Atlanta Braves acquire C Jason Delay from Pirates; move Reynaldo López to 60-day IL

The Atlanta Braves are continuing to stay busy with transactions as they continue to try to figure out a way out of this fine hole that they dug themselves into. This move definitely won’t be the one that lifts them out of this funk but that’s not stopping them from spurring themselves into action.

Today’s move for the Braves is that they’ve picked up C Jason Delay from the Pirates in exchange for cash considerations.

Delay is coming off of a 2024 season where he only had 19 plate appearances — a precipitous drop off from when he played 70 games and racked up 187 plate appearances for the Pirates on his way to hitting .251/.319/.346 with a .296 wOBA and 81 wRC+. Still, he finished with an fWAR of 1.1 in 2023, which was largely due to the fact that he was an excellent pitch framer and did his fair share of stealing strikes while he was behind the plate for the Buccos.

Despite the big league experience, Jason Delay will be heading to Double-A to play for the Columbus Clingstones. He’ll be on the 40-man, as the Braves have officially moved Reynaldo López to the 60-day IL. López is set to have surgery on his inflamed left shoulder and will be missing at least two months — additionally, Mark Bowman of MLB.com suggested that we probably won’t be seeing López again until after the All-Star break. Yep.

Additionally, Jesse Chavez has been outrighted and ol’ Uncle Jesse declared free agency, so that ends his latest stint with the Braves. Grand opening, grand closing, I guess. So for now, the Braves have a new catcher to serve as organizational depth, they moved one of their top pitchers to the 60-day IL and Chavez is now a free agent once again. There’s nothing earth-shattering here but the roster picture gets a bit clearer with these moves.