Subscribe
Follow Us
The Atlanta Braves are calling up veteran right-handed relief pitcher Jesse Chavez, ESPN's Jeff Passan reported.
The Braves have a full 40-man roster, so the team will designate Hector Neris for assignment as a corresponding move, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
It's been a rough start for the Braves, to say the least. At 0-4 entering play on Monday, Atlanta is the only four-loss team in the Majors so far. The Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers (all 0-3) are the other teams searching for their first win.
Only four games into the season, it's hardly time to panic for the Braves, even if they did go scoreless over the final 22 innings of their opening series against the San Diego Padres. But it'd also be foolish to not address an area of need. Atlanta has the seventh-worst bullpen ERA in the league (6.75). Neris, for his part, has made two appearances this year, giving up five earned runs in one total inning pitched. That included an Opening Day disaster in which he failed to record an out, giving up three runs, three hits and a home run.
Chavez, now 41 years old, last pitched for the big league club in the 2024 postseason, throwing two clean innings against the Padres in the Wild Card series. During the regular season, he made 46 appearances, pitching to a 3.13 ERA and 1.247 WHIP in 63.1 innings.
Fan favorite Jesse Chavez keeps ending up with the Braves
The Braves have three games left on their season-opening west coast road swing, which now takes them to Los Angeles to face the defending World Series champion Dodgers. When they finally make their home debut on Friday against the Miami Marlins, fans will be able to cheer for a fan favorite during the pregame introductions.
Chavez is entering his 18th season in the Majors and his fifth consecutive with the Braves. Over those five seasons, the Braves have traded him only to select him off waivers a month later, the Chicago Cubs have also traded him to Atlanta, and he's signed with other teams in free agency only to end up back in the Braves' organization on several occasions.
This isn't Chavez's first stretch with Atlanta, either. He appeared in 28 games for the Braves in 2010 before he began bouncing around the American League. That brief stretch with Atlanta, however, means that every Braves team since 1963 will have had at least one player on the roster to be managed by Bobby Cox. Cox led the Braves from 1978 to 1981 and again from 1990 to 2010.
