will the inevitable return of Spencer Strider at some point in April or May.
Perdomo is also out of options and Pilar was a Rule V pick, meaning neither guy can be optioned without being subjected to waivers first. That certainly helps both their cases unless again, someone more proven is added between now and Opening Day, then you’re much more comfortable losing one of them, specifically Pilar. Dasybel is going to get every chance to make the team because they’re high on him overall, but his problem is he has minor-league options when a lot of other guys don’t. Often times, once we get down to the end of spring, that matters more than anything else.
And then that last spot is a complete wild card and could go to any number of 20 different guys. Guys like Farmer and Diekman and Shreve have plenty of major league experience so maybe that gives them a leg up.
There were reports the Braves were in on Jeff Hoffman and Tanner Scott at varying points in the offseason, and obviously had either gotten to the finish line, this would be a different blog all together. But neither did, and so this is the current collection of arms. David Robertson is the last name on the free agent market that could reasonably be expected to be a dedicated high-leverage reliever for a World Series contender, and if that’s the name they add, again, this conversation is very different.
The point is, the Braves solution to their bullpen problem this winter has, at least so far, been driven by more quantity than quality, filling the gaps with a number of low cost, high variance options hoping to find value in volatility. It could absolutely work. It could also absolutely not. We’ll all find out together.