The Atlanta Braves designated pitcher Tyler Kinley for assignment this week, making room for the recall of pitching prospect AJ Smith-Shawver, who was activated to start against the Minnesota Twins.
Kinley's tenure in Atlanta ends on a quiet note. His final outing in a Braves uniform came Monday, August 17, against Minnesota — 0.2 innings pitched, one strikeout, and a 4.01 ERA on the ledger. It wasn't a blowup performance that sealed his fate so much as the organizational calculus of a contending team choosing upside over veteran depth. When Smith-Shawver is the player coming up, someone has to go, and Kinley drew the short straw.
The DFA opens a 10-day window for the Braves to trade, release, or outright Kinley to the minors. Given his MLB experience and competitiveness as a reliever, a pickup by another club isn't out of the question — but for now, his run in Atlanta is effectively over.
On the other side of the Barry alumni ledger, infielder Alex De Goti remains on the Texas Rangers' roster at shortstop, though no standout statistical moments emerged for him during the August 16–22 window covered here.
For a program like Barry University — a Division II school in Miami Shores not typically in the national spotlight — having active MLB alumni is itself a testament to the development pipeline the Buccaneers have quietly built. Kinley's career, regardless of what comes next, represents that pedigree. The next chapter for the reliever remains to be written.
AI-generated summary
