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Braves gave up on this reliever and won’t lose sleep over Astros signing him

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

House That Hank Built

Cincinnati Reds v Atlanta Braves / Todd Kirkland/GettyImages

The Atlanta Braves' bullpen has been a consistent sore spot in 2025 and there have been a number of culprits. Raisel Iglesias has famously cratered this season and Atlanta traded one of their biggest relief headaches away at the deadline when they dealt Rafael Montero to the Tigers. Thankfully, the Braves have been slowly culling their bullpen over time and now one of their former arms, Enyel De Los Santos, has found a new team.

De Los Santos was designated for assignment in the wake of the trade that brought Tyler Kinley into the organization. That was honestly for the best as his appearances, more often than not, turned into adventures if not full on collapses that will haunt Braves fans for a while.

Well, after about a week on the job market, in sounds like De Los Santos has a new team. According to reports, the Astros just signed De Los Santos to a major league deal.

Astros just took in Braves castoff Enyel De Los Santos with minor league deal

One does have to admire the symmetry a little bit here. Montero was a plague on the Astros' roster and the Braves traded for him early in the season and now it is Houston taking in one of Atlanta's bullpen headaches. It is funny how things work out sometimes.

Hopefully De Los Santos figures things out in Houston and Braves fans know full well that their general manager (and former Braves scouting director) Dana Brown has an eye for talent. It just didn't work out with the Braves and maybe he can catch on and get a chance to pitch in the playoffs.

As for the Astros' decision-making, there is little risk here. If the move doesn't work out, De Los Santos is only on a minor deal and the cost is minimal if they need to cut bait. If De Los Santos throws well, they could end up with a serviceable reliever on the cheap. Based on how his time went with the Braves, you may want to bet on the former.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.