Braves hope waiting game pays off again

This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

In 43 appearances for the Braves in 2017, Luke Jackson produced a 4.62 ERA with a 14.7 percent strikeout rate and a 8.4 percent walk rate. There wouldn’t have been an abundance of complaints had the Braves non-tendered him.

But heeding Bobby Cox’s advice, Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos tendered Jackson a contract. Anthopoulos also worked to keep the reliever after designating him for assignment twice during the 2018 season.

These decisions proved valuable when Jackson spent a portion of 2019 as Atlanta’s closer and then excelled again while helping the Braves win the 2021 World Series.

Anthopoulos could have non-tendered Adam Duvall after he flopped following a 2018 Trade Deadline deal. But he kept the outfielder and reaped the benefits during both the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He then brought the outfielder back to help win it all in 2021.

Now, we are waiting to see if Anthopoulos will benefit from keeping both Yonny Chirinos and Michael Soroka around.

Allan Winans will return from Triple-A Gwinnett to start Monday night’s game against the Mets, but Chirinos, who was placed on the injured list Monday with a sore elbow, is expected to remain with the organization.

Because he has five years of service time, Chirinos can reject being sent to the Minors. That’s how he ended up with the Braves. The Rays spent three years helping him rehab and recover from Tommy John surgery, before having to bid adieu because of a roster crunch earlier this summer.

The Braves are hoping a healthy offseason will help Chirinos get back to where he was in 2019, when he posted a 3.54 ERA in 18 starts for the Rays. Nobody is predicting he’ll suddenly transform into a Cy Young Award candidate. But he could be a decent back-of-the-rotation starter or a multi-inning reliever.

Chirinos has a 9.27 ERA through five starts with the Braves. His 5.27 FIP in these games suggests he pitched better than the lines might suggest. But he has completed five innings in just two of those five starts.

The Braves don’t need a top-flight pitcher to be their fifth starter. But they do need somebody who isn’t going to tax their bullpen every five days.

They might have that guy in Winans, who has pitched effectively all year for Triple-A Gwinnett. He has impressed in his only two career big league starts thus far. He’ll be facing a familiar opponent in his start Monday night in the Mets, the team he tossed seven scoreless innings against on Aug. 12.

As for Soroka, the Braves are still managing his workload as he journeys through his first full season since 2019. By taking a cautious approach, they are protecting not only Soroka, but the investment made as he spent the past couple years rehabbing and recovering from two right Achilles tears.