Chavez is an unlikely yet irresistible All-Star
Braves reliever A.J. Minter won’t tell him directly — “You don’t bring that stuff up,” he said — but he really wants his throwing partner Jesse Chavez to be an All-Star.
“There’s no reason why Jesse shouldn’t be in the AllStar Game,” Minter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He’s earned it. Don’t just give it to him just because he’s 39 and he’s having one of his best years. He’s earned it, to be in the position he has. Hopefully we can make it happen for him.”
Same thing with starter Charlie Morton.
“I think it’s very welldeserving,” Morton told the AJC. “And I think everybody in the clubhouse would be extremely proud and happy for him. I don’t think it’s even a question. That would be awesome. I mean, I’ve thought about that and hoped that for him.”
Manager Brian Snitker is a little more realistic, knowing that starters and closers typically are the ones to make up All-Star pitching staffs. Chavez is neither of those, his role being trusted do-it-all problem solver in the Braves bullpen.
“I hope he gets mentioned, I hope he gets votes, I hope he’s in the consideration all the way down,” he told the AJC. “And if he makes it, great. That’d be awesome.”
The pro-Chavez sentiment in the Braves clubhouse has something to do with his performance, which has been dynamite in his 16th major-league season. In 31 appearances totaling 29 innings, he has a 1.55 ERA with 36 strikeouts against nine walks and a .200 opponent batting average. Going into Monday’s games, no one in the National League with as many innings pitched as Chavez had a lower ERA.
For a team that has been continuously snagged by injuries — including now, his own, a shin contusion that has him on the 15-day injured list — Chavez’s consistency and versatility have been invaluable for a team that holds the secondbest record in baseball going into its three-game series at Philadelphia starting Tuesday.
“He’s willing to do anything and everything for this ballclub,” Snitker said. “He’ll open, close, middle, bridge, whatever. He sits down there and waits for that phone to ring and when it does, he gets up and warms up and it doesn’t matter the situation.”
More than the numbers, though, that selflessness gets more to the heart about why Chavez’s co-workers (and employers) are all on the Chavez for All-Star campaign and why all Braves fans — and anyone who appreciates a grinder getting his turn in the spotlight — ought to be, too.
“That’s not for everybody,” Snitker said of Chavez’s utilityman disposition. “That role and handling it all like that, like I say, isn’t for everybody. I can’t say enough about him, what he does and what he’s brought to this team and everything.”
It’s hard to not get behind Chavez even without knowing the sentiment that his teammates have for him.
Chavez was selected in the 42nd round of the 2002 draft, the 1,252nd player selected. He is the only player taken in that round that year to make it to the bigs.
“I think (being a 42nd rounder) is what keeps me going every day, knowing I wasn’t supposed to be here, knowing I didn’t have the body type to last this long,” Chavez, listed (possibly generously) at 6-foot-1, told the AJC on Sunday. “But that’s just not getting to know the person.”
He has played for nine teams (including the Braves a mind-boggling four separate times), been traded nine times and been released twice.
“We all know (All-Star selections) can sometimes be a popularity contest, but if it is, that’s fine,” Minter said. “Jesse’s one of the fan favorites. He should be (a fan favorite) around the league; he’s played for half the teams.”
The appreciation that teammates hold for Chavez makes pulling for him all the easier. Morton happily spreads the word. The two first became teammates with the Pirates in 2009, rejoining in 2021 with the Braves through Chavez’s multiple iterations in the uniform. He has been a friend and a fan since their half-season together in Pittsburgh.
“In the long run, in looking back at what Jesse’s been able to do, because he went from a guy that was a middle reliever to in and out of starting roles, spot starting, back in the bullpen, a bunch of different teams,” Morton said. “And to me, that reveals something about him and his nature and his character and who he is. Just a really good human being.”
In the clubhouse, Morton said, the Braves have something of a running bit where they apologize to each other for no reason.
“So, Jesse, he’ll look at me and he’ll be like, ‘I’m sorry, pal,’” Morton said. “And it’s playful and it’s a joke, but it’s very revealing of his nature that he’s humble.”
While Chavez has received widespread praise for his influence on the younger members of the Braves bullpen, Morton goes a step further. He has influence on people in general.
“We want to see the goodness in others that we would like to see in ourselves, and when you actually see it manifesting itself in the real world and you actually recognize that in somebody, you’re drawn to that,” Morton said. “Do you know what I mean?”
Ryan Keller, a Truist Park usher, does know what Morton means. He sees it in how Chavez willingly signs autographs and hands out balls to fans and, beneath the stands, interacts with ushers and security people who make Truist Park go.
“I just usher here, work here, and just in passing, seeing him, he’s always been so nice — shake my hand, (say), ‘Hey, what’s up?’” Keller said. “That kind of stuff. He’s very personable. He doesn’t big-time anybody. Everybody’s the same.”
That said, he is, in fact, an influence in the bullpen.
Said Minter, “Jesse, I’m sure I can speak for everyone that he’s everyone’s favorite teammate. He’s a leader, but at the same time, he likes to keep everything light, keep everything fun.”
Among Chavez’s contributions to bullpen life is his assortment of phrases invoked at various moments of games. His unchanging greeting: “Oh, hey.” When a player at bat bends a foul ball down the line, Chavez says, “two minutes for hooking” (a hockey reference). He sticks with the pucks when a Braves pitcher gets a batter to swing and miss on a high offering — “high sticking.”
When an opposing pitching coach or manager goes to the mound and is unsuccessful in stopping a Braves rally, Chavez observes, “Bad mound visit.” When a Braves pitcher makes it through an inning with just a few pitches: “Send him back out!”
Chavez may need to tweak his set before open mic night — “for sure dad jokes,” Minter said — but anything to keep the mood positive.
“We’ve got so many (sayings) down there,” Chavez said. “We’ve got so much time and basically we’re in a dungeon by ourselves.”
On Sunday, Chavez had been released from his servitude, though a dummy used in the bullpen as a stand-in hitter wore his No. 60, a totem in his absence. Chavez is on the 15-day injured list after taking a line drive off his left shin against the Mets June 14 traveling at almost 100 miles per hour. There was no break, but he is unable to walk without the aid of crutches.
Speaking during Sunday’s win over Colorado from the press box, Chavez described his condition as “better.” He did recognize that he is a legitimate All-Star candidate. It’d be a remarkable accomplishment; at a month shy of his 40th birthday, he’d be the sixth-oldest player ever to make his All-Star Game debut, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
“Obviously, it’d be a huge accomplishment from a personal standpoint on the back end of my career when I look back at the end of it,” he said. “But with this that happened the other day (meaning the injury), it kind of hinders it a little bit. All I can do is go out and help my team out the best I can. It’d be nice, but I don’t want to have a win for the N.L. I want to have a win for the Atlanta Braves.”
Chavez is either a much better actor than a comedian or he was being entirely genuine in a sentiment that a lot of players give lip service to but don’t necessarily believe. No need to ask which option his teammates would pick.
Said Minter, “I mean, Jesse, he’s the kind of guy that he could care less about it, but everyone wants to see him make it.”