The Atlanta Braves are getting a key piece of their bullpen just in the nick of time. The club announced that RHP Robert Suarez has been activated from his rehab assignment and is set to rejoin the Major League team for the final week of the regular season. Pitching prospect Owen Murphy was optioned as the corresponding move.
Suarez's long awaited return picked up steam over these past few weeks, and now he will get the chance to pitch in a couple of games before the Braves head into postseason play. The hope is for Suarez to pitch in two of the Braves' final five games before being thrust into high-pressure postseason appearances.
The #Braves today returned RHP Robert Suarez from his rehabilitation assignment and reinstated him from the injured list, and optioned RHP Owen Murphy.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) September 23, 2026
Braves get huge lift with the return of Robert Suarez right before postseason play
Alex Anthopoulos signed Robert Suarez to a three-year, $45 million deal this past offseason with the hope that he would be a postseason weapon for the club. Suarez looked every bit of a high-leverage star for Atlanta when the season began, posting a 0.56 ERA, 2.44 FIP, and 1.7 bWAR in just 32 innings.
The unfortunate elbow injury sidelined Suarez in June, and it's been a slow climb back ever since then. Given Suarez's upside, Atlanta wanted to be extremely careful with him. If Suarez was rushed back and hit any sort of setback, his availability for October would have been grim. Thankfully, the slow build seems to have paid off.
Suarez looked to have his upper 90's stuff in his rehab assignment, so hopefully his upcoming appearance against the Reds will simply be an inning of knocking the rust off. Atlanta's postseason success hinges on a pretty simple formula: hope your stars at the top of the lineup produce, and get the ball to a dynamic bullpen.
Didier Fuentes, Raisel Iglesias, Dylan Lee, and a healthy Robert Suarez form a great group of relievers Walt Weiss has to work with in October. How Suarez looks in these regular season tune up games could determine how Weiss deploys him in October. Nonetheless, it's great to have the high-octane "postseason stuff" back in Atlanta's bullpen right before the most important time of the year.
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