The Atlanta Braves bullpen has been underwhelming on the young season. After no major offseason additions to replace the losses of AJ Minter and Joe Jimenez, the remaining unit has struggled to find consistency while suffering a few meltdowns. Through Wednesday’s action, Braves relief pitchers sport a 4.43 ERA that ranks 21st in MLB. Amid the disappointing start, one exception is third-year right-hander Daysbel Hernandez, who has shone in the early going.
Hernandez, 28, had his best performance to date on Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals. With two on and two out in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game, the Sandino, a Cuban native, entered and promptly struck out Jordan Walker to end the threat. After an Eli White go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth, Hernandez mowed down three more Cardinals to finish off a 5-1 Braves homestand and pick up his team-high third win. Hernandez has won manager Brian Snitker’s trust and is quickly seeing an increase in high-leverage assignments like these as a result.
The breakout is here
Daysbel Hernandez got a cup of coffee for four games in 2023, before spending the majority of 2024 at Triple-A Gwinnett. He was called up for a few more extended looks at various points in the season, and pitched to an excellent 2.50 ERA, 171 ERA+, and 2.11 FIP in 18 innings. The peripherals also looked great, and Hernandez easily secured a spot on the 2025 Opening Day roster. Still, he was considered a middle-inning reliever ahead of presumed set-up men Aaron Bummer, Pierce Johnson, and Dylan Lee.
It’s only April 24th, but Hernandez has continued his success in a big way so far in 2025. Through 11 innings, the burly righty has posted a team-leading 2.38 ERA, which even looks unlucky compared to his 1.62 xERA (18th among all big league pitchers). Similarly, his .227 xwOBA against ranks 17th.
A Change In Approach
These numbers have come with a curious change in strategy that appears to be working. Hernandez has historically been a strikeout artist (11.4 K/9 in his minor league career) but has emphasized pitching to contact so far this year. He has a surprisingly low seven strikeouts, but also just three walks. Despite the inability to miss bats consistently, his 26.7 hard hit percentage against has resulted in plenty of weak grounders and lazy fly balls.
Hernandez throws just two pitches: a four-seam fastball (40.1%) and slider (59.9%). The four-seamer sits just above 97 mph with excellent arm-side movement, and he has yet to allow a hit off it this season while consistently peppering the top of the zone. The most interesting difference from last year, though, is the adjustment to his slider usage in 2025. Previously, it was a swing-and-miss pitch, but Hernandez is throwing it in the zone way more than last year (and 5.7% more in general). As a result, the whiff rate on the slider has plummeted from 42.4% to 17.9%, but the .207 xBA and .277 xSLG against it remain elite. He’s daring hitters to square it up, and they can’t seem to be able to.
Hernandez has figured out how to effectively leverage both his pitches off each other, and hitters can rarely do more than make feeble contact against either one. Time will tell if the pitch-to-contact strategy is a long-term change or just a small sample size anomaly, but it makes sense when pitching in front of the elite Braves defense.
The Last Word
It’s hard to imagine where the Braves bullpen would be without the contributions of Daysbel Hernandez. Given the struggles of other key relievers and lack of proven options, Snitker has had no choice but to thrust him into more pressure situations, and so far, he has responded as well as anyone could have hoped. If Hernandez can figure out how to miss a few more bats while keeping the walk rate down, he could ascend into the top tier of MLB relievers sooner rather than later. And with Raisel Iglesias finally showing his age (6.00 ERA, 7.47 FIP), we could look at Atlanta’s closer of the future as soon as this year.
Main Photo Credits: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
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