Braves sign RHP Jhoulys Chacin to a one year deal

The Braves have certainly not been resting on their laurels leading up the 2020 season.

For many fans, it was just assumed that the Braves had made all of the moves they were going to make this offseason. Between the high profile signings of Marcell Ozuna, Will Smith, and Cole Hamels combined with the dicey financials of signing players this season with fans not in attendance, one could excuse any team from just letting this season play out and wait until the new trade deadline to make moves.

Not the Braves. They were aggressive in going after Yasiel Puig, the best bat remaining on the free agent market, and while his positive COVID-19 diagnosis derailed those plans, that could still come to fruition if he gets cleared quickly enough in theory. They also signed Matt Adams to a deal that could give the Braves a much needed lefty bat although he was not great last year.

The Braves have now turned their attentions to the pitching staff.

Another former Brave, Jhoulys Chacin is coming off a season where he made a total of 24 starts with Milwaukee and Boston and put together a combined line of a 6.01 ERA with 101 strikeouts and 46 walks in 103.1 innings pitched, good for a total rWAR of -0.7 in 2019. In short, not great.

The Braves familiarity with Chacin pretty clearly impacted this choice as he made five starts for the club back in 2016 before getting traded to the Angels, but the bigger question is why was this move made. The Braves were seemingly already short on spots on the mound for all of the guys they currently have on the 40 man roster. Its possible that the Braves are just making doubly sure that they have enough arms to be able to piggyback as much as they please.....and its also possible that some of the names that we assumed would see some significant innings for the Braves, whether it be due to COVID/injury/ineffectiveness, may not be ready for primetime.