For the second consecutive season, the elder statesman of the Braves bullpen has pitched so well that possibility of his selection to the All-Star game has begun to gain momentum.
Twelve months ago, Jesse Chavez’s season was put on hold for three months after he took a line-drive to his leg. It couldn’t have been more inopportune timing for the then 39-year-old who was putting together the best season of his career out of the Atlanta Braves bullpen.
The well-traveled and much-chronicled journeyman pitcher – who debuted in MLB in 2008 – has become a beloved member of the Braves bullpen in his multiple stints with Atlanta since rejoining the team in 2021, eleven seasons after he spent 28 games with the big-league club in 2010.
When the 2023 season hit the unofficial start of Summer – after Memorial Day – there was a significant amount of chatter amongst the home-market media (as some nationally) about Chavez’s unlikely ascension to a possible All-Star selection. Non-closing relievers are a rare but not uncommon inclusion to the mid-summer affair, but Chavez was making a case. And a strong one, at that.
When he was injured on June 14, 2023, he had appeared in 31 games with a 1.55 ERA and 36 strikeouts and nine walks in 28 innings. He’d pitched in numerous roles and by May was getting more high-leverage opportunities late in ball games.
Then future-Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera’s line-drive found bone and Chavez was on the shelf until mid-September putting the end to the long-shot campaign for “Uncle Jesse” to make his first All-Star team 16 years into his MLB career.
After spending Spring Training with the Chicago White Sox, Chavez found his way back to Atlanta for the 2024 season. That song-and-dance of Chavez leaving Atlanta and coming back to Atlanta has been a regular occurrence for the last four seasons.
Luckily for both, the pairing continues to be a successful one.
Although this may well be Chavez’s last season in professional baseball – something he has intimated – the now 40-year-old has picked up where he left off last season. Almost three weeks into June – and month from this year’s All-Star Game – those “Jesse Chavez, All-Star?” questions have started popping up again.
And for good reason.
Through June 19, 2024, Chavez has appeared in 23 games for Atlanta, tossing 29.2 innings with a 1.21 ERA and 1.079 WHIP. Despite his K/9 being down from last season, he’s ERA+ is a comical 342 – almost 60 points better than last season. And although his xERA is 3.41, he has outperformed that metric through his tenue in Atlanta this decade. His batting average against and walk rate is almost identical from last year. Despite walking three batters per nine innings, he’s excelled in location and repressing hard hits.
His pitching run value and fastball run value are both north of the 95-percentile on Baseball Savant. His average exit velocity, barrel-percentage and hard-hit percentage are all in the upper-80s in percentile.
His cutter – which he throws 54-percent of the time – is 20-percent better than average on vertical movement. Despite only his sinker – which is approximately one-quarter of his pitch mix – having an average velocity higher than 90 MPH, Chavez has excelled leveraging his experience and his “baseball IQ”.
As Charlie Morton told Battery Power’s Grant McAuley in McAuley’s recent article about Chavez in the Maretta Daily Journal, “If you look at what he’s done and where’s he’s been, you don’t do what he’s done if you’re not smart in the game. Your baseball IQ has to be pretty high and you have to be pretty in tune and honest with yourself.”
Those words from a fellow-40-year-old who also debuted in 2008 and found success after more than a decade in MLB are a ringing endorsement for how Chavez has been able to hang around for 17 seasons and have his best success at the end of his career.
In a recent post-game interview, Chavez credited the Atlanta staff and organization for allowing him to work a routine that fits his needs in order to be successful. Chavez knows who he is as a pitcher and the Braves know how to let him be that best version of himself. Or so it seems.
Whatever the reasons – or maybe because all of those reasons – Chavez is back in the wishful conversation of being selected to the All-Star team in what might be the final season of his career.
If he were to be chosen, he wouldn’t be the oldest first-time All-Star pitcher. The legendary Satchel Paige holds that honor, but he would join the late Tim Wakefield, Jamie Moyer and Arthur Rhodes as pitchers making their first All-Star game at age 40 or older since 2000. Of those three, only Rhodes was a reliever when he was selected to the 2010 game.
Chavez would also join fellow Braves Jonny Venters (2011) and Mike Remlinger (2002) as non-closing relievers to make the All-Star team since 2000.
It’s a long shot that Chavez will be selected despite his performance so far this season. He’d probably have to go almost unblemished in another seven appearances between now and the All-Star game to factor in as an injury replacement and even then, a lot of other things would have to go his way for that to happen if he wasn’t initially selected to the NL squad.
Regardless of what happens with the All-Star Game, Jesse Chavez continues to shine in the twilight of his career and the Braves and their fans should appreciate each appearance of the middle-aged, bespeckled right-hander.