Braves re-sign Carlos Carrasco and Darius Vines to minors contracts

The Braves have signed right-handers Carlos Carrasco And Darius vines to new minor league deals, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. Both players were eligible for minor league free agency and apparently opted to hit the open market, only to both return to the Atlanta organization.

After signing a minor contract with the Yankees last February, the righty earned a spot on the Opening Day roster due to some injuries on New York’s pitching staff, giving Carrasco a chance to get a few starts. Unfortunately, he posted a 5.91 ERA over 32 innings in the pinstripes, and was designated for assignment and outright twice over the next four months.

Carrasco twice left free agency after those outrights, but found himself having to switch teams again when the Braves acquired the veteran in a cash trade before the deadline. The Braves were looking for all the pitching help they could find in the wake of a plague of injuries in their starting rotation, and Carrasco posted a 9.88 ERA over 13 2/3 innings in an Atlanta uniform. He was DFA’ed again and outright in August and this time opted for free agency, only to quickly re-sign with the Braves.

Carrasco was a staple of Cleveland’s rotation for most of his 16-year MLB career and now enters his age-39 season as just a depth option. The right-hander has a 6.36 ERA and a 17.6% strikeout rate over 239 1/3 big-league frames since the start of the 2023 season, with the highest homer percentage (17.5%) of any pitcher with at least 230 innings in that span.

Vines has spent his entire pro career with the Braves since Atlanta made him a seventh-round draft pick in 2019. He posted a 5.82 ERA over 34 innings in the Show during the 2023-24 seasons, diminishing his potential as a possible rotation candidate for the future team. Atlanta designated Vines for assignment and cut him from the 40-man roster in August 2024, and Vines subsequently missed the entire 2025 season while recovering from an undisclosed injury.

This new minors deal likely reflects the Braves’ confidence that Vines will be healthy in 2026 as he tries to get his career back on track ahead of his age-28 season. There’s no risk to the team in bringing Vines back on a minors deal to see what he has to offer, and a relief role could be in his future if he can’t find consistency as a starting pitcher.