Braves designate veteran reliever for assignment

The Braves announced this afternoon that they’ve designated right-hander Enyel De Los Santos for assignment. His departure opens up a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Tyler Kinley, who they acquired from the Rockies in a deal earlier today.

De Los Santos, 29, signed with Atlanta on a minor league deal over the winter. He made the club’s roster out of camp in Spring Training and since then has served as a decent but unspectacular middle reliever. In 43 appearances, he’s posted a below-average 4.53 ERA (92 ERA+) but has offered some solid peripherals, including a 3.32 FIP. His 20.1% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate are both fairly pedestrian, however, and while a 60.5% strand rate suggests some poor sequencing luck his 4.15 SIERA suggests he’s little been more than average overall this year.

Joining the Braves marked De Los Santos’s seventh season in the big leagues and seventh team for whom he’s played at the big league level. The right-hander debuted with the Phillies all the way back in 2018 but got his first substantial look at the big league level in 2021 when he made 33 appearances for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He posted an ugly 6.37 ERA in 35 1/3 innings back then but since then has generally looked decent in stints with the Guardians, Padres, Yankees, and White Sox in addition to the Braves. Since the start of the 2022 campaign, De Los Santos has posted a 4.01 ERA with a 3.95 FIP and a 24.0% strikeout rate. That’s on top of solid career numbers at the Triple-A level, where he’s posted a 3.37 ERA in parts of four seasons with the Phillies and Guardians.

Going forward, Atlanta will have until tomorrow’s trade deadline to try and work out a trade involving De Los Santos. Should that not come to pass, he’ll be placed on outright waivers where he can be claimed by any club. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, De Los Santos will have the opportunity to either accept an outright assignment from the Braves and serve as non-roster depth in the minor leagues for the remainder of the year, or reject the assignment in favor of free agency, at which point he would be free to sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs.