What’s a day without the Braves shuffling their bullpen around for little actual purpose?
Alright, let’s go through these guys in order. First, the additions.
Alexis Diaz is a 28-year-old veteran of four major league campaigns. He was really good in his first two seasons, but a lot of that goodness came from a low HR/FB, as his walk rate was always egregiously high. In 2024, his strikeout rate collapsed from above 30 percent to a blah 23 percent-ish, and his HR/FB ticked up, making him a relatively uninteresting soft underbelly relief type. After six of the worst innings you’ll see from any reliever this year, the Reds traded him to the Dodgers (for not much of anything, a raw relief prospect to the extent that’s a thing that even exists). While Diaz was better with the Dodgers, he was still not really playable, and after some up-and-down, he was jettisoned off their roster and claimed by the Braves.
Diaz will, when he inevitably pitches for the Braves to eat an inning or two, come to an unthinkably awful 179/204/150 line in 15 major league innings this year (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-). He is arbitration-eligible next year and has some minor league option years remaining, but it seems hard to believe that he’d be tendered a contract irrespective of what he does for the next three weeks in Atlanta, given that he was paid $4.5 million to start this season with -0.6 fWAR in just those 15 innings of work. (As a side note, Diaz’ pitch shapes are horrible and his location profile and command only really made sense in justifying a successful 2022, even though he was also really good in 2023. 2024 at least seemed okay, and while he’s made some improvements in pitch shape in 2025, his command, especially of his fastball, has been horrible so far this year.)
Connor Seabold also returns to the bullpen; he got knocked around in 1 1/3 innings for the Braves earlier this year. He has -0.5 career fWAR in 116 2/3 career innings, including a 2023 where he served as a(n awful) swingman for the Rockies.
To make room for these two additions, the Braves are sending down Rolddy Munoz and DFAing John Brebbia. Munoz was at least interesting to watch, though he didn’t exactly get promoted due to success at Triple-A. He ended up pitching 3 2/3 innings across three appearances, and none were anything close to good. He threw two innings in his debut with a 1/2 K/BB ratio, then completed a third of an inning four days later, again with a 1/2 K/BB ratio. He finally had more walks than strikeouts in an outing yesterday afternoon (3/1 K/BB ratio), but gave up a homer and was generally just knocked around into oblivion. His current line sits at 287/235/166, so he, like the Braves, isn’t having the big league 2025 anyone wanted.
Lastly, John Brebbia eats another designation for assignment; the 35-year-old journeyman has now been DFAed three times in his career (and released from a minor league organization another time). Brebbia has a few nice seasons under his belt, but has been on MLB’s fringes for a couple of seasons now. He was released by the White Sox last year and threw a few frames for the Braves in September; this year he was used sparingly by the Tigers before a release, and once again resurfaced in Atlanta. His career still has him with a meh 99/92/104 line, but he’s at 186/138/128 this year, including 181/181/92 during his 4 2/3 frames with the Braves.
