Braves Rumors

Latest On Justin Turner

By Mark Polishuk | February 13, 2021 at 9:41am CDT

Justin Turner’s market had already reportedly narrowed to four teams, and the field could now be even thinner for the former All-Star. The Dodgers and Brewers have each made multi-year contract offers to Turner, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link), and while the third baseman could potentially have other longer-term offers on the table, Turner seems “less likely” to sign with other rumored suitors like the Braves, Mets, or Blue Jays.

If Turner’s final four is now down to a final two, the Dodgers are still in the lead, according to both Heyman and FanSided’s Robert Murray (via Twitter). There has been a widespread expectation for much of the winter that Turner would eventually re-sign with Los Angeles, though some wrinkles were added by Turner’s initial ask of a four-year contract, and the Dodgers already projected to spend far beyond the $215MM luxury tax threshold. As per Roster Resource, the Dodgers’ tax number for 2021 is over $240MM (thanks in large part to the Trevor Bauer signing), and spending beyond $250MM would trigger the maximum tax penalty — a 42.5% surtax on overages, and the Dodgers’ first 2021 draft pick would be dropped back in the draft order by 10 spots.

Of course, the Dodgers could have no issue taking the extra one-year tax hit in order to bolster their chances at another World Series title, or to retain a star player who has spent the last seven seasons in Dodger blue. Still, the lack of common ground to date between Turner and the Dodgers has opened the door for a team like Milwaukee, as Murray writes that the Brewers made a “competitive” offer. It seems unlikely that any team would be willing to give four guaranteed years to the 36-year-old Turner, but speculatively, the Brewers might gain an edge over L.A. by offering three years depending on the nature of the Dodgers’ offer.

As for the other teams linked to Turner, earlier reports suggested that the Mets weren’t getting far in contract talks. The chances of Turner going to Atlanta or Toronto seemed to dim after those teams made other high-priced signings — the Braves and Marcell Ozuna, and the Blue Jays with George Springer and Marcus Semien.

Braves Claim Travis Demeritte From Tigers

By Connor Byrne | February 12, 2021 at 2:48pm CDT

The Braves have claimed infielder/outfielder Travis Demeritte off waivers from the Tigers, per announcements from both teams. Atlanta released right-hander Jeremy Walker in a corresponding move.

Demeritte was the 30th overall pick of the Rangers in 2013, but they traded him to the Braves in 2016 for pitchers Lucas Harrell and Dario Alvarez. Demeritte stayed with the Braves until they sent him to the Tigers at the 2019 trade deadline in a deal for reliever Shane Greene. He combined for 219 plate appearances as a Tiger from 2019-20 and batted .217/.264/.323 with three home runs. The Tigers designated the 26-year-old Demeritte for assignment last week. Despite his woes in the bigs, Demeritte’s a .286/.387/.558 hitter in 399 PA in Triple-A with two minor league options remaining, so he could have a legitimate second act with the Braves.

Walker, 25, was a fifth-rounder of the Braves in 2016 who worked his way to the majors in 2019, when he tossed 9 1/3 innings and surrendered just two earned runs on nine hits and four walks (with six strikeouts). Walker impressed at the Double-A and Triple-A levels before then, but he didn’t pitch at all last year because of shoulder problems.

Twins Claim Kyle Garlick, Designate Brandon Waddell

By Steve Adams | February 11, 2021 at 2:59pm CDT

The Twins have claimed outfielder Kyle Garlick off waivers from the Braves, per a team announcement. Left-hander Brandon Waddell was designated for assignment in order to open a space on the 40-man roster.

It’s the latest stop in a growing list of organizations for Garlick, 29, whose stay with the Braves will only prove to last for a few days. Garlick was the Dodgers’ 28th-round pick back in 2015, but in the past calendar year he’s been traded to the Phillies, claimed by the Braves and now claimed by the Twins.

Minnesota still needs a 40-man spot to make Alex Colome’s one-year deal final, so it’s far from a sure thing that Garlick will last on the roster for too long. It’s fairly common for clubs to claim a player and then try to pass him through outright waivers shortly thereafter — thus allowing the team to retain him without committing a 40-man roster spot.

Garlick spent most of the 2020 season at the Phillies’ alternate site in Lehigh Valley, though he did appear in a dozen games at the MLB level. He went just 3-for-22 with a double and seven strikeouts in that time, however. Garlick showed a bit of promise with the Dodgers in 2019 when he made his big league debut and hit .250/.321/.521 with three long balls and four doubles in a small sample of 53 plate appearances. He’s a career .281/.332/.568 hitter in 645 Triple-A plate appearances and does have a minor league option remaining as well.

As for the 26-year-old Waddell, he was a 2015 fifth-rounder by the Pirates out of Virginia. He made his MLB debut last year with Pittsburgh and tossed 3 1/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts and walks apiece. The Twins claimed him off waivers back on Oct. 30.

Waddell has a strong track record up through the Double-A level and was solid at Triple-A in 2018 as well. Like most Triple-A pitchers in 2019, however, his season was an unmitigated disaster as offensive levels spiked to all-time highs in that league amid the widely held belief that the ball was juiced. (Triple-A adopted the same ball used in MLB that season.) Even after being clobbered for 59 runs in 61 innings of Triple-A ball that year, Waddell has a 4.12 ERA in 478 minor league frames with a 20.4 percent strikeout rate and a 9.8 percent walk rate. He’s not a huge strikeout pitcher but induces grounders at an above-average clip and has two minor league options remaining.

Braves Sign Nate Jones To Minors Deal

By Connor Byrne | February 9, 2021 at 5:43pm CDT

The Braves have signed free-agent reliever Nate Jones to a minor league contract, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. Jones will be in major league camp.

Now 35 years old, the right-handed Jones thrived out of the White Sox’s bullpen earlier in his career, but injuries knocked him off course a few seasons ago. Jones combined for just 52 innings from 2017-19 because of multiple arm problems. The White Sox traded Jones to the Rangers in late 2019, but he never pitched for Texas.

Jones landed on his feet with the Reds last offseason on a minor league contract, and while he did make their roster and total 18 2/3 innings, his run prevention numbers mostly fell well shy of his past output. After he recorded a woeful 6.27 ERA, the Reds released him in late September.

To Jones’ credit, he did post a much more encouraging 3.56 SIERA in Cincinnati, average 96 mph on his fastball and log impressive strikeout and walk percentages of 26.7 and 7.0, respectively. It didn’t help Jones’ cause that hitters victimized him for a .400 batting average on balls in play, but if he gets back to the majors and that figure returns closer to his career mark (.302), he could be a useful pickup for the Braves.

NL West Notes: Arenado, Braves, Cubs, Escobar, Belt

By Mark Polishuk | February 6, 2021 at 5:16pm CDT

The Braves had some talks with the Rockies about Nolan Arenado before the star third baseman was dealt to the Cardinals, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (subscription required). Rosenthal also sheds some light on one of last offseason’s more intriguing rumors, the talks between the Rockies and Cubs about a trade involving both Arenado and Kris Bryant. Jason Heyward was also part of the negotiations at one point as the Cubs looked for payroll offset for Arenado’s contract, though the Rockies weren’t interested in adding any money beyond the 2021 season (which marks the end of Bryant’s current contract and when Arenado could have exercised his opt-out clause).

As Rosenthal notes, the Cubs could end up looking back on those talks as “a what-might-have-been” given that they’ll now be facing Arenado on a regular basis in the NL Central. From Colorado’s perspective, such a trade might not have been a clear win if a Rockies-bound Bryant had suffered a similar run of injuries that hampered him in the actual 2020 season, but it still might have drawn better reviews than their trade package from St. Louis. “Rival executives remain baffled by the deal,” Rosenthal writes, as the Rox rather inexplicably worked themselves into an unsalvageable situation with their best player.

Quick Hits: Rangers, Infield, Rays, Ozuna, Braves, Freeman

By TC Zencka | February 6, 2021 at 12:29pm CDT

Isiah Kiner-Falefa was so impressive in his Gold Glove winning season at the hot corner that the Rangers plan on bumping him further up the defensive hierarchy in 2021. He’ll be their starting shortstop, per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, which means an open competition to fill his spot at third. Oddly enough, Elvis Andrus seemed to have the inside track on the job before being traded to the Texas Rangers today. Instead, his long-time double play partner Rougned Odor may be an option, or they could see a replacement from outside the organization. The Rangers prefer that youngsters like Josh Jung and Sherten Apostel spend more time in the minors, Landry notes.

Marcell Ozuna and Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos were all laughs today as they spoke to reporters, including the Athletic’s David O’Brien, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post, and Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Though the two sides certainly took their time to come together on a new contract, the deal itself was actually finished over the course of a single day. The Rays had made an offer to Ozuna, but after one season in Atlanta – a year Ozuna described as the best year of his career – the slugging outfielder told his representation at CAA Sports that he wanted to hear from the Braves. The takeaway here is that clarity, communication, and a little pressure exerted from the outside go a long way to helping two sides come together.
The jolly atmosphere included a playful reference to the future negotiation of Freddie Freeman’s extension, tweets Janes. Anthopoulos certainly didn’t seem all that worried about potentially losing their franchise first baseman, who is a free agent after the 2021 season. For his part, Freeman doesn’t seem particularly likely to test his options elsewhere. The 31-year-old was handed the keys to the franchise from the legendary Chipper Jones, and there’s little reason to doubt his plans to stay behind the wheel in Atlanta. Coming off an MVP season and three consecutive NL East division titles, the partnership clearly works. As with Ozuna, the Braves and Freeman could be as much as a conversation away from keeping the California native on the East Coast, a sentiment the Athletic’s David O’Brien has shared for some time.

Braves Re-Sign Marcell Ozuna

By Connor Byrne | February 5, 2021 at 7:56pm CDT

7:56pm: The Braves have designated outfielder Kyle Garlick for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Ozuna’s re-signing, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic. Formerly a Dodger and Phillie, Garlick joined the Braves as a waiver claim on Jan. 23.

7:27pm: The Braves are re-signing outfielder Marcell Ozuna to a four-year deal, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. The club has announced the move, and it’s a $65MM guarantee that could reach $80MM if the Braves pick up an option in Year 5, per Robert Murray of Fansided. Hector Gomez reported earlier Friday that Ozuna was close to returning to Atlanta. The buyout in 2025 is worth $1MM, Craig Mish of SportsGrid relays. Ozuna is a client of CAA Sports.

This is an enormous raise for Ozuna, a former Marlin and Cardinal who parlayed a history of above-average production into an $18MM guarantee with the Braves last winter. It ended up as a great move by Atlanta, as Ozuna slashed a monstrous .338/.431/.636 with 18 home runs in 60 games and 267 plate appearances. Along with his stellar bottom-line numbers, Ozuna ranked as an elite hitter by Statcast’s standards.

If there’s any criticism of Ozuna’s 2020, it’s that he didn’t play much defense, only lining up in the outfield 21 times during a year in which the National League featured the universal designated hitter. It remains unclear whether the NL will keep the DH around in 2021, but even if it doesn’t, the Braves will bank on the 30-year-old Ozuna’s offensive abilities remaining intact. The back-to-back-to-back NL East champions clearly needed to either re-sign Ozuna or pick up another big bat to replace him this offseason, and now they have succeeded in retaining one of MLB’s premier hitters.

Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos isn’t known for signing players to long-term deals, but he made an exception in this case to keep together an offense built around Ozuna, 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr. The Braves made earlier notable free-agent signings when they added starters Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly on shorter pacts. Considering what the Braves have done this offseason, they ought to be a force again in the NL East next season, though the Mets, Nationals, Phillies and Marlins should make it difficult on them to win the division yet again.

The MLB offseason got off to an incredibly slow start, but high-end free agents have come flying off the board in the past few weeks. Ozuna’s re-signing means none of MLBTR’s top 10 free agents from the beginning of the winter are left without jobs. MLBTR ranked Ozuna fourth among available players and predicted he would earn a four-year, $72MM deal.

Marcell Ozuna’s Market “Moving Forward”

By Steve Adams | February 5, 2021 at 11:21am CDT

The market for free-agent slugger Marcell Ozuna is “moving forward,” reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid, and the Rays are among the final few teams involved in the mix. A deal is not yet imminent, per the report. Tampa Bay is something of a surprise entrant, though MLB Network’s Jon Heyman recently indicated interest on the Rays’ behalf.

At the time, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweeted that Ozuna would only land with the Rays in the event of a “major shift” in his contract goals, suggesting they’d likely only be serious players on a one-year deal. Mish, however, writes that Ozuna’s eventual deal is expected to be for either three or four years. Additional reports out of the Dominican in recent days connected Ozuna to the Rays enough that he took to Instagram to stress that he does not have any sort of agreement with Tampa Bay.

As for the incumbent Braves, a reunion is still possible, Mish adds. Earlier this morning, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweeted that Atlanta “continues to be the favorite” to sign Ozuna. The Braves, of course, received elite production at the plate from Ozuna in the shortened 2020 season, but their interest in him — as is the case with many NL clubs — has been somewhat tempered due to the lack of agreement on the return of the designated hitter in the National League.

One fringe suitor likely disappeared when the Twins agreed to a new deal with Nelson Cruz earlier this week. Technically speaking, Minnesota still has room to add Ozuna and play him in left field, but that seems decidedly unlikley. Cruz always appeared to be the Twins’ top target, but reports in the past couple of weeks indicated that after a months-long stalemate, they’d at least considered pivoting to Ozuna.

It at least worth an anecdotal mention that one of Ozuna’s former clubs, the Cardinals, has a suddenly less-crowded outfield picture after trading Dexter Fowler to the Angels last night. There’s been no indication the Cards would make a serious run at Ozuna — they’re reported to be more in the market for rotation help — but a considerable shift in the outfield mix for a suddenly motivated buyer who knows Ozuna well has already led to some speculation among fans.

Braves Add Chipper Jones To Coaching Staff In Part-Time Role

By Steve Adams | February 1, 2021 at 2:22pm CDT

The Braves announced Monday that Hall of Famer Chipper Jones will join their Major League coaching staff on a part-time basis as a hitting consultant.

Jones, 48, knows a thing or two about hitting — as evidenced both by his plaque in Cooperstown and his career .303/.401/.529 batting line. Jones spent each of his 19 Major League seasons with the Braves and made eight All-Star teams and won a batting title along the way. A beacon of consistency and excellence, Jones can lay claim to the incredible feat of batting over .300 from both the right side of the plate and the left side of the plate in his remarkable career. He also walked more often (1512 times) than he struck out (1409) over that span of nearly two decades.

Jones has been working as a special assistant to GM Alex Anthopoulos in recent years, but he’ll now take a more hands-on role with the players on the field. Carroll Rogers Walton of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Jones will work alongside assistant hitting coaches Jose Castro and Bobby Magallanes under hitting coach Kevin Seitzer. He will not be in the dugout or travel with the team, however. Rather, he’ll focus on video work with Braves’ hitters and work with them in the cages.

Quick Hits: Indians, Payroll, Patton, Nationals, Catchers

By TC Zencka | January 31, 2021 at 9:26am CDT

The Indians did not budget enough money in 2021 to both re-sign Cesar Hernandez and add free agent Eddie Rosario. With those two completing the lineup, the Indians’ roster is more-or-less set with a payroll around $50MM, per Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. Take this for what it is, but the Indians exceeded payroll just to get there. Owner Paul Dolan made an extra concession to allow the addition of Rosario. To their credit, he represents a somewhat major addition given their inability to field above-average offensive outfielders. Over the last two seasons, Rosario slashed .271/.305/.494 with 45 home runs over 821 plate appearances, good for a modest 105 wRC+. That Nolan was willing to stretch the payroll speaks volumes about how the Indians value Rosario’s fit in the lineup.

Spencer Patton is throwing an improved change-up with the hopes of bringing three viable pitches out of the bullpen, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The 32-year-old right-hander led Nippon Professional Baseball with 57 appearances last season, which is no small feat to MLB teams aware of the perils in ramping up pitcher workloads in 2021. Patton’s numbers from Japan won’t blow you away, however, with a 4.92 ERA, respectable 28.1 percent strikeout rate, and slightly-concerning 11.7 percent walk rate. Patton will throw for teams again on February 2nd, with the Braves, Rays, Angels, Royals, Rangers, and Giants being among the teams to have shown some interest thus far.
Pitching has long been the focus for the Nationals organization, but at the same time, they’ve lagged behind in the catching department, writes MASNSports.com’s Mark Zuckerman. Pedro Severino is the most prolific homegrown catcher with 105 games played for the organization – though he didn’t break out until joining the Orioles. Raudy Read or Tres Barrera are next in line to have an opportunity, but the recent signing of Alex Avila suggests GM Mike Rizzo isn’t ready to give either one too long of a look out of the blocks. Both Barrera and Read have served PED suspensions in the past, however, and Welington Castillo will also be in camp as a non-roster invitee.

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