Right-hander Chad Kuhl and the Braves have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The ACES client will presumably be in major league camp as a non-roster invitee.
Kuhl, 32, was once a passable back-end starter but has slid into more of a swingman/long relief role in recent years. He spent 2024 with the White Sox, pitching out of their Triple-A rotation for the first half of the year. He was selected to the big league club in June and mostly tossed multi-inning stints out of the bullpen. He logged 53 1/3 innings over 31 appearances, including one start. He allowed 5.06 earned runs per nine, struck out 22.5% of batters faced, gave out walks at a 10.4% clip and got grounders on 44.4% of balls in play.
The best stretch of his career was with the Pirates. From 2016 to 2021, he logged 439 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh with a 4.44 ERA, 20.8% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. He signed with the Rockies for the 2022 season and saw his ERA jump to 5.72. 2023 was an especially trying year. A minor league deal with the Nationals led to a roster spot but he battled a foot injury and posted an 8.45 ERA over 16 appearances in a swing role. He was released in June and didn’t sign anywhere after that so that he could be with his wife as she battled breast cancer, with her treatment coming to an end in November.
His year with the White Sox got him back on track somewhat, as his major league numbers were passable. He also posted a 4.34 ERA in Triple-A prior to getting called up. His 17.3% strikeout rate and 13.6% walk rate with Charlotte were both subpar numbers but he got opponents to pound the ball into the ground at a 53.5% rate.
With Atlanta, Kuhl will jump into a fairly crowded depth mix. The club has Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and Spencer Schwellenbach leading the rotation, with Spencer Strider set to join them once he has recovered from last year’s elbow surgery. The chart behind those four includes Ian Anderson, Grant Holmes, Dylan Dodd, AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep, Bryce Elder and Davis Daniel, who are all on the 40-man roster.
Atlanta may prefer to keep those guys in Triple-A and getting regular starts, so perhaps that will allow Kuhl to carve out a role as a veteran innings-eater in the bullpen if they need a long man at some point during the season.