With guys returning from injury and young arms beginning to emerge, it always felt like a matter of time before someone in the Atlanta Braves current rotation was pushed into a new role. That process has started this week with Reynaldo López, who has been temporarily shifted to the bullpen to make room for JR Ritchie and, soon enough, Spencer Strider.
The move comes after López recorded just three outs while allowing four runs on five hits and three walks in his last start. The Braves believe a relief role will give him the opportunity to work through a mechanical flaw without the added stress of a full outing, while still holding out hope he can rejoin the rotation later on.
“We’ve had a couple of conversations with him,” Walt Weiss said ahead of Tuesday’s game. “He’s ready to go out of the bullpen. He’s done it before, he’s been really good out of the ‘pen. This isn’t foreign to him. He’s trying to work through some things, iron some things out delivery-wise. When you miss a whole year, it’s really difficult to just pick up where you left off. It just takes time. What’s lacking is the consistency… I feel like he’s going to be a big part of our rotation again, and he’s headed in that direction.”
It’s pretty clear the Braves still view López as a starter long-term, which likely makes him the go-to long reliever for now. If the goal is to stretch him back out, limiting him to one-inning bursts wouldn’t make much sense.
That said, there’s a real scenario where the rotation simply gets too crowded. Ritchie already looks like he belongs. Strider is on the way back. Hurston Waldrep has started throwing again, and Didier Fuentes still has the upside to find consistency as a starter.
If those pieces fall into place, the Braves could eventually pivot and view López differently — leaning into a full-time bullpen role where he’s already proven he can thrive.
Before joining Atlanta, López posted a 3.02 ERA across 129 appearances out of the bullpen between 2022 and 2023. If it comes to that, it wouldn’t be a bad fallback option.
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(Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire)
