What exactly are the Braves doing with Reynaldo Lopez?

When the Braves signed Reynaldo Lopez, he was an established late-inning reliever they believed could transition back to the rotation where he started his career.

Initially, the experiment exceeded all expectations. Lopez earned his first All-Star selection and finished the season with a sub-2.00 ERA. Fatigue caught up to him in the second half, however, rendering him unavailable for the playoffs — and those issues carried into 2025.

Lopez underwent shoulder surgery after just one start last season and never returned. With a couple of years remaining on his contract and the rotation experiment no longer paying dividends, moving him back to the bullpen seemed like the logical path forward.

The Braves didn’t see it that way. They let him stretch out during Spring Training and put him right back in the rotation — a decision that lasted about a month. Following a miserable outing in Washington in which he recorded just three outs and allowed four runs, the club announced he would be moving to the bullpen, though they stopped short of calling it permanent, citing unspecified mechanical issues.

The way the Braves have handled Lopez over the last two years has been puzzling, and it’s only continued. Over the last six weeks, he’s appeared in just nine games, almost exclusively in low-leverage situations — until last night, when he was thrust into a tight 3-2 game in the ninth and surrendered four runs to completely take team out of it.

The reality is that Reynaldo Lopez is not going back to the Braves rotation. His stuff isn’t good enough, the rotation is currently full, and there are far more deserving arms in line when everyone gets healthy.

1. Didier Fuentes
2. JR Ritchie
3. Spencer Schwellenbach
4. AJ Smith-Shawver
5. Hurston Waldrep

And that doesn’t even account for any potential additions at the trade deadline. The only viable path forward for Lopez is out of the bullpen — yet the Braves don’t appear fully committed to that role either, at least not based on how they’re using him.

At 42-21 and 8.5 games clear of the Phillies, there isn’t much to complain about in Atlanta. But it’s hard to feel like they haven’t botched this entire situation.

Maybe the arm is cooked and there’s nothing to be done about it. He wouldn’t be the first pitcher to have his career derailed by shoulder problems. But he’s a waste of space on the roster right now, and with a wave of arms expected back over the next few months, it’s fair to wonder where exactly he fits when they arrive.