Austin Cox for Dane Dunning and thoughts from yesterday

Raisel Iglesias just says no to sliders, Marcell Ozuna didn’t say no to trades, and the Braves say no to allowing three run homers

Let’s get some of the business out of the way before we dig into what happened and what didn’t happen yesterday.

The Braves recalled lefty reliever Austin Cox to the Atlanta Braves roster before today’s special-event-forced matinee with the Cincinnati Reds. He is replacing righty reliever Dane Dunning in the bullpen.

Dane Dunning, who was an admired prospect of the White Sox at one time, is grabbing the shuttle to Triple-A Gwinnett. His 14.29/4.86/3.88 line in 5.2 innings as a Brave over the last 2 weeks is a microcosm for the 2025 Braves bullpen. He entered last night’s game with an eight-run lead and no one on base. Dane promptly gave up two singles, three-run home run to Ke’Bryan Hayes, and two more singles before departing. It seems to happen a lot though.

Replacing Dane is Austin Cox. I put together a write-up for the bullpen at the start of the second half of the season. I simply put “Austin Cox exists” for his entry, because I honestly didn’t expect to see him again. He had a real problem grabbing strikeouts over the last two years in Triple-A, but has a 2.25/2.34/1.84 line in 8 innings for Atlanta. So maybe we’ll get a few fun appearances from him before he kerplodes like the others.

Raisel might be done with his slider

First off, I don’t know why Raisel Iglesias is still with the Braves. But I’ll deal with that later. Guess who’s leading the National League in allowed ninth-inning home runs. It’s the current closer for the Braves. Apparently Jeff Hoffman has allowed eight ninth-inning home runs for the Blue Jays, but it hasn’t stopped Toronto from leading the AL East.

Raisel is giving up a 1.286 slugging percentage with the slider this season. He’s given up six ninth-inning home runs with it. A good Iglesias slider has movement away and low from right hand hitters. A bad Raisel is belched into the lower and middle part of the zone without a lot of movement.

My grandmother used to live by the adage, “if your slider doesn’t slide anymore, don’t throw it any more until it does.” Raisel has lived by that proverb since that game. He’s only thrown it once since that game against the Yankees. He’s posted a 1.80/2.09/4.18 line with two saves since. It’s been about three months too late to adjust. But if you’re looking for any more slider-aided home runs, you might be disappointed. We’re just looking for similar adjustments to other players for the rest of the season at this point.

Apparently Marcell Ozuna didn’t turn down a trade yesterday

Regardless of anyone wanting to see him in the lineup, Marcell had three walks, a single, and the game-winning sacrifice fly last night.

According the Zach Klein of WSB, Alex Anthopoulos said he never approached Marcell Ozuna about a trade.

Ozuna, on the strength of his 10-5 rights, could have rejected any trade. I would have been tempted to do so. He is 18th in wRC+ among designed hitters with a minimum of 100 PAs at the position, and ninth among those with 200. There just aren’t many takers for a full-time DH with a bad hip. There were plenty of teams who would have added him as a bench bat. Would he be that interested in sitting on the bench, even for a playoff team? As a player perhaps looking to rebuild his value, Atlanta is giving all the plate appearances he can handle.

We’re really keeping these guys?

Yeah I don’t know what to make of this.

Braves fans have been comfortable, or at least mildly accepting, of this idea for some time. So why not trade those with expiring contracts, and recover at least some money for next year? He said he wasn’t interested, but why? They plan to recover that money from their season tickets holder, I guess.