The Braves announced that right-hander Penn Murfee has been claimed off waivers from the Mets. In the corresponding move, Atlanta designated right-hander Yonny Chirinos for assignment.
It was pretty brief run for Murfee in Queens, as the Mets only just claimed the righty themselves from the Mariners two weeks ago. It wasn’t publicly known that Murfee was again available, but it could be that the Mets opted to move on and clear some 40-man roster space since Murfee won’t be an option until at least midway through the 2024 season. Murfee underwent a UCL surgery last June that prematurely ended his 2023 campaign and might threaten all of his 2024 season, depending on the exact nature of the procedure or whether or not he might hit any setbacks.
Since making his big league debut in 2022, Murfee posted a 2.70 ERA over 83 1/3 relief innings for Seattle, along with a 27.9% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. That latter statistic is rather heavily skewed to 2022, as Murfee had a very impressive 6.6% walk rate last season before his control spiked to a 17.2% walk rate this year. Of course, this could also be a sample size variant, as Murfee only pitched 14 innings in 2023 before hitting the injured list.
Murfee was a bit of a late bloomer, as he didn’t make his MLB debut until he was just shy of his 28th birthday. While a little older than most second-year players, Murfee is also controlled through the 2028 season, giving the Braves an interesting longer-term reliever to monitor if Murfee returns healthy and keeps his past form.
Chirinos also arrived in Atlanta via waiver claim, as the Braves plucked him off waivers from the Rays last July. He made five starts and posted a 9.27 ERA over 22 1/3 innings before a bout of elbow inflammation ultimately ended his season in August. For the 2023 season as a whole, Chirinos had a 5.40 ERA over 85 combined innings with Tampa Bay and Atlanta, with a 14.4% strikeout rate that was a career low even by Chirinos’ usual standard of not missing many bats.
Chirinos is no stranger to UCL injuries himself, as a Tommy John surgery led to over two full years between Major League appearances for the righty between the 2020 and 2022 seasons. This year marked Chirinos’ first full season back in action, and he didn’t have the form he showed in posting a 3.65 ERA for the Rays over 234 1/3 innings from 2018-20.
Given Chirinos’ past solid numbers and his utility as a pitcher who can work in a variety of different roles as a starter, reliever, or swingman, it seems reasonable that he might get claimed off waivers. Chirinos has enough service time to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A, though it seems likely that the Braves will just release him in the event that he clears waivers, thus handling one bit of arbitration-related business. Chirinos is projected to earn $2MM via arbitration this winter, and today’s transaction is essentially an early non-tender in advance of Friday’s deadline.