During the summer of the 2023 season, the Atlanta Braves pitching staff was bit by the injury bug. Some of Atlanta's key arms were sidelined with injury. Kyle Wright and Max Fried were dealing with issues that placed them on the IL for an extended amount of time. Michael Soroka had his fair share of injuries as well, but even when he was healthy his performance was disappointing.
At this point in the season, Alex Anthopoulos felt comfortable with where the Braves were at when healthy. Trading for a front-of-line starter was out of the question because of the return the Braves would have to provide. All Atlanta needed was a pitcher who could take the ball every fifth day, get outs, and give the best offense in baseball a chance to win.
With limited options, the Braves turned to waivers. They acquired Yonny Chirinos from the Tampa Bay Rays off of waivers and sent the struggling Soroka to Triple-A Gwinett. Before he came to Atlanta, Chirinos was in his fifth year with the Rays and had respectable numbers.
Chirinos was 19-14 in his young career with a 3.64 ERA. Unfortunately, his success in the American League did not follow him to the National League. Once Chirinos put on a Braves uniform it was nothing but struggles. It only took five games for the Braves to see this signing would not work out.
Yonny Chirinos started five games for Atlanta where he went 1-1 with a 9.27 ERA. He allowed more earned runs (23) than the amount of innings he pitched (22.1). He was able to improve his strikeout rate a tad and improved the walk rate. However, he still wasn't exactly what Atlanta needed.
He was placed on the IL in late August and remained there for the end of the season. Chirinos was eventually DFA'd by the team in November as the team acquired reliever Penn Murfee off waivers from the New York Mets.
Even though Chirinos was not "For the A", we hope that another team will take a chance on him and he can return to the pitcher he was in Tampa Bay.