The Braves have made a couple of impact signings over the course of the past 24 hours, as they now have both OF Mike Yastrzemski and RP Robert Suarez in their employ for at least the next two seasons — Yaz signed a two-year deal and Suarez signed a three-year pact as well. Considering that Suarez is coming off of a career year where he produced nearly two fWAR while tossing 69.2 innings and Yaz has been floating around the 2.0 fWAR mark for most of his career, these are two additions that should definitely help make the Braves better going forward.
The main questions that I have is how these two will fit in the squad going forward. For one player, it’s pretty straightforward. Robert Suarez is coming here to be the primary set-up man for Raisel Iglesias while also being another option to close games should Iglesias be unavailable or if new manager Walt Weiss simply wants to use a different option going forward. We know this because the Braves said as much. After Jeff Passan initially reported the news of the signing, he added on that the Braves intended to use Suarez as a set-up man.
Despite the fact that Suarez was a very effective closer for the Padres, Suarez appears to be excited to help the Braves in any way he can. In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Suarez made it clear that he’s excited to link up with Iglesias and has already talked with both Alex Anthopoulos and Walt Weiss and also players like Iglesias, Jurickson Profar (former Padres player) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (fellow Venezuelan). “Knowing that Iglesias [is] there, I’m willing to whatever needs to be done to contribute in whatever way […] I’m happy to do whatever the team needs,” said Iglesias when he was asked about that conversation he had with AA and WW.
“We’ve really fortified the back end and I’m looking forward to talking more in-depth with Iglesias,” stated Suarez when he was asked about the relationship he has with him. He’s looking forward to cultivating that relationship going forward and while you don’t really expect or need everybody to be buddy-buddy or anything like that, you would like to see these two pulling in the same direction since they figure to be two very important pieces of Atlanta’s bullpen and the ballclub as a whole. Assuming both Iglesias and Suarez can keep up their form, that’ll be an extremely solid pairing to have at the back-end of the ‘pen and it’ll certainly give the Braves a leg up in ‘shortening’ games if the Braves are up — so that once those two get involved, they can lock things down as far as any particular game is concerned.
Meanwhile, the questions and situation surrounding Mike Yastrzemski’s anticipated role with the Braves were a bit more fluid. Ivan talked a lot about it early on Thursday morning and it’s definitely worth checking out his thoughts on the situation. Anyways, Atlanta wasn’t in dire need of another outfielder since they’ve currently got three fine ones in Acuña, Profar and Michael Harris II but at the same time, Alex Anthopoulos did mention in previous remarks that he’d be open to signing any player who he felt like would be a good fit for the ballclub, regardless of position.
In that vein, Yaz could potentially be part of the solution to a role that’s currently wide open in Atlanta at the moment: The Designated Hitter role. I’m not saying that Yaz is going to be the full-time DH or anything like that. While Yaz is a perfectly fine and consistent hitter (with a 2025 slash line of .233/.333/.403 with a .321 wOBA and 106 wRC+, which is in line with what he’s produced over the past three seasons), he’s probably not coming here to be the primary DH and he knows it. Yaz also spoke with the local media following his signing and he made it clear that he’s happy to be deployed in anyway the manager sees fit.
“To be honest with you, they tried to explain everything and try to say how they’d like to use me,” explained Yaz when he was asked about his potential role with the Braves. “Being as politely as I could, I tried to cut them off and tell them ‘I don’t care. I just want to be part of an organization that wins.” I’d say that this sounds like a guy who’s willing to play anywhere in the outfield and maybe even as a DH at some point as well.
Yaz didn’t sound super enthused about being a primary DH, which he admitted when he said that he “never liked [DHing] for the longest time” back when he was with the Royals. “I felt like I was playing half the game. I pride myself on my defense and it just felt weird at first.” Still, Yaz showed that he was willing to adjust in order to contribute in that role and eventually figured out how to play that role effectively.
“I learned how to stay active, how many swings I needed to take in the cages to stay loose, what I needed to do to keep my mentality,” explained Yaz. “I think one of the big things to is keeping your heart rate steady so if you’re relaxing for too long and just sitting there and all of a sudden you have to go take a big at-bat then you’re having a huge variable in your heart rate. Trying to figure out ways to […] feel like I’m still playing the whole game.”
So while it certainly sounds like Yaz isn’t going to be a primary DH or wants that to be his role, it still feels like he’s perfect to be part of that “DH by committee” role where he could spell anybody who needs to take a day off from being out in the field and vice versa. It’s a move that helps make the Braves more versatile in my view — similar to how the Mauricio Dubón signing impacts the infield (hopefully if the Braves can pick up a shortstop as well) with his versatility. The Braves wanted to add depth and versatility and it appears that they’ve accomplished it so far when it comes to the signings that they’ve made so far in the offseason.
The Braves have bolstered their bullpen with the addition of Robert Suarez in a part of the ‘pen that makes you excited about how the high-leverage innings are going to look for this squad and they’ve also given themseles a wealth of strong options to put out there on a daily basis with the additions of Mauricio Dubón and Mike Yastrzemski. It’ll be very intriguing to see how all three of these players are deployed but it seems like a safe bet that no matter how they’re deployed, they’ll be effective and productive. Let’s see how this works.
