You knew it was going to happen, and after a horrendous four-game start to the season in which Hector Neris was very bad twice, he’s now the roster casualty to make room for Jesse “Coach” Chavez:

Jesse Chavez will join the Braves at Dodger Stadium today. Hector Neris has been DFA’d

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 31, 2025

Neris’ presence on the roster was always a tenuous circumstance of a lack of better, more interesting options. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Braves added injury to insult by using him to try and protect a one-run lead in the season opener, which blew up in their faces. Neris then appeared in a close-ish game on Sunday and managed to complete an inning of work without allowing a homer, but had just a 1/1 K/BB ratio and saw the Padres tally a few extra runs while he was out there. He ends his Braves tenure with -0.1 fWAR in one complete inning with a really gross pitching line.

Chavez, well, you don’t really need me to give you an introduction about Jesse Chavez, do you? He made one appearance in the minors for Gwinnett in which he gave up a homer but struck out two. He also had a really rough Spring Training for both the Rangers and Braves, but he’s 41 years old and probably too old for Spring Training, anyway.

Chavez had kind of a rough year for the Braves in 2024 (-0.2 fWAR), but it was driven almost entirely by a very high HR/FB in a year where HR/FB was not high in general. His actual line included a 75 ERA-, 111 FIP-, and 96 xFIP-, which isn’t anywhere near as exciting peripherals-wise as his composite mid-80s xFIP- from 2021-2023, but is still perfectly fine for a mop-up/long relief option.

Anyway, he’s back now. Yay.