Atlanta Braves: Revisiting the Jesse Chavez-Sean Newcomb trade

Just one day after the Atlanta Braves designated Sean Newcomb for assignment, the Chicago Cubs were quick to pick him up in a trade bringing Jesse Chavez back to Atlanta.

On April 20th, the two teams announced a trade that sent Sean Newcomb to the Cubs in exchange for Jesse Chavez, who played for the Braves just last season.

This trade evoked a lot of emotions from Braves fans, with Chavez’s reunion with Atlanta’s bullpen and Newcomb’s departure from Atlanta creating a lot of noise from the community.

After a little over a month of this trade, how did the exchange turn out for both teams?

After returning to the Braves, Chavez has been able to improve his stats from his time in Chicago in a low-leverage bullpen position with Atlanta.

In 12.1 innings pitched with the Braves this season, Chavez has picked up a 4.38 ERA to along with 16 strikeouts. For comparison’s sake, Chavez had a 6.35 ERA in 5.1 innings pitched during his time in Chicago.

Chavez had a solid 2022 debut with Atlanta, tossing two innings against the Miami Marlins on April 23rd, allowing two hits and striking out five of his eight batters faced.

However, like all other players, he’s had his moments.

As it sits right now now, Chavez is 0-1 on the season with Atlanta, with his loss coming from a walk-off home run against the Milwaukee Brewers in the bottom of the 11th inning to cap off a complete meltdown of the Braves’ bullpen.

In Chavez’s series agains the Phillies, he appeared in two games to combine for 2.2 innings, earning three runs on seven hits. After these two appearances against Philadelphia, Chavez’s ERA ballooned from a 4.11 to a 5.00.

Despite his recent appearance, Chavez has cemented his place as a low-leverage reliever in the Braves bullpen and has a solid place carved out in Atlanta.

In Newcomb’s case, his experience with a new team hasn’t come with much improvement.

Newcomb was traded from the Braves after piling up  a 7.20 ERA in three appearances with Atlanta, allowing four runs in five innings pitched.

Now, in his three appearances with the Cubbies, Newcomb has a whopping 8.10 ERA, racking up three runs in 3.1 innings.

His inflated ERA stems from his appearance against the Brewers on April 29th, after allowing three runs in 1.1 innings including this monster two-run blast from Hunter Renfroe:

As if it couldn’t seem to get worse for the former first-round pick, the Cubs announced on May 15th that Newcomb was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left ankle sprain.

Newcomb pitched one inning in a rehab appearance with the Iowa Cubs, the AAA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, last Tuesday. He pitched one inning, not allowing a hit and striking out one batter in the Cubs’ 9-4 loss to the Memphis Redbirds — the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.