After what could only be described as a disastrous first half, the Atlanta Braves bullpen has looked significantly better since the All-Star break. Raisel Iglesias looks reborn after one of the worst halves of baseball of his career and the Braves lone trade deadline acquisition, Tyler Kinley, looks like he should stick around for a while. However, one name that has been lost in the shuffle a little bit is Pierce Johnson.
For a long stretch of the first half, Johnson was easily Atlanta's best reliever. However, fans weren't particularly interested because the Braves were losing so much and the rest of the bullpen was a dumpster fire. Combine that with a bit of a mediocre run in the middle of the summer and you have a situation where Johnson was sort of forgotten.
However, after yet another season with some encouraging metrics combined with a really strong finish to the season, Johnson is once again proving to be a key cog in Atlanta's bullpen. In fact, there is a pretty good argument that the Braves should give him another extension.
The Braves simply need to lock up Pierce Johnson on a longer deal
On July 6, Johnson's ERA and FIP had "ballooned" to 2.84 ERA and 3.11 respectively. Still very good, but not quite as dominant as he has been in the past. In the 24 appearances he has made since that date however, Johnson has found his groove again with a 1.64 ERA. However, his FIP is curiously up to 4.64 over that same stretch, though that seems to be some small sample weirdness thanks to three home runs and only 18 strikeouts in 22 innings of work. All in all, a job well done.
When you combine that with Johnson's persistent ability to get whiffs and avoid barrels when he needs to and the fact that both his curveball and fastball have graded out rather well ever since the Braves traded for him, and you have a pretty strong argument to keep him.
There was some chatter around the trade deadline that the Braves could move Johnson or even not exercise his upcoming $7 million club option for 2026. All of that talk seems extremely silly right now. He isn't a perfect pitcher as his extension is actively bad and you would like to see more strikeouts and less walks, but Johnson is just one of those guys that gets the job done far more often than not. The Braves need that in their bullpen and giving him an extension that adds at least another year of guaranteed money beyond 2026 seems like a pretty good idea at the moment.