Breaking-News: How Much Longer Can the Braves Justify Keeping This Struggling Reliever? Braves’ Loyalty to Struggling Reliever Could Be Costing Them Wins — Fans Are Losing Patience

Pretty much nothing is going right for the Braves these days, and while the team’s overall struggles are well-documented, this is a quick spotlight on Rafael Montero’s rocky tenure. Brought in early this season on a minimal financial risk after two rough years in Houston, Montero got off to a brutal start in Atlanta. His first seven outings produced an ugly 124/136/160 line — ineffective, inefficient, and flat-out bad. The lone silver lining during that stretch? He wasn’t giving up home runs, which helped limit the damage and allowed him to post two shutdowns against just one meltdown.

Things slightly improved from there, as Montero turned in a somewhat more tolerable 88/67/98 line in his next batch of appearances. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but the improvement—especially with no homers allowed—at least gave the Braves a reason to keep him in the mix. Unfortunately, that small streak of competence came to a halt in his latest outing, where Montero surrendered a three-run homer that erased any illusion of stability.

With that home run, Montero’s numbers as a Brave now sit at a discouraging 129/106/121. That’s not the kind of stat line that earns job security, especially on a team already floundering. Yet, despite his continued inconsistency, the Braves have been surprisingly patient with struggling arms this season, seemingly hesitant to make cuts even when the writing’s on the wall.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify keeping Montero on the active roster, especially with other bullpen options waiting in the wings. The leash can only be so long before performance demands action, and Montero hasn’t done much to buy himself more time. With the Braves looking for any kind of spark to turn things around, trimming dead weight might be a necessary step.

So the question now is: How much longer will the Braves hold on? If Montero’s next appearance doesn’t show marked improvement — or at least some reason to believe he’s turning a corner — it might finally be time to make a move. The margin for error is shrinking by the day, and so is Montero’s case for sticking around.