6:40pm: Indeed, Angels GM Billy Eppler forthrightly acknowledges that the team sought the spending capacity “with an eye toward” pursuit of Ohtani, as Fletcher tweets. That the market now also features some notable potential consolation prizes in the form of younger international talent surely made it easier for the Halos to justify the gambit.
2:26pm: Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports that the Angels do indeed plan to use the extra funds in order to enhance their pitch to Ohtani. Further, he tweets that Johnson is technically only owed $4.5MM through the end of his contract, not $5MM, due to a $500K signing bonus that has already been paid out.
1:53pm: Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com reports (via Twitter) that the Angels will receive all of the Braves’ remaining pool space: a total of $1.21MM. While the CBA mandates that pool money must be traded in blocks of $250K, it also outlines an exception in the event that the club’s remaining pool space is less than $250K (which would apply to the $210K that remained after the first million).
As Mayo notes, this now gives the Angels a total of $1.315MM that they can offer Ohtani (or another international free agent, such as former Braves prospect Kevin Maitan).
1:13pm: The Braves announced today that they’ve traded right-hander Jim Johnson to the Angels in exchange for minor league lefty Justin Kelly. The Angels also pick up a yet-undetermined amount of international bonus money in the deal, per each club’s announcement.
Johnson, 34, parlayed a strong 2016 season into a two-year, $10MM contract with the Braves but flopped to the tune of a 5.56 ERA in the first season of that deal in 2017. The former Orioles closer and two-time American League saves leader logged 56 2/3 innings with 9.7 K/9, 4.0 BB/9 and 1.27 HR/9 in what proved to be his worst season since the 2014 season. Johnson’s once sky-high ground-ball rate (62.3 percent at his peak) sat at a solid but unremarkable level of 48.5 percent in 2017.
Despite the rough year, though, Johnson’s season wasn’t devoid of reason for optimism. His 9.7 K/9 rate was the best of his career, as was his 9.4 percent swinging-strike rate. His fastball maintained its 93-94 mph velocity, and metrics like xFIP (3.98) and SIERA (3.87) were considerably more bullish on his output. Johnson also isn’t far removed from a strong season; as previously alluded to, he turned in a 3.06 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.4 HR/9 and a 55 percent grounder rate in 64 2/3 frames as recently as 2016. For an Angels club that has already lost Yusmeiro Petit and also saw relievers Bud Norris, Andrew Bailey, Huston Street and (in a summer trade) David Hernandez depart, Johnson will give them a rebound option to soak up some of the lost innings.
Of course, Johnson is a bit pricey for a bullpen rebound candidate, earning $5MM in 2018. However, the Halos will also pick up some coveted international funds that they’ll add to what was a reportedly depleted total of $150K in their international bonus pool. International pool space must be traded in increments of at least $250K, per the collective bargaining agreement, so Anaheim will nearly triple its available resources even if they received only the minimum $250K. Those funds, of course, can be used as part of a pitch to Shohei Ohtani or to some of the Braves’ recently lost prospects, who are all subject to international pools.
[Related: Updated Angels Depth Chart and Braves Depth Chart]
Kelly, 25 in April, was a 33rd-round pick out of UC Santa Barbara in 2016 and spent the bulk of his first full professional season in the Class-A Midwest League. In 29 2/3 innings there, Kelly pitched to a strong 2.43 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 44.4 percent ground-ball rate. The Halos gave him brief looks in Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A late in the season, though none of those three cameos produced enviable results.
Overall, Kelly’s season wrapped up with a composite 3.53 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 63 2/3 innings (six starts, 19 relief appearances). Considering he’s the return in a move that amounts to a salary dump from the Braves, it’s not especially surprising that Kelly wasn’t ranked among the Angels’ top 30 farmhands. He could head to the bullpen for the Braves’ Class-A Advanced affiliate to open the 2018 campaign.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Justin Kelly?
From Justin to Kelly.
Sounds like you should change your name to americanidolpun
just looked up justin kelly by clicking his name. looks like he has some stats, i aint good with numbers but it looks like he’s got a bunch of them. good deal.braves!
not good with numbers? might explain your scouting grades…
“Numbers suck!”
(Butt-Head)
“Yeah, there’s too many of them.”
(Beavis)
The Braves have international bonus money to trade? What?
They can’t use it to sign players, so they might as well trade it
They have a full pool with a restriction of $300K/per player. Their punishment for international violations starts in 2019-2020 ($10K/player), and also in 2020-2021 (1/2 bonus pool).
This is perplexing…if they can sign players this year, but not the next two (essentially), why on earth would they trade their pool? Wouldn’t it be vital to sign players before the restrictions take effect? I might be missing something here, but this seems like a horrible deal if that is the case…
They have one more year (2018/2019) before the big restrictions. With that being said, I was also surprised, and thought ty would use it to add organizational depth that was depleted via the released prospects.
When a team can’t sign a player for more than $300k they don’t use their whole pool. The Braves signed several 2017-2018 players but there are only so many a team can get. And they aren’t going to add up to $4.75 million. At this point almost everyone has signed, so there isn’t anything they can do with the money anyway.
That makes sense. I still kinda feel like that bonus pool money should be worth more considering all of their former prospects and Ohtani on the market. Should have tried harder to package it with Markakis or Kemp. Also, with so few teams over a million left in pool money, and everyone hoping to spend it on Ohtani, if you’re someone like Maitan why don’t you just sit out til the next signing period and essentially double what you already made? Not like the competition level he’d face in the Venezuelan or Dominican leagues would be that much worse than rookie ball…
It just seems like an extra $4 mil or so would be worth more than restarting your service clock earlier.
I thought the same thing! Glad Jim Johnson is gone!
Any chance any of the prospects the Braves lost resign with the Braves? I saw the Braves could resign them at a certain point. Is that after January 15th or would they have to wait until after the 2018 international market opens up?
Theoretically, yes. Realistically, almost zero chance.
May 15 iirc
And they can’t sign for more than $10k. If they were to re-sign with the Braves they’d end up missing part of the season and get a lot less money. I can’t imagine they’re desperate to go back to a team that put them in this spot.
Well I’d be kind of thankful for Atlanta what with getting 2 bonuses and all, even at the inconvience of going to another organization, but yeah I agree that none will resign.
Thank you AA
After he pitches for the halos in 2018 he will re sign with the braves for 2 years
Let’s hope not!
Haha, probably some truth to that. Although, I don’t think AA cares for him. I think he needs to re-do his delivery. Seemed slower to me last year and easier to pick up.
Jimmy Johnson, like from the male enhancement commercials? he must be replacing that bald guy they just threw in prison.
oh wait jimmy johnson is going to the angels. that’s good too, the way he took the cowboys to the supper bowl he can put the angels into the big show now. now all the angels need is another pujols or two and thell be #1
How did all those huge football players fit into one supper bowl??
No this is Jimmy Johns’ son. Sucks at playing baseball but he makes a mean sandwich.
Instead of paying Patit they trade for a guy who they will have to pay more money to. And is worse than Bud Norris.
opps we messed up and not brought back Petit so instead we trade for a pitcher that is more likely sucks. This stinks of desperation.
the trades not about him johnson.
I think they wanted the international money to offer more to ohtani. I know the money isn’t likely to move the needle for ohtani
To say that Bud Norris sucks is dumb. I bet you were happy with him before his struggles in the second half.
The Angels biggest weakness in the bullpen last season was no legitimate closer. Norris is not and should not be a closer. He should be a long innings eating reliever. Johnson should not even be in the majors.
Norris was good in the first half and excelled at closing but he struggled in the second half so I’m not sure why you say he shouldn’t be a closer. Saying Jim Johnson shouldn’t be in the majors is just ignorant.
Norris struggled in August. September numbers were back on track.
If you look at his FIP and SIERA, he’s much better than his ERA suggests. I wouldn’t be disappointed, especially because you got pool money, for a low prospect.
No legitimate closer? Blake Parker says hi
Thank you Angels!!
We got Jim Johnson for a guy not even in the top 30 prospects of one of the worst farm systems AND internation pool money? LoL.. thank you braves
5.56 ERA with NINE blown saves last year. Yeah you’re welcome smart guy.
Thanks for 1.21 million …. oh brilliant one
The last time the Angels traded for a struggling Braves reliever David Hernandez ended up very good for the halos.
Of course a Braves fan would only look at ERA and blown saves. Good analysis, smart guy
Jeff Fletcher is also reporting that if they cant go after ohtani then theyre going to use it for the minor leaguers that recently got released from the braves. Lmao…… thanks again….
Should I look at his batting average? He is a relief pitcher. And not a good one, genius.
That’s just a $5mil savings for the Braves..
Alright, now the stove is cookin!
I just got burned it so hot…like that time chris duncan lost his job
You say “acquire”, I say, tricked into taking him off our hands.
Advanced metrics disagree with you, jockstrap breath.
Thus proving why advanced metrics shouldn’t be the end all and be all. Try watching JJ pitch every time he’s on the mound. Awful
Case in point Julio Teheran
Not too long ago Braves fans were saying the same thing about David Hernandez and he ended up being very good for the Angels before he was traded to AZ.
I like this diss. Definitely gonna have to start using it
I feel like the only appropriate comeback to “jockstrap breath” is your mom. #backtogradeschool
Eppler is a smart guy, they got Johnson for nothing. It has to be more about the Int. $$$$$’s. Hell, the Angels can always trade him back the the Braves for Freeman. Hahahaha
Sam Freeman is a long-shot trade candidate in this speculation. Eppler better entice with some firework Int’l prospect.
It was a joke wow, why so serious Atlanta fan?
I wasn’t fully serious either. I’m your only upvote. I just didn’t want to give the usual Atlanta response. “YUR AN IGNORAMUS, They WULdnt make a Trad like that ya DINGUS!”
Hahaha that’s funny
It’s also worth noting that a lot of the damage for his numbers came from the end of July and a truly terrible August. He still wasn’t great outside of that, but that one-month-and-change stretch does skew things some.
He was taken out of high-leverage situations after August. The stats show that he’s ok in low/normal leverage situations, but not that great as a closer.
Thanks Angels
Your good friend – J. Dipoto
Anaheim has always been the place where players go to have a really bad season before the rebound with a good season with another team. Not a surprising move at all. Damn, at this rate I guess Chuck Finaly must have been busy to come out of retirement. I also heard the Angels were in the market for a 1st baseman. I wonder if J.T. Snow is busy.
Petit would disagree with you
That’s exactly my point capt obvious. Johnson won’t be on the team by June 1
I would disagree with you on the captain obvious part because now .. I have no idea wtf you’re talking about. Petit just had his best year with the halos
No kidding Capt.if your that easily confused keep your opinions to yourself. Not sure what’s so hard to understand when I said Johnson won’t be on the team by May 1 st.
Matt Adams is available…
YES!!! Good Riddance!!!
With guys like Minter, Morris, Winkler, not to mention the young arms such as Burrows and Clouse the Braves have a few solutions in the pen. Jimmy boy won’t be missed. So yes, good riddance!
Johnson is a nice bounceback candidate on a not-too-expensive one year deal. I actually like this move for LA. Johnson has a sinker you just can’t teach. As long as he keeps the ball down he can get grounders and swings and misses. That’s not easy to find.
Probably going to use the money on Braves prospects.
Good riddance… he was good at times… but he definition had his issues… hopeuflly he can rebound for the Angels
Didn’t work in Oakland – paid in ten million that season too – good luck with Jim…
“this now gives the Braves a total of $1.315MM that they can offer”
Think that’s a typo. Angels get the extra $, right?
Noticed that too and yeah, I think he meant Angels.
Yep. Sorry about that. It is the Angels who can now offer $1.315MM to Ohtani, Maitan, etc.
I was about to post the same thing
I read this as, Angels give Braves $5,000,000, a guy named Justin Kelly, and free up a roster spot.
That’s totally inaccurate. Angels get a reliever with good peripherals, who may be slightly overpaid, and for taking him off the Braves’ hands also get over $1 mil in international bonus pool money. This is a fantastic trade for LA. That money is in high demand.
It’s totally accurate. You didn’t watch him pitch last year. His ground ball rate may still be decent, but when those grounders are being scalded it makes a difference. Not all ground balls are created equal.
This is really a decent trade for both teams, as I will readily give you that the pool money might help the Halos get a prospect, That’s the upside to the trade for them, and putting lipstick on a pig still leaves you with a pig.
Braves get money that is useful in their current situation, clear a 40-spot without paying off a contract, and clear the way for youth. Even if Kelly never touches the majors, this is a much needed move for the Braves.
“You didn’t watch him pitch last year.” Oh I didn’t? You following me or something? I watched plenty of Johnson, thank you very much. Finding relievers with above average GB rate and above average K rate is almost impossible to find. Johnson’s xFIP and DRA were both below 4 last year, suggesting he’s in line for significant positive regression. I would’ve taken Johnson off the Braves’ hands for nothing, but the Angels also somehow managed to get over $1 mil in international money? I know the Braves are banned from spending that money, but it’s incredibly valuable to other teams. This is a clear win for the Angels, and doesn’t really help or hurt the Braves.
Just to be clear, there actually is no money changing hands from Braves to Angels. Just ability to sign International players for more. The Braves aren’t going to sign anyone with that ability so better trade it off.
I understand the Angels aren’t actually getting $1 mil, just the pool space. And I know the Braves weren’t allowed to spend it so had to trade it. My point is they got nothing impactful for it. All they did was dump a semi interesting reliever to save $4.5 mil. The White Sox got an interesting prospect from Seattle for only $250k of international money. LA got 5 times times that much money. They killed it today.
The Braves can sign international players Though. They still have a full pool this year, with a $300K/player limitation. Restrictions from The Punishment don’t come into effect until 2019.
The Braves can re-sign any of the players they lost after May 1st. But they aren’t allowed to give them a bonus so they really don’t need this money
i would be curious to look at johnsons hard hit rates…because as was said before, ground ball rates dont count for much if they are getting barrelled up
well said
They come into effect for the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 signing periods. IFA signing periods run July 2nd to June 30th of the following year.
Yes, they run those dates, but the punishment restrictions don’t start until 2019/2020.
Exactly. And after last year I think it was evident he was no longer our closer, so it helps clear the way for Aroldys and allows Minter to slot back one further in prep for closer if needed.
Smooth deal. We basically jettisoned Johnson’s contract using something we would not get anything relevant for anyway (pool money). Even if that were all we got I would be happy.
Possibles uses for the 40-man spot. Acuna. Free agent space (3rd baseman). Space to trade non-40 prospects for a vet. At this point of the year, an extra 40-man space can make other moves less restrictive/risky.
Goodnight sweet prince.
I’d still like to know what other teams in spending jail have to trade. Like the Cubs and Cardinals.
“I’d still like to know what other teams in spending jail have to trade. Like the Cubs and Cardinals.”
Both are capped at $300,000
This is the report PRIOR to and of the recent IFA money trades or the Brave’s penalties. I still had this on a notepad doc but it has NOT BEEN UPDATED.
Rangers $3,535,000
Yankees $3.25 million
Twins $3,245,000
Pittsburgh ($2,266,750),
Miami ($1.74 million)
Seattle ($1,570,500).
Philadelphia ($900,000),
Milwaukee ($765,000),
Arizona ($731,250),
Baltimore ($660,000),
Boston ($462,000)
Tampa Bay ($440,500).
Twelve teams are capped at $300,000 Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas City, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington.
Detroit ($159,500),
Angels ($150,000),
New York Mets ($105,000)
Toronto ($50,000),
Cleveland and Colorado ($10,000 apiece).
However, if the Cubs have 1.3 million sitting around they can’t use, they can trade it to other teams.
Which is why I still want to know the answer to the question I asked.
If the Cubs have that much left, they can also spend it on multiple players with a maximum of $300k each.
Those 12 teams are capped at $300k per individual player, not total. All were given the full $4.75-5.75 million in IFA pool money. How much they have left is a totally different number.
Win win trade
To think they just let Petit walk for almost the same salary as Johnson and Petit was absolutely lights out for them in comparison.
Angels are gambling on getting Ohtani, plain and simple. I like that move as he sounds like he should easily recoup the value if they can get him. Hats off to them for letting go of some cash to try to get pool money to make it happen. I think this jumps them from near the bottom of the bonus list to roughly seventh (they should have roughly 1.3 million now. With the LA market and such they may actually have put themselves in the running, though they are so far away from being a legitimate contender it hurts their chances if he is basing it on that.
I think they have a chance for a wild card spot. Obviously they don’t have strong chance to make a deep run in the playoffs but I do think that they
So the price of $1.2 million in IFA pool money is $4.5 million plus an organizational filler type prospect? Only during the Ohtani sweepstakes.
There’s a whole lotta teams gonna have $1.7 mil to burn on $20,000 bonus talent.
$1.2 mil in international cap space is always worth $4.5 mil (plus, that $4.5 mil is not sunk. Johnson is interesting).
Great trade for Anaheim. And Johnson will do better as Simmonds is his shortstop rather than Swanson. Time to offer $$ to Ohtani and Maitan. Let’s imagine this. What if the angels get Maitan… the angels farm system goes from dead last to 20-25 range all because of this trade… wow
Excellent point about Simmons helping Johnson’s run prevention. Good chance he has a nice bounceback year
maitan is going to get at minimum 4.5mil again…. thats triple what is available
None of the Red Sox international players that were named FA got anywhere near what they originally signed for, it won’t happen with the Braves IFA players either.
Maitan had a really poor showing in the Appalachian League and the scouting reports were just as bad. Out of shape, poor defense, lack of instincts, “bat speed, strike zone judgment, physical conditioning, and overall athleticism all worse than advertised”.
He won’t get near $4.5 million. I heard it being discussed by Steve Phillips and Jim Bowden this morning that he may not get $1 million. I think he is young enough that he will get that much, but he is not considered the same level of prospect that he was when he was signed by the Braves. He ranked 9th in the Braves organization and outside the top 100 by Baseball America for 2018.
Teams can dip into their 2018-2019 IFA pools to sign the Braves international players that were made free agents and they also get an additional $200k on top of that, so any team that is not under a penalty that caps their spending to $300k on an individual player can sign any of those former Braves players for $4.5 million if they chose to.
I got sweaty, and not in a good way, every time they brought Gas Can Johnson in out of the pen. So I don’t hate to see him gone.
But can someone explain to me why we’d thin out our bullpen depth for a no-name prospect like this? Do the Braves really need to dump salary that badly? And if so, what for? Seems like we should be trying to bolster pen depth, not thin it out.
Well, the Braves do have options available from within which are much cheaper and possibly better. There has been talk of the team looking to trade Vizcaino as well. Minter was lights out down the stretch (0.7 fWAR over the last 30 days of the season -.48 FIP 19 k/9) and there will be plenty of other arms in the system who will need new destinations as the season plays out.
It would suck if the Angels don’t get Ohtani & then they sign Maiten instead. Then it would amount to Jim Johnson & Kevin Maiten for Justin Kelly lol
Nah but AA made a good move gettin out from under Jim Johnson’s contract. Now I have hope he can move Kemp’s or at the very least a nice portion of it
Maitan and Johnson for Kelly would be a good deal lol
That’s actually what he said
Angels have 1.5 million not 1.3 they had 300k before the 1.21 so now they stand to have 1.51 million.
This was a great move. Johnson was horrific in the second half of the season. Nice getting rid of his $4.5M commitment in 2018.
As a person the Chief will be missed, as a relief pitcher he can be replaced and at a cheaper cost. Imo this was a good deal for both teams, the way it should be.
Yep. Good deal for both sides. Best of luck to Jim and the Halos and Atlanta has quite a bit of depth in the bullpen.
so with the braves trading intl bonus money, i guess they are out of the Otani sweepstakes.
or did that occur earlier this month with their players ratting them out on intl signings?
?
Why would the players rat them out? They benefitted from it. Had to be another team…maybe one that lost out on a few of those prospects, and has a GM with questionable tactics morally themselves *cough Padres cough*
Ok I️ like advanced metrics in some cases but saying that you shouldn’t go by blown saves and ERA is stupid. He blew NINE saves. That is eight to nine games we would have won if he wasn’t pitching and somebody else was. So take the pool money. I️ am glad he is gone. Thanks Angels!!
Thanks for the pool money
Advanced metrics should be used in all cases, not just some Mr Amaro
Him pitching instead of someone else was the manager’s fault.
more from the differences in stats. sam moll has a promising 50.3 ground ball rate, yet jim johnson’s is a solid, but unremarkable 48.5. not much difference. could be the difference in one hit or one at bat.
AA first move was a good one. Now get rid of Teheran and Kemp!
If anyone can get rid of Kemp, it’s AA. Hopefully this trade works out better for the Angels than the Vernon Wells trade a few years back…
Justin Speier II – dammit
The Angels trade for Johnson, next they tell you that Ohtani and Maitan are on the cards. I don’t even think playing on the same team as Trout is that much allure when they can go to teams with greater all around talent than the Angels have. They are locked in to expensive deals and need a Starting rotation, second baseman, third baseman just to have a shot.
We had a shot last year with basically our whole rotation on the DL, Danny Espinosa as our second basemen, A third baseman who can’t play defense, and half the bullpen signed from minor league deals. Dude if you’re going to make a claim, please back it up. You’re pulling stuff out of your ass