Chad Kuhl’s with the Braves and you’ll very likely be seeing him in action during spring training.
The Atlanta Braves took another step to bolster their pitching depth on Wednesday evening, as Aram Leighton of Just Baseball is reporting that the Braves and RHP Chad Kuhl have come to an agreement on a minor league deal for the upcoming season. Additionally, MLB Trade Rumors made sure to note that Kuhl will likely be a non-roster invitee to Atlanta’s big league spring training camp.
Kuhl has been bouncing around since leaving the Pirates following the 2021. Pittsburgh was where Kuhl had his only real standout season back in 2017, which is when he made 31 starts and pitched 157.1 innings, producing an ERA of 4.35, an ERA- of 102, a FIP of 4.61 and a FIP- of 98 for a career-high fWAR of 2.2. He wasn’t able to build on that season and has floated in the negative-to-zero fWAR range since then.
He’s also transitioned from starting regularly to being more of a bullpen arm — he made 31 appearances last season and pitched 53.1 innings and produced a 5.06 ERA, a 125 ERA-, a 4.10 FIP and a 97 FIP-, which was good for a 0.3 fWAR with the White Sox in 2024. As average-looking as that production looks like, that qualified as his best season (according to fWAR) since 2022 when he was a starter for the Rockies.
When things are going well for Chad Kuhl, that means that he’s avoiding getting barreled up and inducing a ton of ground balls. He finished 2024 with a Barrel percentage in the 82nd percentile and a Ground Ball percentage in the 70th percentile. He also cut his walk rate down to 4.22 walks per nine innings in 2024, which is more in line with his career average (4.12 BB/9) than the extremes he had in 2023 where it was up to 6.57 walks per nine innings and in 2022 when it was on the other end of the spectrum at 3.81 BB/9.
Either way, Kuhl will be joining a crowded field of pitchers who will be looking to fill out Atlanta’s pitching staff by earning a roster spot. If all goes well, he’ll be in a long-relief role when called upon. There’s no telling whether or not he’ll gain a roster spot right out of the gate but also it really wouldn’t be too surprising if Kuhl stuck around with the organization and saw some big league action at some point down the long and winding road that is the regular season.
