In November of 2023, the Braves signed Reynaldo Lopez to a 3 year/$30MM deal. The media headline was “Braves Bolster ‘pen, sign Reynaldo Lopez”. Fortunately for the Braves, Anthopoulos didn’t sign Lopez to be a reliever, rather a starter.

Reynaldo’s Career of Back and Forths

Lopez was with the Nationals in 2016 as a hybrid, starting some and relieving some. After being traded to the White Sox, he really began his career as a starter. He’d go on to start 91 games with lackluster results. In 2022, the Sox moved him to the bullpen and his trajectory changed from back end starter to solid closer and that was the way he was viewed going into the 2023 offseason. And when the Braves signed him for 3/$30MM, I was excited for another back end bullpen guy, but wasn’t quite convinced that he was worth the money. A day later, we find out that AA wanted him in the rotation and now, 3/$30MM seems like an absolute steal for a guy that put up $28.2 MM in value in 2024, according to fWAR.

Reynaldo’s Fantastic 2024

And while there were a few injury scares along the way, nothing serious ever came out of the scares and Lopez ended up starting 25 games and throwing 135.2 innings of upper end baseball. It’s also worth point out that Lopez’s success was no fluke as his Statcast page is chock full of red as his breaking run value, pitching run value, and fastball run value were in the 99th, 97th, and 99th percentiles.

Heading in to 2025, Lopez will likely slot in as the number 3 starter, which is quite a luxury considering his success in 2024. And now that he restructured his contract, Lopez should be around for the next 3 years.