The Brave re-signed the right-wing Jesse Chavez and Zach Thompson to sign new minor league contracts according to MLB.com's trading log. Recently, both players have been designated as missions and have passed unclaimed complete exemptions. Both of them were elected free agents and were both in the market for a short time.
It seems that especially regarding Chavez, this cycle will work permanently. He can't simply choose a minor, but he's obviously content to keep running, which is actually the 41st in Atlanta's 40-man lineup. When a new arm is needed, the team may continue to call Chavez to the Grand Slam and then pass him through the DFA/waiver process and re-sign.
The 41-year-old Chavez is now in Atlanta for each of the past five seasons. He signed minor league deals with several other clubs, but always found his way back to Truist Park. Chavez made three major league innings this year, struck out three on four hits and three shots. He has performed well in the 8 1/3 Triple-A innings (1 run, 5 hits, one step, 13 strikeouts), and over the past five years he has had 2.96 ERAs in 204 MLB innings, almost all of which are related to Atlanta.
Thompson, 31, played 32/3 of the division-free season with Atlanta, but performed well in 4 1/3 minor league innings. The right-handed performed well as a rookie with the Marlins in 2021, but struggled after making a trade with the Pirates in the 2021-22 offseason. He has a total of 200 1/3 innings at the MLB level, with an ERA of 4.36, strikeout rate of 18.3% and a walking rate of 8.6%. Thompson was located in the 90s with his heater and wouldn't miss a lot of bats, but he was a great place to hide in Gwinnett, especially Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Strider's list of injuries at the time.
