Braves Claim Yonny Chirinos – MLB Trade Rumors

The Braves have claimed right-hander Yonny Chirinos off waivers from the Rays.  Chirinos was designated for assignment by Tampa Bay earlier this week.

After Tommy John surgery limited Chirinos to 18 1/3 total innings from 2020-22, he has seemed fully healthy in pitching 62 2/3 frames this year working in a variety of different capacities for the Rays.  Chirinos has started four games, worked as a bulk pitcher (behind an opener) on multiple occasions, and also had a couple of traditional relief outings as a long man and mop-up man.  He has a 4.02 ERA to show for his efforts, though his 5.34 SIERA is perhaps more reflective of Chirinos’ overall performance.  The righty has benefited from a .244 BABIP and he isn’t missing many bats, with only an 11.8% strikeout rate.

These unfavorable secondary metrics could be why the Rays chose to DFA Chirinos, though for a team with as many pitching injuries as Tampa Bay, it still counted as something of an eyebrow-raising move.  As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald noted last Monday when Chirinos was put on waivers, service time could have been a factor, as Chirinos has surpassed five years of MLB service time and now cannot be optioned to the minors without his permission.  This might have been a breaking point for a Rays team that often shuffles pitchers back and forth from Triple-A Durham — in fact, Chirinos himself was twice optioned earlier this season before he hit the five-year threshold.

Chirinos’ ability to work in several different roles would’ve made him a good fit on many clubs, but Atlanta is a particularly fitting landing spot given the Braves’ own pitching depth issues.  The Braves could see Chirinos as something of a replacement for Kolby Allard, who sent on the 60-day IL earlier this week due to nerve inflammation in his left shoulder.

Allard is one of a whopping eight pitchers on Atlanta’s 60-day IL, including such prominent arms as Max Fried, Kyle Wright, Jesse Chavez, and Nick Anderson.  Manager Brian Snitker said today that Fried might be one more rehab start away from returning to the active roster, but with so many other pitchers still out, Chirinos give the Braves flexibility.  Atlanta could ease Fried or Wright back into action by teaming them with Chirinos in a piggyback capacity, or Chirinos be paired with Michael Soroka to manage innings, or Chirinos could potentially replace the struggling Bryce Elder.

Overall, Chirinos is a pretty nice pickup for the Braves to make even before they delve into further moves prior to the trade deadline.  There isn’t much financial cost (roughly $515K in remaining salary), and Chirinos is still controlled through the 2024 season via arbitration.