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Braves Rumors

Braves Select Luke Williams, Place Jake Fraley On Injured List

By Nick Deeds | September 14, 2025 at 8:57am CDT

The Braves announced a pair of roster moves this morning. Outfielder Jake Fraley was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right oblique muscle in a move backdated to September 11. To replace Fraley on the roster, Atlanta has selected the contract of infielder Luke Williams. The team already had a vacancy on its 40-man roster, so no additional corresponding move was necessary to accommodate Williams.

Fraley, 30, began his career as a second-round pick with the Rays back in 2016. He was swapped to Seattle in the Mike Zunino trade in 2018 and spent parts of three seasons with the big league Mariners before being shipped to the Reds as part of the return for Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez prior to the 2022 season. Fraley had blossomed into a solid enough platoon bat by that point, and in 373 games from 2021 to 2024 he hit a respectable .254/.340/.416. He finished just shy of a 20/20 season in both 2023 and ’24, with 18 homers and 21 steals in the former campaign followed by a 19-homer, 20-steal effort in the latter.

Taken together, that all paints a picture of Fraley as a perfectly solid contributor to an MLB club. He suffered a bit of a slump this year, however, and hit just .232/.332/.387 for the Reds this year with numbers that got progressively worse as the season continued. That led to Cincinnati designating him for assignment, and the Braves jumped at the opportunity to claim him off waivers given their struggles to find adequate production in the outfield this year.

Fraley’s role ended up being a fairly minor one, however, as Jurickson Profar’s return from his early-season suspension and Michael Harris II’s late-season resurgence at the plate largely pushed him out of the conversation for regular playing time. He’s made just nine appearances for Atlanta this year, hitting .304/.333/.348 across 24 trips to the plate. He’ll now miss at least the next week due to this oblique strain, though with the Braves out of the postseason and minimal time left in the regular season it’s possible his 2025 campaign has now come to an end.

Replacing Fraley on the active roster is Williams, who played in 38 games for the Braves earlier this year before being outrighted to the minors. Now in his fifth MLB season, Williams bounced between the Phillies, Giants, Dodgers, and Marlins before settling with Atlanta in a depth role for the 2023 season. He’s a career .213/.271/.281 hitter who offers virtually no value with the bat, but does possess a solid, versatile glove that allows him to play quality defense all over the diamond as needed. Williams will join Eli White, Vidal Brujan, and Nick Allen in the bench mix as the Braves head into the final weeks of the season.

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Atlanta Braves Transactions Jake Fraley Luke Williams

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MLBTR Podcast: Talking Mariners With Jerry Dipoto

By Darragh McDonald | September 12, 2025 at 10:27pm CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to discuss…

  • Seattle’s lack of spending on free agent position players (2:30)
  • The unique challenges of getting players to want to come to Seattle (4:40)
  • The club’s interest in re-signing Josh Naylor (8:15)
  • Do optics matter when making a move such as bringing back Eugenio Suárez or Jorge Polanco? (9:20)
  • The club’s ability to add talent at the deadline (13:25)
  • Does the expanded playoff field make it harder to trade prospects for major league talent? (16:30)

Plus, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors joins the show to discuss…

  • Anthony Rizzo retiring with the Cubs (20:40)
  • Sean Murphy undergoing hip surgery and how the Braves look going into the offseason (24:45)
  • The Lourdes Gurriel Jr. injury and the outlook for the Diamondbacks prior to the winter (31:35)

And we answer your questions, including…

  • What would it look like if the White Sox locked up their young core by giving extensions to Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero and Shane Smith? (42:25)
  • Which version of Pete Crow-Armstrong will the Cubs get going forward, his red-hot first half or recent struggles? (51:40)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Aroldis Chapman, And Offseason Possibilities For The Braves, Rangers, Pirates And Marlins – listen here
  • A Conversation With Pirates GM Ben Cherington — Also The O’s, Zack Wheeler, And The Rangers – listen here
  • The Pohlads Aren’t Selling The Twins, Nathaniel Lowe, And Service Time Manipulation – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

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Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox MLB Trade Rumors Podcast Seattle Mariners Anthony Rizzo Jerry Dipoto Josh Naylor Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Sean Murphy

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John Brebbia Elects Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | September 11, 2025 at 9:30am CDT

Right-hander John Brebbia elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Braves earlier this week.

Brebbia, 35, is undeniably having a bad season. He has tossed 23 1/3 innings between Detroit and Atlanta, allowing 7.71 earned runs per nine. His 22.6% strikeout rate is close to average but his 10.4% walk rate is a bit high. It’s surely not quite as bad as the ERA would indicate. His .338 batting average on balls in play and 56.8% strand rate are both to the unfortunate side. His 5.76 FIP and 4.21 SIERA aren’t amazing figures but they do suggest that the ERA isn’t a perfect reflection of his work this year.

Regardless, he hasn’t been able to stick on a roster for long. The Tigers signed him to a one-year, $2.75MM deal in the offseason. He wasn’t released until mid-June but he also missed close to a month due to a right triceps strain. Atlanta scooped him up on a minor league deal after Detroit let him go. He was back in the majors in late August but lasted barely a week on Atlanta’s roster.

Players with at least five years of service time have the right to reject outright assignments and keep their salary commitments in place. Brebbia is well over that line and has exercised his right. Since the Tigers released him, they are on the hook for the majority of what remains to be paid out of his salary. Any other club could sign Brebbia and would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time spent on the roster.

As mentioned, he has not been in good form this year but the track record is decent. He came into this year with 355 big league innings, a 3.80 ERA, 25.9% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. This year’s major league results haven’t been at that level but he showed potential on the farm. Between signing that minor league deal with Atlanta and getting selected to the majors, he tossed 19 Triple-A innings with a 1.89 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 3.8% walk rate.

It’s possible there are clubs who can see past this year’s struggles in the majors, though there’s still limited short-term appeal. Though Brebbia is cheap and has a good résumé, the regular season has barely two weeks remaining and he wouldn’t be postseason eligible for any club he signs with now. Perhaps he will latch on somewhere for the next few weeks but it’s also possible he goes into offseason mode a bit early.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

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Atlanta Braves Transactions John Brebbia

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Braves Outright Luke Williams

By Darragh McDonald | September 10, 2025 at 8:54am CDT

Infielder/outfielder Luke Williams has been sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to elect free agency though the log doesn’t indicate he has done so.

Williams, 29, had spent parts of 2023 and all of 2024 as a versatile depth piece for Atlanta. However, he exhausted his final option season in 2024, which squeezed him to the edge of the roster. He was passed through waivers and outrighted in March of 2025, just before the season began.

He was called back up in early May and spent over three months on the active roster, but without much playing time. He got into 44 games but only stepped to the plate 33 times, mostly being used as a pinch runner or defensive replacement, in addition to some mop-up work on the mound. He stole five bases but slashed just .133/.182/.200 when he did get to hold the bat.

He landed on the injured list in late August due to an oblique strain. Shortly after being reinstated, he was designated for assignment to open a roster spot. He could have elected free agency this week but will seemingly stay with Gwinnett. According to the log, his outright actually occurred on September 6th. Since he hasn’t elected free agency in the intervening  four days, it seems fair to conclude he won’t do so.

If he’s not added back to the roster by the end of the season, he’ll have another chance to elect free agency at that time. He has just a .213/.271/.281 line in his big league career but has a decent Triple-A slash of .257/.339/.418 going back to the start of 2022. He can steal a few bases and has experience at every position on the diamond apart from catcher.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

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Atlanta Braves Transactions Luke Williams

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Anthopoulos: Rotation To Be Offseason “Point Of Emphasis” For Braves

By Anthony Franco | September 9, 2025 at 10:32pm CDT

Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos met with reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) on Monday. MLBTR already covered some of those comments on Ha-Seong Kim, Sean Murphy and Brian Snitker this morning. Anthopoulos also spoke about the rotation, which figures to be an offseason priority.

The Braves didn’t make any rotation moves of note last winter. Atlanta’s only significant offseason expenditure was the three-year Jurickson Profar signing. Anthopoulos pointed out that Grant Holmes pitched well before suffering a season-ending elbow injury. Atlanta entered the season with a strong top four of Chris Sale, Spencer Strider (once he completed his rehab from last year’s elbow surgery), Spencer Schwellenbach and AJ Smith-Shawver. That would be a good group if everyone had stayed healthy, but that’s obviously not how things played out.

Atlanta will need to do a much better job stockpiling depth beyond their top five if they expect to compete in 2026. Anthopoulos acknowledged as much, saying the rotation “definitely will be a point of emphasis for us this winter.” Smith-Shawver is already out for most or all of next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. Holmes has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. He’s hoping to avoid surgery but admitted last month that he won’t really know whether that’s viable until he begins ramping up a throwing program early in the offseason. Even if Holmes is able to avoid the knife, his elbow health will be something of a question mark next spring.

López made one start before undergoing shoulder surgery that’ll probably end his season. Schwellenach is coming back from a broken elbow. Sale missed two months with a fractured ribcage, and while that can be written off as a freak occurrence, he’s going into his age-37 campaign. Strider has had a terrible second half and now spots a 4.86 ERA in 20 starts. Hurston Waldrep has looked great since being called up from Triple-A Gwinnett last month, but he’s nine games into his MLB career.

Anthopoulos said the Braves aren’t currently thinking about pushing López back into relief. “I have no idea how the offseason goes, but this was an All-Star starter with a sub-2 ERA (in 2024),” the GM said. “That’s not what I’m projecting for him going forward, but even if you think there’s a regression into the 3s, that’s still an outstanding starter, who’s proven — as a young starter with the White Sox, back-to-back years of 33 and 34 starts, logging innings over 180 twice. … Our thought is definitely him as (a) starter. But what if we have a bunch of starter trades that present themselves and so on? It would be a great problem to have.”

There’s still a decent amount of in-house talent. The Braves need more stability in the middle to the back of the staff. Atlanta has given multiple starts to the likes of Joey Wentz, Carlos Carrasco, Erick Fedde, Cal Quantrill, Davis Daniel and 20-year-old Didier Fuentes this season. Bryce Elder has taken the ball 25 times and leads the club in both starts and innings. That’s clearly not going to cut it. It’d be a surprise if the Braves don’t add at least one pitcher who is guaranteed to be in the Opening Day rotation. They could use two starters, especially if Holmes’ rehab doesn’t pan out, and a swingman who could also provide length for one of the league’s thinner bullpens.

The Braves have Marcell Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias ($16MM apiece) coming off the books this winter. Kim would make the same amount if he exercises his player option. Strider’s salary jumps from $4MM to $20MM, accounting for the other $16MM. They’ll have a light arbitration class with a number of non-tender candidates, but their slate of guaranteed commitments could limit their financial flexibility. The front office has been far more inclined to operate through the trade market than via big free agency splashes.

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Atlanta Braves Reynaldo Lopez

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Braves Notes: Murphy, Kim, Snitker

By Steve Adams | September 9, 2025 at 12:19pm CDT

Catcher Sean Murphy has been playing through hip discomfort for the past three years, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos told the Braves beat last night (link via Mark Bowman of MLB.com). While Murphy had been playing through pain that “would come and go,” per Anthopoulos, the issue reached a tipping point recently and prompted an MRI to take a look at how severe the issue had become. That revealed a torn labrum in Murphy’s hip, which will require season-ending surgery. The procedure will be performed Thursday.

“…in talking to [Dr. Thomas Byrd, who’ll perform the surgery] today, he was stunned [Murphy] had been playing the last three years with a significant tear,” said Anthopoulos.

Murphy hit .233/.332/.491 (126 wRC+) with 16 homers and a dozen doubles in 271 plate appearances through the end of July this season, but his offensive production cratered beginning in August. From Aug. 1 through what’ll now go down as his final plate appearance of the season on Saturday, he went 4-for-59 with a 34.8% strikeout rate. The resulting .068/.167/.085 batting line served as a screaming indicator that something clearly wasn’t right with Murphy.

Anthopoulos also touched on the topic of recently claimed shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, who has a $16MM player option for the 2026 season (link via David O’Brien of The Athletic). Atlanta’s longtime president of baseball ops acknowledged talking with the Rays about Kim at the deadline as well, and while no deal came together, the organization is glad to have nabbed Kim off waivers and hopes the 29-year-old (30 next month) will opt into the second season of his contract.

“[G]etting him in our clubhouse, him getting to know us, us getting to know him — whether he doesn’t opt out or does, we’re both in a better position,” Anthopoulos said of Kim. “We know more about each other. Had he been in Tampa and opted out (of the option), and now we’re coming to the table to talk to him, I can’t tell you we separate ourselves from any other team that he hasn’t played for.”

It’s been a lost season overall for Kim. The former Padres standout had shoulder surgery last October and inked a two-year, $29MM deal with Tampa Bay — the second season of which is a player option. Kim returned in early July but has twice been on the injured list since that time due to lower back troubles. Kim is hitting just .231/.302/.346 overall this season (81 wRC+), but he’s been good in six games with Atlanta: 6-for-20 with a home run, a walk and only three strikeouts in 23 plate appearances.

At his best, Kim is a plus defensive shortstop and plus runner with nearly average power. He’ll draw walks at an above-average clip and put the ball in play more often than the standard big leaguer. He hasn’t been at his best in 2025, but given the thin market for free-agent shortstops and the lack of in-house alternatives to defensive standout but light-hitting Nick Allen, it makes sense that Atlanta proactively jumped to bring Kim into the fold. There’s no firm guarantee he’ll pick up his $16MM player option, but his struggles this year make that a real possibility, at which point the Braves are effectively bringing him into the ’26 fold on a one-year pillow contract.

Of course, one of the biggest questions on the minds of Braves fans is who’ll manage the club next season. Brian Snitker just notched his 800th managerial win this week, but the 69-year-old Braves lifer was noncommittal when asked about continuing on beyond the current season when asked back in March.

Asked about his manager’s future, Anthopoulos said (via O’Brien) that Snitker would be “in this organization forever” but declined to discuss whether that means Snitker will continue managing the team. Anthopoulos did reveal that the team has “absolutely not” begun doing background work on a potential replacement, adding that it would be “completely disrespectful” to Snitker to do so.

Snitker, second to only Bobby Cox in Braves managerial wins, has been in the organization for nearly 50 years — the past nine as the major league manager. He’s previously managed at nearly every minor league level in the system, spent more than a decade on the major league coaching staff (bullpen coach, third base coach) and has worked in a variety of instructional capacities in the Braves’ minor league ranks.

Fans — Braves fans in particular — will want to check out O’Brien’s piece for a full slate of quotes on Murphy, Kim, Snitker, Drake Baldwin’s Rookie of the Year candidacy, the struggles (and recent turnarounds) from Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II, and a good bit more.

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Atlanta Braves Notes Brian Snitker Ha-Seong Kim Sean Murphy

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Sean Murphy To Undergo Hip Surgery

By Steve Adams | September 8, 2025 at 2:37pm CDT

2:37pm: Murphy will undergo surgery that requires about four months of rehab, David O’Brien of The Athletic reports. He’s expected to be ready for spring training.

2:24pm: The Braves announced Monday that catcher Sean Murphy has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a torn labrum in his right hip. Veteran catcher Sandy Leon’s contract was selected from Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move. Atlanta also recalled righty Dane Dunning from Gwinnett and optioned lefty Hayden Harris. Obviously, the hip injury ends Murphy’s 2025 season.

This will be the second straight season with a notable injury for the veteran Murphy. He missed significant time with an oblique issue early in 2024. He began this season on the injured list after suffering a ribcage fracture but was back by the second week of April. He hit well for much of the summer — until falling into a deep slump recently. That downturn in production now seems attributable to injury. His season will now draw to a close with a .199/.300/.409 slash and 16 homers in 337 trips to the plate. Murphy has just four hits in his past 66 plate appearances.

Murphy drew plenty of walks, hit for power and played premium defense behind the plate, but it seems obvious that he was physically compromised down the stretch. He’ll take the offseason to mend and presumably return to a catching timeshare with Rookie of the Year candidate Drake Baldwin next year. Atlanta has Murphy signed for three more years at a total of $45MM, and there’s been speculation about a potential trade from that catching tandem, but this injury seems likely to curb interest from potential buyers.

Baldwin and Murphy operated in a catcher/designated hitter tandem down the stretch. If Murphy is healthy next year, it’s easy enough to see the Braves operating with a similar setup, perhaps carrying a third catcher in the mold of Leon on the roster (though not necessarily Leon himself). It’s a dynamic pair of catchers, as Baldwin’s .276/.349/.447 line and Murphy’s pre-injury line both point to a pair of highly productive backstops with solid to plus defensive tools, positioning Atlanta to have a strong core behind the dish for the foreseeable future.

This post has been updated to correct that Murphy’s oblique injury occurred in 2024.

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Atlanta Braves Newsstand Transactions Dane Dunning Hayden Harris Sandy Leon Sean Murphy

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Braves Designate John Brebbia For Assignment

By Steve Adams | September 8, 2025 at 9:15am CDT

The Braves announced Monday morning that they’ve designated right-hander John Brebbia for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to righty Alexis Diaz, whom Atlanta claimed off waivers yesterday. Diaz has formally reported to the club. Atlanta also optioned right-hander Rolddy Munoz to Triple-A Gwinnett and recalled right-hander Connor Seabold in his place.

Atlanta only selected Brebbia to the big league roster on Aug. 29. This brief stay marks his second stint with the Braves, as he also joined them for the final month or so of the 2024 season. Brebbia pitched in three games this time around, yielding three runs on six hits (two homers) and a walk with six strikeouts. The resulting 7.71 ERA matched the mark he’d logged in 18 2/3 innings with the Tigers prior to being cut loose in Detroit.

The 2025 season marks a second consecutive season of rough results for Brebbia, but his struggles really only extend a bit more than the past calendar year. The right-hander pitched pretty well for the first three-plus months of the 2024 season with the White Sox before melting down around the time of the All-Star break. Brebbia surrendered 18 runs in his final 18 1/3 innings last year, ballooning his ERA nearly two runs up to 5.86.

Brebbia was reliable bullpen arm in St. Louis and San Francisco from 2017-23. He carried a career 3.53 ERA, 26% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate (336 2/3 innings) into last year’s All-Star break. Even with his struggles late last year and throughout the 2025 season, the 35-year-old Brebbia has a solid 4.04 ERA in 378 1/3 big league innings. He’s collected four saves and 62 holds while striking out 25.6% of his opponents against a solid 7.5% walk rate.

Brebbia will now head to outright waivers or be released. He’ll head into the offseason and likely latch on as a minor league signee with a non-roster invitation to spring training somewhere.

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Atlanta Braves Transactions Alexis Diaz John Brebbia

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Braves Claim Alexis Diaz

By Nick Deeds | September 7, 2025 at 3:36pm CDT

The Braves have claimed Alexis Diaz off waivers from the Dodgers, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic. Atlanta has space available on its 40-man roster, so no corresponding move is necessary to bring Diaz into the organization.

Diaz, 29 later this month, was traded to the Dodgers by the Reds earlier this year after surrendering eight runs in six innings of work prior to the deal. Los Angeles stashed Diaz at Triple-A to try and get him right, but he struggled to an 8.10 ERA in 11 appearances with Oklahoma City and posted a 5.00 ERA in nine outings for the big league club before being designated for assignment last week to make room for Ben Rortvedt on the 40-man roster. In all, Diaz has made 15 appearances in the majors this year with a 7.80 ERA, a 16.9% strikeout rate, and a 9.9% walk rate across 15 innings of work with the Reds and Dodgers.

Those lackluster numbers are a major fall from grace for the right-hander, who burst onto the scene with Cincinnati back in 2022 when he posted a dazzling 1.84 ERA in 59 outings and finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He followed that up by making an All-Star appearance and recording 37 saves as the Reds’ primary closer in 2023, and after two seasons in the big leagues Diaz had an exceptional 2.47 ERA with a 3.42 FIP, a 31.2% strikeout rate, and a 12.8% walk rate. Despite that shaky control, Diaz’s overpowering strikeout stuff was enough to blow past hitters and get elite results.

All of that made him one of the most impressive young relievers in the sport during the first few years of his career, but cracks began to show last season. Diaz surrendered three runs while recording just one out in his first outing of the year, and things didn’t improve much from there as he posted an 8.68 ERA in the month of May. A strong September where he did not allow an earned run helped to salvage his overall season numbers, and he finished the year with a 3.99 ERA and 4.28 FIP. Even that final month of the year saw him strike out just 24.2% of his opponents, however, and his season-long strikeout rate of 22.7% suggested a real step backwards in terms of raw stuff.

Given the question marks raised over the past two years, it’s fair to wonder whether the right-hander will eventually be able to turn things around and live up to the promise he showed in his first years with the Reds. The Braves will try to unlock that previous form through he rest of the year ahead of the offseason, when Diaz will be eligible for arbitration for the second time after making $4.5MM last season. Perhaps Diaz will wind up being a non-tender candidate, though it’s also certainly possible that Atlanta will be intrigued enough by his track record to keep him in the organization. Atlanta has been quite active on the waiver wire this year as they look to add talent in the midst of a lost season, with Ha-Seong Kim standing out as their most notable addition by far.

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Atlanta Braves Los Angeles Dodgers Transactions Alexis Diaz

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Davey Johnson Passes Away

By Mark Polishuk | September 6, 2025 at 10:58pm CDT

Longtime Major League manager and infielder Davey Johnson passed away on Friday at age 82.  A four-time All-Star during his 13-year playing career, Johnson went on to manage five different teams over 17 seasons as a manager, capturing a World Series with the Mets in 1986.

Breaking into the majors with the Orioles in 1965, he emerged as Baltimore’s everyday second baseman the following year, and finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting.  Johnson also won his first World Series ring that same season, adding a second with the Orioles in 1970.  Such superstar teammates as Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Jim Palmer drew most of the headlines during this golden age of Orioles baseball, but Johnson provided excellent glovework (three Gold Gloves) and above-average offense while locking down the keystone.

Johnson delivered one more All-Star season with the Braves in 1973, hitting 43 home runs in what stood as the single-season record for a second baseman until Marcus Semien went yard 45 times with the 2021 Blue Jays.  Johnson’s production then declined in 1974, and he spent the 1975-76 playing in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants.  It was something of a tumultuous two-year run that saw Johnson fight through some injuries to ultimately help the Giants reach the 1976 Japan Series, and Johnson then returned to the majors for his final two MLB seasons with the Phillies and Cubs in 1977-78.

Regarded as a future manager even early in his career, Johnson indeed turned to minor league managing almost immediately after retiring as a player, and started managing in the Mets’ farm system beginning in 1981.  This led to a promotion as the Mets’ big league skipper in 1984, and Johnson immediately led New York to a string of five straight seasons with at least 90 wins.  This excellent run included a pair of NL East titles in 1986 and 1988, highlighted by the 108-win team in 1986 that remains the most recent Mets club to capture a World Series title.

Things eventually soured between Johnson and Mets GM Frank Cashen, leading to Johnson’s firing in 1990.  This essentially set the tone for the rest of Johnson’s managerial career — he would lead a team to success, yet would be dismissed relatively quickly due to clashes with ownership or upper management.  Johnson’s next four stints as a skipper saw him never stay with a team for longer than three seasons, even though Johnson had a sub-.500 record in just one of his eight final full seasons as a manager.

For instance, Johnson’s feud with infamous former Reds owner Marge Schott saw Johnson dismissed after the 1995  season, even though he led Cincinnati to the NL Central title and a NLDS victory over the Dodgers that remains the Reds’ most recent postseason series win.  Johnson then returned to his old stomping grounds and led the Orioles to postseason appearances in both 1996 and 1997, but even winning AL Manager of the Year honors in 1997 didn’t smooth over a dispute between Johnson and O’s owner Peter Angelos.

Johnson managed the Dodgers to a 163-161 record in 1999-2000, marking the only time Johnson didn’t lead a team to at least one postseason berth as a manager.  He spent much of the next decade managing in international baseball, while also working for the Nationals in a consulting role (beginning in 2006) that paved the way for his final managerial job in 2011, when Johnson took over as interim skipper following Jim Riggleman’s resignation.  Johnson was made the full-time skipper following that initial year in Washington, and won NL Manager of the Year honors for leading the Nats to their first NL East crown in 2012.  Johnson was 70 years old during his final season in Washington, however, and the Lerner family didn’t view him as a long-term manager, so Johnson retired after an 86-win season in 2013.

Known for his brash personality, Johnson’s outspoken ways may have hurt him in terms of keeping steady employment, yet it certainly aided his ability to manage a clubhouse.  Johnson was viewed as being somewhat ahead of his time in terms of running a team, being one of the first skippers to use some analytics to help in formulating his game plans.  A mathematics major during his college days, Johnson’s reputation for using analytics to gain an edge on the field earned him the ironic nickname of “Dum-Dum” from his Orioles teammates.

Johnson’s career managerial record was 1372-1071 over parts of 17 seasons.  His resume as a player includes 136 homers and a .261/.340/.404 slash line over 1435 games and 5465 plate appearances during his 13 MLB seasons, good for a 112 wRC+.  Though Johnson has fallen short of Hall of Fame induction on multiple veterans’ committee ballots, his overall body of work in baseball would certainly seem worthy of Cooperstown, and it can be argued that Johnson could deserve a HOF nod based on his managerial work alone.

We at MLB Trade Rumors express our condolences to Johnson’s family, friends, and peers.

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