The Orioles and Braves have struck a deal that sends lefty Brian Matusz and the 76th overall draft pick from Baltimore to Atlanta. Minor league pitchers Brandon Barker and Trevor Belicek are headed to the O’s in the swap.
Ultimately, the move constitutes a draft pick purchase, with the Orioles willing to part with their competitive balance round B selection and its $838,900 assigned pool value in order to offload the commitment to Matusz and add some potentially interesting arms. Of greater consequence than the selection itself, the Braves will boost their bonus pool up to just over $13MM, per the calculations of Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs (Twitter link). They’ll still fall a bit shy of the Phillies to remain in third in total spending capacity this summer.
A 29-year-old southpaw, Matusz is earning $3.9MM this year in his final season of arbitration control. The remaining $3MM or so of that deal will all be assumed by the Braves, who have already designated Matusz for assignment, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman suggested on Twitter.
Matusz has struggled mightily out of the gates in 2016, allowing eight earned runs in six innings while recording just one strikeout against seven walks. He’s been hurt especially by the long ball, having allowed a three bombs on just ten flyballs.
Of course, the southpaw was much more effective in years past, though he’s generally outperformed his peripherals to do so. Over 2013-15, he put up 151 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball, with 9.4 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9. Even if he won’t get a chance in Atlanta, Matusz seems to be a worthwhile rebound candidate given his solid track record. His fastball velocity is down by just over one mile per hour, and he’s been missing the zone a bit more than usual, but there’s good reason to believe that he’s also been hit with some poor fortune.
Neither of the pitchers acquired by the Orioles opened the year among the top 30 in a deep system, per Baseball America, but both had impressed thus far in 2016. Barker, 23, was off to a very nice start at the Double-A level, working to a 2.00 ERA in 45 frames with 8.0 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9. The righty was a 16th-round selection in the 2014 draft out of Mercer.
Belicek, meanwhile, is also a 23-year-old former 16th-rounder. The Texas A&M southpaw was taken last year, and just earned a promotion to Double-A after an impressive showing at the High A level. In his 28 1/3 total frames this year, he’s worked to a 2.22 ERA with 10.2 K/9 and a ridiculous 32:1 K/BB ratio.
Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com first reported that Matusz was traded (via Twitter).
There are some whispers that the Reds have traded Franderlin Romero to the Orioles as part of a bigger trade — perhaps Bruce or Cozart are headed to Baltimore?
Who is he traded to?
The Braves and those draft picks again. Good on them.
Just found out braves
Interesting a player can be traded but the team isn’t yet known. I’ve heard of players being claimed off waiver and the team not being known but this is different lol. I’m curious to see who it is. A lot of teams can use his help even with his struggles this season.
Like Matuz, like the draft pick. I have heard great things about Barker though…
Hes gonna get DFA’d
Love this deal snatched another pick and have the ability to turn him around and maybe move him at the deadline for something. Roger got 2 months to work some magic and get him straight. Impressive move Coppy & Hart.
Vizcaino must be on the way out?
Good call Mike Q. Apparently I missed the DFA first read through.
Belicek is sneaky good…crafty lefty out of Texas A
Barker has also been a beast this year!!
Sneaky quality trade for the Orioles both guys are dang good pitchers they received. Belicek could very well end up being part of their pen next season, and Barker could figure into their rotation plans as a very serviceable #4 or #5.
I actually don’t like this trade for the Braves at all. Barker and Belicek are very solid, quality arms that will contribute at the ML level very soon!!
Excellent trade for the Orioles, in my opinion, but for the Braves side they will have to get a very solid above slot guy in the draft for it to be worth the deal.
ATL gets #73 overall pick. Last year they turned that (compensation pick acquired) into Austin Riley. Everyone keeps wanting more bats — well, this is how you do it, turn decent pieces into more ammunition (and more slot money) in the draft.
I kinda wish the Phillies could have made a deal like this. They haven’t been able to find a LH reliever with any consistency this year, and draft picks are always nice.
2 years in a row the Orioles cheap out and trade a draft pick. Cheap owner. Poor planning by Duquette. Could have DFA’d Matusz. Or not signed Alvarez. But let’s give away a pick for some pennies. Successful organizations do not do this.
And that is why the not Orioles who have the most wins by an AL team since 2012 are not a successful team
It’s May. One playoff series win this century.
Check out how long a century is before u make a ridiculous comment like this
just another oriole hater
Technically they won a playoff series in 2012 and again in 2014.
Word from Mark Bowman on Twitter is that Matusz has a strong chance of being DFA’ed which I’m disappointed by. He’s been terrible in a super small sample this year and sure, maybe that continues. But O’flaherty has also been very bad and maybe the Braves could get lucky that a change of scenery does Matusz some good and he’s a solid LOOGY the rest of the year. Whereas O’flaherty (sadly) probably is what he is at this point after all the injuries. You already spent the money, give the new guy a shot rather than trotting out the same old, same old.
Yeah and if he turns it around you got a piece to trade at the deadline.
My coach’s son is Barker and I have caught some of his bullpens and he is pretty good and played at Mercer.
Cubs sign him to a minor league deal and he turns into an ace
What is going on with pitching development in BALT? A lot of high-ceiling pitchers not living up to hype, albeit they have had some bad luck (i.e. Dylan Brady). Kevin Gausman is coming along.
Who is Dylan Brady? Is he related to Tom Brady?
Basically, they’re stuck in the dark ages. In Bundy’s case, they banned his cutter and had him use his slider more ‘to save his arm’, which everyone predicted would result in injury. While we seem to be learning how to protect pitcher’s arms from their breaking pitches (the White Sox in particular are very good at this), this is generally considered to be a Bad Idea. Bundy, Matusz, Arrieta, Strop, Hunter Harvey, Gausmann (shoulder) and more have fallen off because, frankly, the entire pitching philosophy of the organization is as based in fantasy as the ‘fastballs dangerous, breaking pitches safe) idea. So far, the ONLY long-term ‘survivor’ of this process has been Tillman; I count Arrieta and Strop as having escaped.
I know nothing about the guys who the Braves traded but at a quick glance this looks like a great move for them. Since their not really competing this year they have the year to see if they can fix Matsuz and turn him back into a solid reliever and they get a fairly high draft pick.
The draft pick is only worth about 5 mil surplus value. Does increase their bonus pool so maybe they go overslot at some point. To the people talking about matusz building trade value he is just a loogy and unlikely to bring back better than what they gave up.
I’m not suggesting they try to build him up to trade him, I think even as a loogy he could help the Braves next year if fixed.
You do realize that Stanton was picked at 76 and Freeman was picked at 78 so please stop with the nonsense of what a pick is worth. Anybody and everybody that gets drafted has some sort of ability and talent. It then becomes who develops that talent the best. Can you even bring anything other than some nerdy saber metric stat to a conversation ?
I understand the way numbers average out over the course of a season s long season at that. But those stats take away the whole human element that over the course of a 162 game season should not be ignored.
I don’t care what that pick is worth in your eyes if we could get somebody on the level of Stanton or Freeman than sign me up.
Like this for both sides…Barker and Belicek will probably be in the Orioles top 30 by the end of the year…I don’t know a lot about Barker, but he’s got good numbers
And Belicek is a crafty guy who Baltimore will probably put into the rotation
Barker’s been lights out in AA all season. As a Braves fan I’m sorry to see him go. O’s got a good one there, quite possibly a diamond in the rough. Hope they move him to AAA and see what he can do, he was overdue for a promotion in the Braves system IMO.
Matusz DFA
This makes no sense grammatically. Don’t want Puk.
I agree, nothing cjg815 makes sense grammatically.
The amateur draft is over-rated. Duquette has had far more success with Rule 5 picks than the draft for instance. (Need Garcia to get straightened out though). And with good scouting, the kind of deals he made today are a better bet than picking an amateur. There is some exposure to pro balls and these kids have performed well.
The fact that they’ve had more success in the rule 5 draft doesn’t mean that the regular draft is overrated, it shows there scouts need to be replaced. And even then, most oriole fans I see on Twitter are always chirping their rule 5 guys cause they aren’t very good
It’s actually more of a player development issue with Baltimore; they seem to have a hard time developing their players especially their pitchers. Jake Arrietta is the prime example – the Orioles took away his slider as he was going through their system, changed his mechanics, moved him all over the rubber. They did the same thing with Bundy – took away the slider and changed his mechanics. When Jake went to the Cubs they just told him to pitch the way he wanted to and gave him back all his pitches.
Baltimore has some philosophy about taking away a pitcher’s breaking pitches in the low minors, then gradually reintroducing them once they’ve mastered a fastball/offspeed approach. It may be injury concern, but it hasn’t really worked; the O’s achiles heel has always been that when they reach the postseason they just don’t ever have a top-of-the line ace starter. Much like the A’s, their teams are designed for the long season, not for a short playoff series.
The “Orioles Philosophy” you’re referring to left the organization in 2013- his name is Rick Adair.
Always…? Heard of Mussina in the 90s or their many ace level starters in the 80s, 70s and 60s. So your generalization about always in the postseason covers 2012 and 2014.
Dude, grammar check.. Reread your message.
Dude, a disabled friend of mine uses a program similar to this to translate what he says into typed words. Why don’t you shut your mouth until you know for sure who you are talking to.
So, readers here should assume that the posters are disabled and using a “program similar to this”, whatever that means? G0tcha, that makes total sense.
Damn DFA already it’s all good I can see the Braves making even more deals like this
Hey with Duda out how bout Kelly Johnson & A.J. for Montero and a prospect