Braves Notes: Brian Snitker on Jesse Chavez, Nick Anderson

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves will get a significant piece of their bullpen back Tuesday after Jesse Chavez was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Chavez has been out of action since June 14 when he was struck in the leg by a line drive off the bat from Miguel Cabrera. The injury was originally diagnosed as a bruise, but later imaging revealed that it was a microfracture. Chavez recently completed a rehab assignment where he made three scoreless appearances for Gwinnett. He is hoping to show enough over the final two weeks to work himself into the postseason picture for the bullpen.

“I’m feeling good. I think we checked all the boxes last week down in Gwinnett,” Chavez said. Getting back to the action, the force over my leg. It’s no longer an issue. I don’t see it being anything moving forward. I just wanted to get back in time that hopefully I can give Snit and the organization a chance to maybe be an option in the postseason.”

Chavez went to spring training with the Braves on a minor league deal, but earned his way onto the Opening Day roster. He ended up playing a big part before the injury posting a 1.55 ERA and a 2.47 FIP in 31 appearances. Snitker is happy to get back another versatile arm.

“It’s just going to be really good to get him back. The guys love having him around,” Snitker said. “He’s throwing the ball really well, just looking at the videos and the reports and everything. He’s been really good.”

“Jesse’s been a really big part of what we’ve been doing around here for a couple years,” Sntiker added. “He’s been through all the situations. Nothing’s going to bother him. The good thing is he was throwing the ball really well here before we sent him out. It was just more of the leg thing and moving around and running, covering first, and he’s proven that he can do that. So it was just good to get him back.”

Chavez missed so much time that it was starting to look like he might run out of time. He said that he felt he really started to turn the corner after his body responded well after throwing a live BP session with Gwinnett.

“After I did the live in Gwinnett, I had that weekend off just to recover, relax, and see what happened. How my body would bounce back after the two ups and the intensity of those pitches,” Chavez said. “I think that was the biggest turning point moving forward. Then there were a couple of signs during the rehab outings that I felt that were things that I was like, okay, I think this is the final checkpoint for me.”

Nick Anderson, Collin McHugh and Daysbel Hernandez starting rehab assignments

On the previous road trip, Snitker said that he didn’t see Chavez, Nick Anderson or Dylan Lee as possibilities for postseason depth. That changed in recent days with Chavez making three appearances at Gwinnett. The Braves are sending Nick Anderson, Collin McHugh and Daysbel Hernandez to Gwinnett Tuesday to begin rehab assignments.

Anderson was a key piece of the bullpen over the first few months of the season, but was shut down in July with a shoulder injury. Snitker said that his situation improved in recent days and was much better than his original prognosis.

“I talked to him yesterday and I think just, everything kinda came together a little quicker than I think the doctors and everybody said,” Snitker said of Anderson “They MRI’d him the last time and it was a lot better than the timeline that originally they had for him. I just talked to him. It just kind of felt like it was something that happened really good and really fast.”

The return of Chavez and potentially Anderson, would be a big boost to a bullpen that has struggled over the last week or so. Gwinnett is in the last week of its season and Snitker said that he thought that it would be possible to get all three guys at least three appearances each over the final week.