Atlanta Braves call up quirky pitcher to replace Darius Vines

The Atlanta Braves announced Saturday morning that the team had recalled Jimmy Herget from AAA Gwinnett to replace Darius Vines on the active roster. Vines had been optioned after Friday's loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This will be Herget's fourth team in his sixth big league season, but there's a good chance many Braves fans don't know who the pitcher is and didn't even realize he was on the Braves 40-man roster.

What should Braves fans expect from Jimmy Herget?

Jimmy Herget is a 30-year-old right-handed pitcher with an interesting delivery. He debuted with the Reds in 2019, and has played for the Rangers and Angels. The Braves acquired him at the beginning of May from the Angels. He's spent all of 2024 in AAA.

Herget has a career 3.47 ERA in 142.2 innings. He has a career 21.6% strikeout rate and a 7.5% walk rate.

The righty isn't going to wow you with velocity. Last season his four-seam fastball only averaged 92.6 MPH and his sinker averaged 91.7. MPH. However, he only threw this pitch 24.8% of the time. His primary pitch is his curveball, which he throws 38% of the time. Here's what that looks like.

As you can also see, Herget has a very funky delivery. Pitching Ninja has nicknamed "The Human Glitch" for the type of pitch movement he gets on his pitches. According to MLB.com, he gets more horizontal spin than almost every pitcher in the game. To add the his quirky persona, Herget also opts for stirrups, something Braves players seldom wear.

With Gwinnett, Herget has pitched seven innings and allowed three earned runs, good for a 3.86 ERA. He had a 3.97 ERA in 11.1 innings with the Angels AAA team before being acquired.

Herget isn't going to be the new lights out late inning reliever for the team, but he'll reliable enough if the Braves need to go to the pen early or if they need a reliever to eat a few innings if the game's gotten away from them.

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