Braves Designate Elieser Hernández For Assignment

The Braves have once again designated right-hander Elieser Hernández for assignment, per a club announcement. It’s the third time he’s been designated for assignment in the past seven weeks.

This time, Hernández’s roster spot will go to southpaw Bailey Falter, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Gwinnett. Atlanta also formally placed righty Bryce Elder on the 15-day IL following last night’s announcement that he required arthroscopic knee surgery that could sideline him up to four weeks. In his place, they’ve activated veteran right-hander Reynaldo López from the injured list.

Hernández, 31, has stepped into the role held by Carlos Carrasco earlier this season — a veteran pitcher who can’t be optioned but is amenable to riding the DFA shuttle between Atlanta and Gwinnett whenever the Braves need a fresh arm. He’s now had three big league stints with Atlanta and pitched in four games — a total of 11 innings. He’s limited opponents to just three runs, allowing 10 hits and six walks with 11 punchouts en route to a 2.45 ERA. Hernández also has a 4.54 ERA in 81 1/3 innings in Gwinnett, where he’s split his time between the Stripers’ rotation and bullpen.

Atlanta is clearly fond of this type of arrangement. They designated Carrasco for assignment seven times in under a calendar year, each time re-signing him to a new minor league deal after he cleared waivers and elected free agency. Hernández could be headed for a similar path. He’ll surely be outrighted off the 40-man roster if he’s on there at season’s end, but Carrasco signed a minor league pact last offseason after getting a taste of life as Atlanta’s unofficial “41st man” on the 40-man roster. The Braves have previously used a similar setup with now-retired swingman Jesse Chavez.

It’s not the most straightforward path to major league pay and service time, but teams who utilize this tactic are typically very up-front with the player and set expectations ahead of time. It can lead to a dizzying amount of roster churn, but it’s a means of regularly having a stretched-out arm to provide length in the bullpen whenever a need arises.

For a Braves club that has been hammered by rotation injuries in recent seasons, that’s a nice perk to have. For Hernández (and Carrasco and Chavez before him), it’s a way to pick up a handful of big league service days at a time when most other clubs would probably stash him in Triple-A for longer stretches. By rejecting outright assignments in favor of new minor league deals, pitchers in this setup can gradually negotiate better and better terms — including salary but also some other, much more niche benefits (as I detailed at length earlier this summer in a Mailbag piece for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers).

Falter, also 29, came to the Braves alongside Lane Thomas in a deadline swap with the Royals. Kansas City included Falter as a means of shedding some of the $3.6MM salary he’s earning this season. The left-hander pitched only 9 2/3 innings with the Royals and was rocked for 15 runs on 24 hits and six walks with six strikeouts.

Prior to that brutal showing, Falter had posted fifth starter results between Pittsburgh and Kansas City for a couple seasons. From 2024-25, the soft-tossing lefty logged a 4.44 ERA with a 16.1% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate, averaging an even five innings per start along the way. He’s fired 10 2/3 shutout innings in Gwinnett since the trade and done so while notching a sharp 11-to-2 K/BB ratio. History suggests that Falter (career 4.77 ERA, 17.6% strikeout rate) isn’t likely to sustain that pace, of course. But for now, he’ll be the latest well-traveled swingman to provide some depth for a banged-up Atlanta staff.