The celebration of the first series victory of 2025 for the Atlanta Braves was a short-lived one. Not only do the Braves play another game on the road in less than 12 hours, but for the fact of the transaction that will sideline an important bullpen arm for the time being.
The Braves announced this morning that relief pitcher Aaron Bummer, who pitched in last night's marathon game, has been placed on the bereavement list. Right-handed pitcher Zach Thompson has been recalled to Atlanta in his place.
The #Braves today recalled RHP Zach Thompson to Atlanta and placed LHP Aaron Bummer on the major league bereavement list.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 11, 2025
Braves place Aaron Bummer on bereavement list, recall Zach Thompson again
As a reminder the bereavement list is also known as the family medical emergency list. It's used when players need to attend to their families due to unfortunate illness or death. The list comes with a minimum of a three game absence and maximum of seven games. Of course our thoughts and best wishes go out to Aaron Bummer and his family as he is away from the team over these next days.
On the baseball side of things the Braves lose one of their top left-handed options out the bullpen. Bummer has appeared in five games thus far in 2025, and owns a 2.57 FIP, 2.47 xERA, and ranks in the 81st percentile in strikeout rate (30.4%) according to Baseball Savant. Manager Brian Snitker often used Bummer in situations where runners were already on-base because of his 66.7% groundball rate.
31 year-old Zach Thompson returns to Atlanta in his place after just being sent down just a couple days prior with the Rafael Montero addition. Thompson last pitched in the big leagues in 2022 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This spring training he allowed one run in nine innings of work. He figures to work into a role similar to Jesse Chavez and others this season, likely pitching in mop-up duty when the game result is already decided.