The Atlanta Braves have been busy trying to figure out their bullpen situation for next season and maybe beyond as well. Earlier today, they made a minor deal where they acquired Ryan Rolison from the Rockies
in exchange for cash considerations. This next deal is a bit bigger, to say the least. Raisel Iglesias will be coming back to the Braves after the team announced that they’d come to an agreement on a new deal.
There was a bit of consternation back at the 2025 trade deadline when it became clear that Raisel Iglesias would be staying with the Braves to end the season. As it turned out, 2025 won’t be the swan song for Iglesias as a member of the Braves as he’ll be coming back on a one-year deal worth $16 million. It’s the same amount of money that he made in the final season of that four-year, $58 million deal that he originally signed with the Angels back in 2022, so they essentially just added another year on top of that four-year deal.
Raisel Iglesias had a bumpy start to the 2025 season but ended it looking more like his usual self. Iglesias finished the year with a 3.21 ERA (76 ERA-) and a 3.31 FIP (82 FIP-), which was good for 1.0 fWAR across 67.1 innings over the course of the season. That production was in line with what he’d done over the past three-or-so seasons that he’d spent with the Braves and it’s clear from the price tag that the Braves are expecting him to do something similar in 2026 as well. For whatever it’s worth, MLB Trade Rumors had him tabbed as the No. 32 free agent available on the market this offseason and they also projected that Iglesias would end up with a two-year deal at an AAV of $13 million, so there’s that.
Braves President/GM Alex Anthopoulos said that they were going to address the bullpen situation during the offseason and making a move to retain the services of Raisel Iglesias certainly qualifies as “addressing the bullpen situation.” There’s still far more work to be done before this team could be considered a finished product that’s ready to compete for Postseason contention again but for now, it’s a strong start to what should hopefully be a very productive offseason for the Braves.
