Braves relief pitcher Jesse Chavez recognizes that how he has experienced this season shouldn’t be, but he simultaneously knows it to be true.
The 40-year-old is halfway through a season that happens for pitchers his age about as often as changes in the papacy. Somehow, he’s actually feeling better at 40 than he did at 39.
And, up until a shin injury that kept him out him for three months, he was really good at 39.
“That’s weird to say and weird to see and weird to understand at 40,” Chavez told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday night at Truist Park. “But the way my program is, the way I take care of my body, the way I make sure everything’s right each and every day, I have no problem waking up and throwing the ball.”
Chavez’s claims of elderly vigor are substantiated entirely by what he has done with ball in hand. After a rare bumpy ride Tuesday against the San Francisco Giants, Chavez had a 1.51 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP in 35-2/3 innings and 27 appearances. After Tuesday’s games, he was one of 13 pitchers in the majors who had thrown at least 30 innings with an ERA at or below 1.75 and a WHIP of 1.1 or less.
He’s a legitimate candidate to make his first All-Star team.
“It’s awesome,” manager Brian Snitker said Tuesday. “You look at his numbers, they’re right there with a lot of them that are going to make that (team).”
And, on top of that, just in case it needs to be reiterated, Chavez shouldn’t be extinguishing fires so consistently and thoroughly at this advanced stage of his career. Through Tuesday, there had been 527 pitchers who had made at least five appearances this season. At 40 years and 10 months, Chavez was the second oldest in the group (behind only Houston’s Justin Verlander and three months ahead of another ageless marvel on the Braves staff, Charlie Morton).
Framed another way, since 1975, there have been three pitchers who have accomplished what Chavez has done so far this year – pitch 30-plus innings with an ERA or 2.00 or better and a WHIP of 1.1 or better in an age-40 season or older. If he can make it to the finish line, he will join Hall of Fame closers Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman and the allegedly chemically enhanced all-time great Roger Clemens.
Pretty good company for a middle-relief pitcher who was a 42nd-round pick of the 2002 draft, has a career 4.21 ERA and whose biggest claim to fame is that he has been involved in more trades (10) than any player in MLB history, according to MLB.com.
“He keeps getting better and better with age, which is really hard to do,” reliever Tyler Matzek told the AJC. “I’m starting to get a little older (Matzek is 33), and I’ve seen how hard it is. My man’s, I think, six, seven years older than me and I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t know how he’s doing it.’ He’s unbelievable.”
There’s a lot to find unbelievable, but in short, it’s that Chavez has been consistently effective in a variety of roles with an anachronistic style, and he has done so at an age at which nearly all of his peers are out of the game.
In the unglamorous role of middle relief, Chavez has shined. He parachutes into jams to take the baton from faltering starters, he contributes a scoreless inning or two to help get the Braves to the end of decisive wins or losses and he comes in to protect leads or keep the Braves close. The versatility doesn’t get its due.
“Because, when you think, he can go out there and cover three innings if you have to, and then, in the same respect, he can come in with chaos on the bases and one out and somehow find a way to get out of there,” catching coach Sal Fasano told the AJC. “I think, basically, he gets outs, and he’ll get as many outs as you need.”
Chavez dominates with location and movement from his cutter and sinker rather than overpowering hitters with heat, as has become the fashion of the day. Chavez’s fastball velocity (90.8 mph) is in the lowest eighth percentile, according to Baseball Savant. However, by staying on the fringes of the strike zone, he also limits hard contact. Opposing batters’ average exit velocity is in the 89th percentile.
Chavez “knows how to attack guys and commands well and throws pitches off of other pitches instead of just being a guy that’s just going up there and hoping to out-stuff you,” first baseman Matt Olson told the AJC.
“If I had to tell a kid to go watch someone in the big leagues pitch, it’s Jesse,” fellow reliever A.J. Minter said. “Especially nowadays when pitchers are throwing harder, (focusing on) wipeout sliders, Jesse is a pitcher.”
He’s pitching well enough that, after saying in February that he would probably retire at the end of the season, he has changed his mind. He said Tuesday that he’d like to keep going.
“Hopefully it can keep going, and hopefully we can keep that relationship (with the Braves) going,” he said. “But I love this place and everybody knows that.”
Chavez, who answers to “Coach,” most assuredly feels the love back. On Tuesday, Matzek, Minter and several teammates wore gray T-shirts before the game campaigning for Chavez to make the All-Star game in Texas.
In red and blue lettering, the shirts bore the message “Chavez ‘24/Jesse Chavez For All-Star” and also a caricature of Chavez, complete with sunglasses and earrings, above the message “Get Coach to Texas!”
Minter took it upon himself to activate the campaign, ordering about 50 shirts for teammates and coaches to wear. He made sure to clarify this was not a feel-good gimmick.
Credit: Ken Sugiura
Credit: Ken Sugiura
“He just deserves to be there,” Matzek said. “We’re trying to kind of bring some attention to it, that this guy who’s doing things that guys half his age can’t do, and he’s absolutely dominating the league right now.”
To be sure, the admiration for Chavez goes far deeper than “old guy getting young dudes out on the regular.” He is, among other things, a sage eager to dispense his wisdom, a worthy “Call of Duty” opponent and an irrepressibly good-natured guy.
“He’s always got a smile on his face, always happy, always spreading those good vibes with everybody,” Matzek said.
Will Chavez make the All-Star team when the full rosters are announced Sunday?
It’s a long shot.
Would it be great if he did?
Just ask one of his teammates.
“This place’ll be pretty stoked for him,” reliever Aaron Bummer said. “Top to bottom, I think. There’s no doubt about that.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this column misstated the duration of Jesse Chavez’s 2023 shin injury. It sidelined him for three months.
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