After using pretty much all their pitchers except hitting hero Victor Mederos on Saturday afternoon, the Braves are making a move to get another mop-up arm to the roster.
The 31-year-old Elieser Hernandez is a veteran of six major league seasons, but has amassed -0.8 fWAR in his 303 1/3 career innings. He spent some time in 2024 and 2025 in the
KBO, and has been eating innings at an underwhelming performance level for Triple-A Gwinnett for much of this year. His FIP and xFIP are both over 5.00 for the Stripers, so this is purely a, “We don’t care about the results, just eat needed innings” move.
Owen Murphy struggled in his career start yesterday, managing just a 2/2 K/BB ratio and giving up a homer while getting eight outs. Through three outings and 6 2/3 innings, he has a 95 ERA-, 111 FIP-, and 117 xFIP-, which feels oddly familiar for pretty much any pitching help the Braves have attempted to summon from the minors recently. He’ll probably get another shot against major league hitters soon, for the time being, he’s being shuttled off the roster to keep the bullpen fresh in another worst-case scenario.
The Braves play the Rangers in a rubber game a 1:35 pm ET later today, and hopefully they find a way to win. (And not use Elieser Hernandez. Or at least win while using Hernandez.)
