Yesterday, two pretty-good-if-unfortunate-in-2025 relievers signed for modest sums: Mark Leiter Jr. took less than $3 million to pitch in Sacramento, and Hoby Milner took $4 million to rejoin Craig Counsell
and play for his sixth big league team. Oh, and the Braves also gave Robert Suarez more than double those two salaries combined for three years.
I won’t dwell on the disparity here, because it’s Friday. But I will ask: do the Braves have another reliever signing in them? Right now, there’s a front four of Raisel Iglesias, Suarez, Dylan Lee, and Aaron Bummer — at least in theory. Maybe Joe Jimenez comes back and is effective, who knows at this point. Joel Payamps will probably get a crack at a relief engagement and some rope to use as he sees fit. Beyond that, there are a bunch of options, out-of-options starter-types (Bryce Elder, Joey Wentz), and guys that may just end up in relief for various health reasons (Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes). As a result, this seems sort of stuffed, but… once you’re spending over $40 million on your bullpen, are you also gonna be in for another metaphorical penny or pound?
Various names still available in the relief tier include Hunter Harvey, Pete Fairbanks, Seranthony Dominguez, Justin Wilson, Chris Martin, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar, and Sean Newcomb. That’s just scratching the surface. There are a lot of relievers out there, and given that Leiter and Milner didn’t exactly break the bank, a lot of these guys might do even less in that regard.
Anyway, what do you think? Will the Braves commit, say, more than $2.5 million to another reliever this offseason?
