Former Guardians reliever emerging as valuable weapon for NL East-leading Braves

For the final month of the 2023 season, Reynaldo López was quietly one of the best relievers in all of baseball during his stint with the Guardians. 

While the Guardians were just playing out the string for most of that month, he made the most of his time with Cleveland’s pitching factory thanks to a 12-game span where he tossed 11 scoreless innings. 

Now it looks like Atlanta Braves fans could get a chance to experience that version of López thanks to a mid-season role shift that has the 32-year-old moving back to the bullpen after spending the first two-plus seasons of his time with the Braves in the starting rotation. 

Although that role worked out well early in his time in Atlanta when he blossomed into an All-Star, he was injured for most of last season and ineffective at the start of 2026. 

After López opened the season by allowing just two runs across 15 2/3  innings in his first three starts, he was ejected from that third start after inciting a benches-clearing brawl that led to him getting hit with a five-game suspension. 

He returned from that suspension and allowed four runs in one inning of work against the Nationals, which led to manager Walt Weiss announcing the "temporary" move of shifting López to the bullpen. 

Reynaldo López's new role with the Braves should look familiar to Guardians fans

He’s already made one relief appearance since being moved down to the bullpen and tossed two scoreless innings against the Tigers in Atlanta’s 4-3 come-from-behind win on Wednesday. 

While López struggles obviously played a part in the shift, there’s more to it than that. Not only is Spencer Strider set to return from the injured list this weekend, but top prospect JR Ritchie also pitched well in López’s place. 

But, as Guardians fans learned during his brief stint with the team in 2023, López can be a dangerous weapon out of the bullpen. 

The Guardians acquired him from the Angels at the end of that season as a part of Los Angeles’ salary dump and immediately thrust him into the heart of their bullpen hierarchy, where he allowed just eight baserunners over 11 innings of work. 

He was able to parlay that performance into a three-year, $30 million deal with theBraves. 

While he appeared in a bit of a long relief role for the Braves in his bullpen debut, he could end up seeing some work as a single-inning high-leverage arm. Atlanta’s currently down closer Rasiel Iglesias and has yet to find a defined set-up arm behind new closer Robert Suarez. 

In fact, things got so desperate that the Braves turned to old friend Carlos Carrasco for some temporary relief help.

The Braves are clearly the class of the National League, but their bullpen stands out as a clear hole. A resurgent López working in relief could go a long way toward fixing that.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow