ATLANTA — The Braves declined 2026 options for two of their top relievers, right-handers Pierce Johnson and Tyler Kinley, a league source confirmed Wednesday. The latter move was surprising to many, considering how well Kinley pitched after coming from the Colorado Rockies in a trade-deadline deal.
Kinley will be 35 in January, but the $5.5 million option for next season still seemed reasonable for a pitcher who posted an 0.72 ERA and 0.68 WHIP in 24 appearances for the Braves. He had 22 strikeouts, along with only six walks and one home run allowed in 25 innings.
Johnson’s option was for $7 million, so there was always a question as to whether the Braves would pick that up after his solid but hardly sensational season — a 3.05 ERA in 65 appearances with eight homers allowed in 59 innings, albeit with an impressive .607 opponents’ OPS in high-leverage situations.
Kinley had been penciled in by seemingly everyone as a projected part of the 2026 bullpen until Thursday, the deadline for teams to decide on players with 2026 options.
Former manager Brian Snitker repeatedly lauded Kinley in the last months of the season and spoke of how glad he was that Kinley was under contract for 2026. In president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous’ postseason review on Oct. 4, Anthopoulos mentioned Kinley specifically when discussing offseason needs.
“I think every year the bullpen’s always on your list,” Anthopoulos said. “I mean, when we traded for Tyler Kinley, we said at the time, we were focused on ’26. So we weren’t buying necessarily (at the trade deadline), we were looking at things that we thought could impact us in ’26.”
It’s uncertain what swayed the team to move on from Kinley, other than his age. But he showed little if any decline in his stuff with the Braves, after pitching to a bloated 5.66 ERA in 49 appearances for the Rockies prior to the trade.
Coincidentally, Johnson had a similar jump in performance after the Braves acquired him from the Rockies in a 2023 deadline deal. He had a 6.00 ERA in 43 appearances that season with Colorado, then a 0.76 ERA in 24 appearances the rest of the way with the Braves, who re-signed him to a two-year, $14.25 million deal in October 2023.
Johnson, 34, had a 3.36 ERA in 123 appearances over the two seasons since, while throwing a higher percentage of curveballs than any other major-league pitcher in that span, and apparently hanging a few too many of them for the Braves’ comfort level at $7 million in 2026.
The Braves also declined an $8 million option on infielder David Fletcher for 2026.