Now that the Atlanta Braves have successfully addressed their need for an outfielder, Alex Anthopoulos must now turn his attention to pitching. It's been said countless times that Atlanta has a desire to add both a starting pitcher and reliever this offseason. However, not many high-upside names remain on the free agent market.
The Braves have a talented bunch of arms, plus some intriguing prospects looking to break through in 2025. However, banking on those names and electing not to build depth would be a disaster waiting to happen. Thankfully, we got some rumblings of the Braves having interest in a reliever that has late-inning type stuff, although consistency has been a problem.
The Braves and Cubs are among the teams with interest in Ryne Stanek, per sources.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) January 26, 2025
Braves reported to have interest in RHP Ryne Stanek
Yesterday evening Mark Bowman of mlb.com reported that Atlanta was one of the teams interested in right-handed reliever Ryne Stanek. The former Met spent last season in both New York and Seattle. He underperformed his expected numbers a bit, getting unlucky at times in the regular season.
Overall Stanek posted a 4.88 ERA and 4.14 FIP in 2024. He pitched 8.1 innings in the postseason with New York to the tune of a 3.38 ERA with eight strikeouts.
Over the course of his eight-year career Stanket has produced mixed results for a number of teams. His power fastball and nasty offspeed stuff has produced plenty of strikeouts. However, he's often battled command troubles, ranking in the 20th percentile in walk rate last season.
For his career the Kansas native owns a 3.65 ERA, 4.14 FIP, and 3.7 bWAR. The Braves are looking to replace the likes of A.J. Minter and Joe Jimenez in the bullpen for this upcoming season. While Stanek may not be the consistent late-inning guys those two were, he flashes enough upside that he could settle in nicely with Atlanta's established bullpen arms.
Because of his age and rollercoaster career, Stanek isn't projected to command much money to acquire his services. The typical Anthopoulos one-year special should be enough to bring him in. Stay tuned here for any more updates regarding the Braves interest around this intriguing bullpen arm.