The Braves introduced Monday that they’ve signed veteran outfielder Eddie Rosario to a significant league contract and optioned fellow outfielder Jarred Kelenic to Triple-A Gwinnett. With the intention to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Atlanta designated righty Zach Thompson for project.
Kelenic’s demotion comes amid a calamitously poor begin for the 25-year-old former prime prospect. He’s opened the season with a .167/.231/.300 batting line and a large 23 strikeouts in his first 65 plate appearances (35.4%). These struggles come regardless of Kelenic being shielded nearly completely from left-handed pitching. The Braves have let him face a southpaw simply six occasions in 2025. He’s hitless in these six plate appearances and has gone down on strikes in 4 of them.
Atlanta took on a collection of underwater contracts by way of a convoluted sequence of trades within the 2023-24 offseason, successfully consuming all of that lifeless cash so as to buy Kelenic from the Mariners. Seattle unloaded the rest of its commitments to first baseman Evan White and left-hander Marco Gonzales within the authentic commerce. Atlanta flipped Gonzales to the Pirates for a bit of money and shipped White to Anaheim whereas taking again the undesirable contracts of David Fletcher and Max Stassi (the latter of whom was bought off to the White Sox). Atlanta took on greater than $20MM in that sequence, and that’s earlier than factoring within the luxurious tax penalties required to take action.
It was an costly gambit, and to this point, it merely hasn’t paid off. Kelenic had a below-average offensive output in 2024 and has clearly taken an additional step again in 2025. Since coming to Atlanta, he’s turned in a .222/.279/.381 line with a 30.4% strikeout charge. The Braves, sitting final place within the NL East after a surprisingly poor begin, can’t afford the posh of a extra affected person method with Kelenic. They’ve additionally seen Alex Verdugo and Eli White handily outperform Kelenic on the younger season. That pairing will be part of Michael Harris II, Stuart Fairchild and the newly signed Rosario within the outfield combine whereas Kelenic hopes to learn from a reset in Triple-A.
The 33-year-old Rosario will head to Atlanta’s large league roster for a fifth straight season. The Braves initially acquired him from the Guardians in a salary-dump deal on the 2021 commerce deadline and watched the longtime Twins outfielder catch hearth down the stretch. Rosario performed a significant function within the Braves’ 2021 World Sequence run, and so they rewarded him with a two-year, $18MM deal to return to Atlanta that offseason. It didn’t pay dividends. Rosario had a brutal 2022 season and was league common on the plate in 2023. He signed with the Nationals as a free agent and wound up again in Atlanta after Washington lower him unfastened.
The Braves shall be Rosario’s second large league cease this yr. He very briefly performed with the Dodgers, going hitless in 4 plate appearances earlier than being designated for project. Rosario hasn’t had a full above-average season on the plate since 2020, his ultimate yr in Minnesota. In 1521 plate appearances for 4 groups since that point, he’s slashed .232/.278/.396 (82 wRC+). He might conceivably platoon with the righty-swinging White in a single nook spot whereas the Braves await Ronald Acuña Jr.’s return from the injured checklist.
As for the 31-year-old Thompson, he’ll now be traded or positioned on waivers throughout the subsequent 5 days. Waivers can be a 48-hour course of, if the Braves select to go that route. Inside every week’s time, Thompson will know the end result of his DFA.
He’s appeared in two large league video games with the Braves in 2025 and tossed 3 2/3 shutout innings. In 4 1/3 Triple-A frames, Thompson has allowed six runs (three earned) on seven hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts. That’s his first motion on a mound since 2023. The righty missed the entire 2024 marketing campaign after present process surgical procedure to restore a torn flexor tendon.
Thompson has seen main league time in two different seasons. From 2021-22, he pitched 196 2/3 innings, working primarily as a starter, between the Marlins and Pirates. He was sharp in his 2021 MLB debut with Miami however struggled after being traded to Pittsburgh within the Jacob Stallings deal that offseason. On the entire, Thompson carries a 4.36 ERA within the majors. He’s fanned 18.3% of his opponents in opposition to an 8.6% stroll charge. Thompson doesn’t throw onerous, sitting simply 91.2 mph along with his four-seamer, however he has a full slate of minor league choices remaining and will make some sense for a staff looking for reasonably priced depth on the fifth spot in its rotation.
