Jeez, how did I get the relief pitching assignment? You know about me and relievers, right?<\/p>\n
The thing with this series is that we\u2019ve theoretically gone through \u201cwho the Braves have at their disposal this year\u201d and \u201chow those guys are gonna do.\u201d For relievers, though? That\u2019s the place where the mid-March answers to those questions are way less reliable than for any other position.<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s do something at least a bit different. Not too different, just a bit. First, a top-down view.<\/p>\n
The Braves\u2019 bullpen has not exactly been an organizational strength since the Alex Anthopoulos regime took over. They rank 12th in MLB in fWAR in that span, though at least they\u2019re eighth in WPA. Part of the reason they are ranked where they are is because, under Brian Snitker, the team honestly didn\u2019t really care about using relievers all that much: from 2018-2025, the Braves ranked 24th in bullpen innings, and 25th in bullpen batters faced.<\/p>\n
Recent history has been a mixed bag. The bullpen was fantastic in 2024: third in fWAR despite the third-fewest innings (somehow\u2026). But, in 2025, it was very bleh: there were five teams who had under 1.0 fWAR from their relief corps, and the Braves had the lowest fWAR among teams that weren\u2019t one of those sad sacks. As for the future, well, the Braves are currently projected to have baseball\u2019s tenth-best bullpen in 2026, but bullpen projections are\u2026 not exactly something you want to take to the bank. Even so, when we talk about the vague amoeba-esque shape that we think the bullpen will take for 2026, it kind of looks like this:<\/p>\n
The Braves have dumped over $30 million in salary into Raisel Iglesias and Robert Suarez. Iglesias will return for his fifth-ish (he was acquired midseason in 2022) season with the team after re-upping on a one-year, $16 million agreement, while Suarez signed a three-year, $45 million deal in the offseason.<\/p>\n
Both Iglesias and Suarez are up there in age, as they\u2019ll be in their age-36 and age-35 seasons, respectively. That hasn\u2019t really slowed them down yet, as Iglesias hasn\u2019t had a season below 1.0 fWAR since 2018 (including 2020!), while Suarez put up 0.9 fWAR in 2024 and a thrilling 1.9 fWAR last season after an injury-shortened down year in 2023. That said, Iglesias is clearly declining \u2014 his xFIP-s have gone 54, 76, 76, 83, 92 from 2021 through 2025, and his early-season struggles last year basically kneecapped the Braves\u2019 season before it really got going. Suarez was incredible last year, but he had xFIP-s in the 90s the two years before.<\/p>\n
Both guys are projected to be good, but not elite, probably because of the age thing and the performance nits picked above. Iglesias is in that 0.5 – 1.0 WAR range, with the variance as much about assumptions about leverage as anything else. Suarez is\u2026 pretty much in the same boat.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, having two relief guys that are similarly quite good diversifies the risk and provides a handcuff if Iglesias \u201cdecides\u201d to get murdered by HR\/FB or whatever for a long stretch again. On the other hand, the Braves have committed $31 million in salary obligations for 2026 to this. Maybe it\u2019ll be great. Maybe it\u2019ll just be fine.<\/p>\n
The next three guys in the presumed-but-maybe-not-actual bullpen pecking order are like, \u201cnames that will almost certainly be around pitching meaningful frames barring a trade or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Lee has also been around since 2021 (well, mostly since 2022) and has a career 67 ERA-, 86 FIP-, and 79 xFIP-. He\u2019s also straight-up eviscerated left-handed batters (33 percent strikeout rate, 3 percent walk rate, a 2.53 xFIP). Lee was really good in 2022 and 2024, but had homer problems in 2023 and 2025. Those homer problems curiously didn\u2019t really ding his ERA, or even his WPA, but given the Braves\u2019 issues with HR\/FB last year, it\u2019s just one of those things that sometimes makes you wake up in a cold sweat. (Or maybe that\u2019s just me.)<\/p>\n
Aaron Bummer was, and might continue to be, kind of the weirdest part of this roster. He was great in 2024 (1.1 fWAR) but the Braves didn\u2019t really care in terms of using him accordingly. 2025 was worse in basically every respect, but still fine-ish. The Braves also made him start games for some reason, and he missed the last five weeks of the season with shoulder inflammation. This isn\u2019t the place to re-litigate whatever is going on between Bummer, the coaching staff, and the organization, but suffice to say, Bummer probably can be in the mix to effectively pitch meaningful innings to the extent any reliever in this section or the ones below can, though whether he ultimately is remains a question mark due to his prior bizarre usage. There\u2019s been a fair bit of noise that the Braves might trade Bummer to free up some cash, but there\u2019s been no indication the organization is interested in that \u2014 and if they are, it\u2019s not clear what they might do to bulk up the depth chart in his theoretical absence (if such a thing is even needed).<\/p>\n
And then we have Tyler Kinley, who kind of differs from Bummer and Lee in that his peripherals don\u2019t actually suggest he\u2019s going to be all that productive. The Braves acquired Kinley partway through the year in 2025, and then declined his club option even though he posted a 17\/68\/106 line (ERA-\/FIP-\/xFIP-) for them down the stretch. They later re-signed him for a lower dollar total ($4.25 million). In the end, Kinley is a bit of an enigma, even if he\u2019ll probably be used as a right-handed set-up-ish option to complement the lefty-hurling Lee and Bummer. His peripherals, as noted, have been poor \u2014 even after he departed the dysfunctional Rockies\u2019 organization. You could argue that as a fly ball pitcher, xFIP undersells Kinley, and you kind of have to in order to feel good about his prospective role in this bullpen.<\/p>\n
In any case, projections generally have all three of these guys around the 0.5 WAR mark, with an ultimately meaningless but nonetheless noticeable rank order of Lee > Bummer > Kinley in expected effectiveness.<\/p>\n
Bullpens have way more than five pitchers, right?<\/p>\n
So, who else is going to be in the bullpen? Uhhhhh\u2026 probably a whole lot of guys over the course of the season.<\/p>\n
Joel Payamps seems like a decent bet, because the Braves gave him $2.25 million for 2026 after picking him up late last season. He was awful in 2025, but good in 2024 and great in 2023.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine, because there aren\u2019t really any clear slam-dunk options, but just a bunch of guys to either cycle through or give a trial run and dump shortly thereafter unless they thrive.<\/p>\n
Some guys in the organization are out of options or added on non-guaranteed deals. Jose Suarez has big swingman energy, was an okay starter a few years ago, and has sometimes looked flat-out dominant while causing Bad Josh Tomlin (not to be confused with Relief God Josh Tomlin) flashbacks otherwise. Ian Hamilton was great in 2023, good in 2024, and replacement level in 2025 \u2014 but hasn\u2019t really gotten much run in camp so far.<\/p>\n
Your ride-the-Gwinnett shuttle types include Dylan Dodd (who was fine as a reliever last year) and Hayden Harris (who\u2019s had great minor league numbers but didn\u2019t impress in a tiny sample in the majors last year, and seems to be less favored by the organization than his video game minor league numbers would suggest). Other guys that you might see here and there include:<\/p>\n
Daysbel Hernandez (coming off a shoulder injury and a woeful 2025 after a very exciting short MLB stint in 2024);James Karinchak (impressive in camp but hasn\u2019t been useful in the majors since 2022);Hunter Stratton (basically depth, but had a nice 2024);Rolddy Munoz (at least in theory, but nothing he\u2019s done in the minors suggests there\u2019s any reason to give him a bullpen spot);Jhancarlos Lara (like Munoz, hasn\u2019t done anything in the high minors but maybe he figures it out one day this year); andTayler Scott (run-of-the-mill replacement-level reliever).<\/p>\n
Guys not starting could be relieving. Or perhaps guys not doing so great at starting could be pushed into relieving by promotions of other arms in their place. Unfortunately for the Braves, they kind of have a \u201cnot sure we have enough guys to start effectively\u201d issue potentially looming given their pitchers\u2019 tendencies to keel over at the inkling of a stiff breeze on the other side of the continent, so this is a weird category. Could Grant Holmes, Reynaldo Lopez, and\/or Bryce Elder do relief stuff? Yeah, sure, probably \u2014 if they\u2019re not starting for some reason. This also probably isn\u2019t the year that Spencer Strider, High Leverage Reliever comes to pass, but you know people will still talk about it.<\/p>\n
The Braves could also give essentially battlefield promotions to a bunch of prospects and pseudo-prospects \u2014 Blake Burkhalter, Cade Kuehler, Connor Thomas as pure-play relievers, or Carter Holton, Lucas Braun, Drue Hackenberg, and Brett Sears as \u201csorry buddy, you\u2019re not gonna be starting anymore, but brief major league paycheck?\u201d options. Maybe this is the year that actual meaningful prospects JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes somehow establish themselves as elite bulk options as the Braves revolutionize how they use their pitching staff but\u2026 nah.<\/p>\n
Jesse Chavez probably isn\u2019t coming out of retirement, either, but you never know. (He\u2019s coaching for the Giants anyway at this point.)<\/p>\n
This is an expensive bullpen, and it\u2019s not all that top heavy, nor overwhelmingly heavy at the top. While it\u2019s true that most teams don\u2019t have a duo like Iglesias and Suarez at the back end, all the teams with even better projected bullpens than the Braves do, generally with an even better duo (or trio). The Braves are five-ish deep in better-than-average-we-hope relievers, which is actually where their real bullpen \u201cstrength\u201d is. But, because we\u2019re talking about relievers, I wouldn\u2019t really count on it. Things are gonna get weird, because that\u2019s what relief pitching is apparently all about. Even though I hate it, and wish it were more normal. Oh well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeez, how did I get the relief pitching assignment? You know about me and relievers, right? The thing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,73272,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-621842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlanta-braves-analysis","11":"tag-atlantabraves","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-braves","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116222365809421771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}