The Braves announced their roster for the 2026 NL Wild Card playoff round this morning, and it included two unrostered infielders: Rowdy Tellez And Luke Williams. Despite not making the 40-man roster, both players were eligible for the playoffs by virtue of being in the organization before September 1.
Atlanta has yet to officially announce any trades, but its transaction log on MLB.com indicates that the right-hander Ricky Vanasco was designated for assignment. Vanasco and his right-handed compatriot Elieser Hernandez are no longer listed on the Braves’ 40-man roster, while Tellez and Williams have both been added. This likely indicates another DFA for Hernández.
Atlanta carries 11 pitchers for the Wild Card round of play: Dylan Dodd, Didier Fuentes, Grant Holmes, Raisel Iglesias, Ray Kerr, Dylan Lee, Tyler Mahle, Victor Mederos, Chris Sale, Robert Suarez And Brent Suter.
This leaves the Braves with the following 15 position players to complete the roster: Ozzie Albies, Ha Seong Kim, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Dominique SmithTellez, Williams, Drake Baldwin, Sean Murphy, Ronald Acuna Jr., Mauricio Dubon, Michael Harris II, Hicklen Brewer, Dashawn Keirsey Jr. And Mike Yastrzemski.
Tellez and Williams are pretty surprising additions. The former played seven games with Atlanta this season and was 2-for-10 with a home run and a double. The latter recorded only one appearance in the majors this season, but spent parts of three seasons in the majors with the Braves. They both spent the majority of the 2026 season with the Braves’ primary affiliate, Gwinnett.
Tellez, 31, will give manager Walt Weiss a left-handed bat off the bench. He’s not going to start Olson at first base again, but can bring a lot of power to the plate in a pinch-hitting role against a tough right-hander. Tellez has about league-average offensive production against righties over his career, largely due to a below-par .299 OBP. However, he hit 108 home runs and posted a .217 ISO (slugging minus batting average) in 2,128 career plate appearances against right-handers. If he is inserted as a pinch hitter, it will likely be against a right-handed pitcher when extra big hitting is needed.
Williams, 30, carries just a .212/.272/.280 hitting line in 350 plate appearances over six big league seasons. He can play just about anywhere on the diamond, however, having logged at least seven major league frames at every position other than catcher (pitcher included). This versatility and the glut of 15-position players will give Weiss plenty of options to exploit matchups with pinch hitters and/or pinch runners late in games.
Vanasco, who turns 28 next month, was the subject of a waiver request from the Tigers organization in late August. He pitched in five games for Detroit this season, but never received a call-up to the majors with Atlanta. Vanasco has only pitched 10 1/3 innings in the majors to this point in his career and has been tagged for 14 runs in that small sample. However, he recorded a 3.31 ERA in 54 1/3 Triple-A frames this year and has a 3.18 ERA lifetime across four seasons at the highest level of the minor leagues (124 1/3 innings). Vanasco has been outright ruled out in the past and may hit free agency if he goes unclaimed.
Hernández now knows this carousel very well. He signed a minor league contract with Atlanta over the winter and has been selected to the major league roster four times – most recently on September 24. He was quickly designated for assignment following the three previous call-ups to the majors. Each time, he cleared waivers, elected free agency and re-signed a new minor league contract.
It’s the same ploy the Braves have used with swingmen Carlos Carrasco and Jesse Chavez in the past; Atlanta uses pitchers effectively in this role as the 41st man on a 40-man roster. Players agree with the setup. This provides them with quite a bit of major league service time, and the frequent renegotiation of new deals with the minor leagues allows them to gain additional benefits to continue in a relatively rough-and-tumble role.
Hernández has pitched a dozen innings in the big leagues this year and has allowed just a 2.25 ERA. His Triple-A numbers aren’t as strong but still solid: 85 1/3 innings, 4.64 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate. Hernández has a career 4.99 ERA in 315 1/3 major league innings, primarily with the Marlins, and he also spent time overseas with the Korean Baseball Organization.
Assuming he clears waivers again, Hernández will have the choice of accepting an outright assignment (and thus retaining his playoff eligibility) or getting a head start on free agency. Players with more than three years of major league service who have been cut from a team’s 40-man roster outright can become free agents in the minor leagues during the offseason. Hernández is over five years old. In that case, it might make more sense for him to accept the assignment simply to stick around as a depth option. Either way, it seems like there’s a good chance he’ll be with Atlanta next spring as a non-roster invitee.
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