Do you remember Jesse Chavez? I do! Remember, there was that whole thing where the Braves signed Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito after the 2009 season, leading them to trade pricy reliever Rafael Soriano to the Rays in exchange for Jesse Chavez. That was actually the second time Chavez was traded that offseason, as he had been sent from the Pirates to Tampa Bay a month prior in exchange for Akinori Iwamura.
The 2010 season was not a particularly happy one for Chavez — he compiled -0.2 fWAR in 28 appearances (with an even worse ERA than his peripherals) and ended up being dealt to the Royals in the famous Gregor Blanco for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth deal. Chavez bounced around providing sub-replacement-level relief for a bit, and didn’t really get right until things clicked in Oakland, where he served as a reliever in one year and a swingman in two others, compiling 4.8 fWAR over 360 innings. He’s kind of vacillated between ineffective relief and decent swingman work since, got shelled in 17 innings for the Rangers last year, and was snapped up as depth by Atlanta... and now that depth is going to be pitching in the majors for a very shredded pitching staff.
Jesse Chavez and Tanner Roark are both here tonight. Kyle Wright and Ty Tice were optioned. To make room for Chavez and Roark on the 40-man, Tucker Davidson and Alex Jackson were transferred to the 60-day IL
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 24, 2021
Chavez was pitching well in a relief role for Gwinnett (2.25 ERA, 2.54 FIP, 3.01 xFIP), but as a 37-year-old that’s been there and back a bunch of times, that’s not surprising. What’ll be more surprising is if he can somehow stymie major league hitters at this point.
As for Tanner Roark, the Braves added him to their minor league ranks on May 11th and since then, he has made eight appearances for the Stripers where he has looked fairly reasonable after a rough start to the season with the Blue Jays (6.43 ERA, 8.16 FIP, 5.11 xFIP in a small three appearance sample).
To make room on the 40-man roster, Alex Jackson was moved to the 60-day IL as was announced earlier in the day as he has dealt with multiple injuries in the last month or so. Tucker Davidson going to the 60-day IL was more of a surprise as it initially sounded like his scans had come up without serious damage to his arm. However, the news today obviously means that his injury is serious enough to keep him out for a while.