Jesse Chavez was 41 years old when he took the mound for the 2024 Atlanta Braves. This statement needs to be heard. 41. Since baseball became a professional sport, there have been:
- 7 players to play into their 50’s
- 34 retired players that played into their 40’s
- 7 active players that have played into their 40s (David Robertson will make the 8th very soon).
Of the 20,000+ MLB players to ever play the game, only 48 have played into their 40’s, and 2 of them were on our team last year. That’s pretty extraordinary.
For unknown reasons, Jesse Chavez just plays better when in a Braves uniform. And while 2024 wasn’t his best in Atlanta, it wasn’t nearly as bad as what my memory recalled. His ERA was 3.13 on the season (although his peripherals were much higher). However, the biggest shock to me was his inherited runners scored. In 2024, Jesse inherited 20 men on base and only 4 scored.
Yes, his xERA was 4.25, FIP was 4.43, and xFIP was 3.88 and his worth was -0.2 fWAR, but I don’t see Jesse as someone that took away from the team in 2024. He’s a middle relief pitcher that kept the other team from scoring 80% of the time and that was his job.
If 2024 was Jesse’s last year as a Brave, it’s been a good ride and I hope to see him on the Braves coaching staff in some capacity.
It sounds like Jesse wants to come back. If Atlanta doesn’t want him (which I don’t think they will), given his track record, I would give him about a 5% chance of a successful season with someone else. He may have a 15 to 20% chance of success with Atlanta.
So you’re telling me I still have a chance to play in the show
Ryan – I see 490 players who played into their 40s, and 9 who played into their 50s:
https://stathead.com/tiny/5Ui4p
Here’s the Jesse Chavez writeup I did a few weeks ago, in which I looked a bit more about what he’s been like with us, and what he’s been like with everyone else:
Jesse’s in my inner circle hall of like.
MLBTR says we are interested in signing Ryne Stanek.
Stanek hasn’t been good in a while, so he’d be the exact kinda guy for AA to grab at the end of the offseason. And how much more will the Cubs, the other team interested, have to offer for him to not want to play for a WS contender? We would probably get him for a fraction of what the Dodgers paid for Yates, and is Yates a significantly higher bet to keep his success going? I say no.
I’d rather have Holmes in long relief than Chavez, but obviously we all love Chavez and it would have to depend on how things play out in ST. Chavez is such a nice luxury because he pretty much has “options” still in the sense that he’s pretty much always available to you whenever you want him, regardless of what team he plays for. Lol. You just put out his Bat Signal (a giant sombrero; not racist), and he just appears.
His xERA was about a run and a half better than his ERA and he still throws hard. It would be a buy low for sure.
The Cubs are finalizing a deal with Houston for Ryan Pressly and that apparently closes their offseason per ESPN so this opens us up for Stanek I suppose.
I still want Flaherty on one of those one year deals. Along with Stanek, that may end the Braves’ offseason, too.
Fangraphs, even now, has the Braves as the second best team in baseball. Signing Flaherty and Stanek would improve that. If Holmes is moved to the bullpen then Dodd can be pushed down and Pilar and Anderson get until Strider comes back to prove themselves. Whoever is worse goes out when Strider comes back. I also like the idea of a six-man rotation with Anderson.
If Arcia is really the worst position player in the league, would Allen or Cairo or Alvarez or even Williams be any worse?
Flaherty is choice. I always like to bet on 29 year-old pitchers who miss bats. I like him to be better in his 30s because he is not as dependent on velocity as most. A one-year deal is fine, but if you could get him for 3 years, I like your odds at a positive ROI.
If you gave me Profar, Stanek, and Flaherty, I’d be plenty happy. And if they sign Flaherty, then that tells me I don’t have to compulsively follow the Ian/Holmes storyline and/or we’re going with a 6-man rotation and Holmes/Ian are fighting for one spot. Either way, I’ll take it.
A broad fandom observation: I think I got a little bored with the Braves the last couple years, especially after winning the World Series. We went into every season with the roster mostly set, expectations were high, and you knew that the season would just come down to a few weeks in October. But I sense a bit of an underdog situation with the whole league, and especially Atlanta after we only won 89 games. So I think I enjoy the underdog situation the Braves are in. We didn’t win the division, we have major question marks on both sides of the ball, and I find that to be more enjoyable as a fan.
Does anyone else feel this way? Normally I don’t recommend thinking like me but this one seems like safe fan psychology.