MLB: Braves sign veteran reliever who hasn’t pitched in GL since 2017

The Atlanta Braves sign reliever Michael Tonkin to minor league deal, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. The 32-year-old returns to affiliated ball after splitting the 2021 campaign between the independent ball and the Mexican League with Tijuana Bulls.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Tonkin has 141 major league appearances to his credit. He appeared in the Majors with the Minnesota Twins each season between 2013 and 2017, posting a personal high of 71 2/3 relief sets in 2016:

The Californian Tonkin pitched with a 5.02 ERA that season and owns a 4.43 overall mark, with some home run issues. (1.54 HR/9) offsetting decent strikeout and walk rates (23.1% and 8.4%, respectively).

After the 2017 campaign, Minnesota released Tonkin to pitch for Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The California native posted a 3.71 ERA in 51 innings with the Nippon-Ham Fighters the following season -2018-.

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He then returned to North America in successive minor league deals with the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona D-Backs. Tonkin didn’t have much success at Triple-A in 2019, and Arizona let him go during the 2020 pandemic freeze.


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Raphael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and all Mexican baseball in general. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, LMB All Star, LMP (uninterruptedly since 2009), signatures of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, although as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I have baseball in my veins. Degree in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and a reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I arrived at El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services at Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and a few days later, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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MLB: Braves sign veteran reliever who hasn’t pitched in GL since 2017