Braves revealed to have made sneaky bullpen signing when no one was looking

As surprising as it may seem to some, not every roster move gets immediately announced or even discovered until well after the fact. If a signing doesn't involve making a change to the active or 40-man rosters, those transactions can get lost in the shuffle pretty easily if the agent(s) of the player don't make an effort to publicize it. As it turns out, the Atlanta Braves made one such move last month that is only being reported now.

Veteran swingman Elieser Hernandez isn't unfamiliar to sharp-eyed Braves fans as he was a thorn in their side when he pitched for the Marlins. Hernandez has had a tough time sticking in the majors and that included a stint over in Korea, but teams just kept giving him jobs.

Well, the next team to give Hernandez a shot will be the Braves as they apparently signed Hernandez back in November.

Braves take chance on struggling swingman Elieser Hernandez on a minor league deal

Now, there are very, very few minor league deals that end up being true mistakes. There is no real risk and if a player doesn't work out, it isn't as though the Braves had spent real money. Atlanta has made numerous minor league deals over the years and most of them just end up being forgotten or very short-lived stopgap solutions to a roster problem.

However, it is kind of hard to find much to get excited about in Hernandez. His strikeout rate is mediocre at best, he doesn't throw particularly hard, Hernandez's breaking and offspeed stuff don't grade out very well, and he doesn't have a track record of performing against big league competition. There has to be some pitch-level data that the Braves like more than is obvious, because the initial look at Hernandez is pretty grim.

With that latest move (well, sort of...it did happen back in November), the Braves' bullpen makeover continues this offseason. Fans should fully expect more and more minor signings like these as Atlanta brings in as many arms that look interesting to them as possible to compete for spots in spring training. Unfortunately, it does feel like Hernandez's odds of making the team are not great at the moment.