Athletics claim LHP Lovelady off waivers from Braves

On Opening Day, the Braves acquired lefty reliever Richard “Get Your Mind Out of There” Lovelady from the Royals in exchange for cash considerations and optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett. Over the past couple of weeks, Lovelady made five appearances for Gwinnett with a 3.57 FIP and unsightly 5.51 xFIP.

As of today, the Braves lost Lovelady on waivers to the Oakland Athletics.

Lovelady had enough interesting things in his profile that he made for an interesting midseason callup for the Braves, but he’s probably more likely to see meaningful MLB time in Oakland, so good for him. Perhaps the most notable thing about this is that Lovelady wasn’t DFAed (as far as I know), but rather was placed on waivers despite the lack of a need for a roster move. I can’t actually recall if all MLB waivers are irrevocable (no takebacks!) now; if so, then it was a minorly risky move to try to sneak Lovelady through. If it was revocable, then the Braves were totally fine with letting him go.

Lovelady is the owner of 0.2 fWAR across 41 ²⁄₃ major league innings, and last appeared in an MLB game in 2021. He underwent Tommy John Surgery in late 2021 and missed much of the 2022 season in recovery.