Just a few days after signing Jurickson Profar, the Braves are right back in the free agent market, as Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports Atlanta is among teams interested in right-handed reliever Ryne Stanek.

The 33-year-old spent the 2024 campaign with the Mets and Mariners, neither of which were successful stints. The veteran pitched to a 4.88 ERA and 4.14 FIP across 55.1 innings of work. The lone bright spot in Stanek’s season last year was his 27.8% strikeout rate.

However, just a few years ago, he was one of the more reliable bullpen arms. From 2021 to 2023, he threw 173.2 innings for the Astros, accumulating a 2.90 ERA. He’s still got the stuff, with his fastball consistently in the high 90s, so the Braves clearly see that a fresh set of eyes can help him get back to that form we saw in Houston.

The Braves filled their single biggest need with the Profar signing, but the bullpen is now in desperate need of bolstering. The loss of A.J. Minter and Joe Jimenez is devastating. Those are two high-leverage arms that need to be replaced in some capacity. That’s not exactly who Stanek has been recently, but perhaps Alex Anthopoulos sees something that New York and Seattle didn’t in the hard-throwing reliever.

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Photographer: Kevin Langley/Icon Sportswire