As is often the case with Brave’s moves, the signing comes out of the blue. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos suggested during the GM Meetings that the team was more focused on addressing shortstop and upgrading the starting rotation, while keeping the bullpen on the back burner. That apparently changed when he got the chance to keep Iglesias, who remains a high-end reliever as he enters his age-36 season.
The 11-year veteran has a 2.35 earned run average in 218 2/3 innings since the Braves acquired him from the Angels at the 2022 trade deadline. He is fourth in the MLB with 113 saves since the start of that season. Iglesias posted a sub-3.00 ERA every season between 2020 and 2024 as one of the league’s steadier closers.
It looked like they were going to go off the rails in early 2025. Iglesias gave up an early-season home run barrage, including five longballs in April alone. He surrendered seven roundtrippers before the end of May and posted an ugly 5.91 ERA through the first two months. The move reversed over the summer, as Iglesias was one of the league’s best late-game teams starting in early June. He ripped off 46 frames of 1.96 ERA ball while striking out 29.3% of opponents over the final four months of the season. Iglesias gave up just one home run in that time, despite posting a huge 54.5% flyball percentage.
The truth certainly lies somewhere between these two extremes. Iglesias wouldn’t continue giving up home runs on a quarter of flyballs like he did early this year, nor will he maintain the sub-2% homer/fly percentage he posted later in the season. That will be the biggest concern going forward, but his strikeout and walk profiles remain strong. Iglesias eliminated 27.4% of opponents at a decent walk rate of 6%. He posted a 3.21 ERA overall while going 29-34 in save opportunities – just shy of the sixth 30-save showing of his career.
MLBTR ranked Iglesias as our #32 free agent and the #5 reliever in the class when predicting a two-year, $26 million contract. Iglesias did not command the second year for what would have been his 37-year campaign. The Braves were apparently one of at least three teams to offer a significant one-year contract. Francy Romero reports that the Blue Jays and Dodgers also made offers of about $16 million, but Iglesias declined to remain in Atlanta. These two teams were the only others publicly linked to Iglesias during what turned out to be a brief stay on the open market.
Toronto and Los Angeles are two of a number of teams that remain in the market for a late-inning reliever. Edwin Diaz will almost certainly land the largest contract in the class despite rejecting a qualifying offer from the Mets. Devin Williams has received a lot of attention in the first weeks of the off-season. Robert Suarez should get a multi-year deal at a hefty annual salary. Ryan Helsley, Kyle Finnegan, Emilio Pagan And Kenley Jansen are among the many other unsigned closers.
There’s more to come.
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