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The Braves Suddenly Have A Good But Aging Bullpen

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Attentive Braves fans will know not to get their hopes up too much based upon the team’s first early moves. The club got out ahead of the market last year as well, but mostly sat out after making its primary moves. In Alex Anthopoulos’s second year as GM, he has done even more volume right off the bat but hasn’t matched last year’s Josh Donaldson signing in terms of dramatic impact.

Let’s evaluate:

That’s exactly $30MM in 2020 salary — possibly enough to preclude a more significant payroll addition. The Braves are now over $100MM in commitments for the season to come, which is approaching the limits for an organization that has never topped $122MM in Opening Day payroll and started shy of that figure in each of the past two seasons.

So does this mean that the Braves won’t end up adding a new star to the roster? Maybe! But they’re actually still well positioned to do just that, in one of several ways. The Braves can still play near the upper reaches of the free agent market if they shed some salary. In particular, it wouldn’t be much trouble to move the contracts of Ender Inciarte and Shane Greene (the latter could also be non-tendered if it came to it) if the team prefers to spend elsewhere. That could free something like $14MM in cash. And there’s still also the trade market, through which the Braves can convert prospect capital into lower-salaried talent.

What’s notable about this early run of spending and roster decisions, then, isn’t so much that it means the Braves boosted their relief corps over other moves. Rather, it’s that the Braves — of all teams — have now compiled a rather strong, not especially cheap collection of old guy relievers.

That’s part-joke, part god’s honest truth. The move toward grizzled hurlers began at the 2019 deadline, when Martin, Greene, and Mark Melancon came aboard. Here’s the Opening Day 2020 age and salary of the Braves pen as presently constituted:

  • Mark Melancon, 35, $14MM
  • Will Smith, 30, $13MM
  • Chris Martin, 33, $7MM
  • Shane Greene, 31, $6.5MM (projected)
  • Darren O’Day, 37, $2MM
  • Luke Jackson, 28, $1.9MM (projected)
  • Grant Dayton, 32, $800K (projected)

Conspicuously absent from that list: homegrown young hurlers. Sean Newcomb may yet end up in the pen if he isn’t needed or deemed capable of handling a rotation spot. Regardless, it’s certainly not the bullpen look that would’ve been anticipated this time last year. It’s really an interesting shift in approach; even a few weeks ago, it still seemed safe to presume the Braves were still planning on utilizing a rotating cast of younger pitchers to fill out the rotation. Indeed, I wrote that the Braves could “consider their bullpen fully accounted for” after inking O’Day. Wrong!

That is a strong pen on paper. That’s welcome after a messy 2019. Smith has blossomed into one of the game’s better overall relievers. It still feels surprising the Braves took on Melancon’s full remaining salary, but he was very strong overall in 2019. Martin obliterated the rest of the sport with a 13.0 K/BB ratio last year. The peripherals were also excellent for Jackson, even if he faltered at times. O’Day and Dayton have been good before and showed signs of recapturing their form. Though Greene’s late-season run with the Braves wasn’t quite what might’ve been hoped for, it was hardly a disaster and he ended the season with a cumulative 2.30 ERA.

That said, it must be a bit disappointing for the Braves that they’ve ended up needing to commit this kind of cash to get where they feel comfortable in the relief unit. The waves of young arms have thus far largely disappointed outside of a few notable exceptions. The idea had been that the club’s best starting pitching prospects would not only form up an imposing rotation but spill over into the bullpen, linking up with the team’s short-inning pitching prospects to create an overwhelming overall staff.

But this may just set the stage for the next big moves from Anthopoulos. Quite a few young Braves pitchers still hold promise. Not all will get their chance to chase their ceilings in Atlanta. This year’s slate of players requiring Rule 5 protection has pushed the Braves roster nearly to full capacity with other players still to be added. There’s still plenty of talent pressure coming from lower down the farm system, reducing the available opportunities.

I think you see where I’m heading with this. Without bullpen slots available to run out young pitchers, and without ample payroll capacity remaining, the Braves now seem clearly positioned to swap out talented but not-yet-established hurlers for veterans that can make a near-term impact on the MLB roster. When the dust settles, the Braves will still have plenty of pitching depth — some of which will surely end up carrying a significant portion of the relief load this year even after the recent signings — and a good bit of high-end talent still rising. But some of the arms will end up elsewhere. Which? That’s hard to guess. In theory, dozens of Atlanta hurlers — especially those already taking up space on the club’s 40-man roster — could be talked about in trades.

Gerardo Parra Signs With Japan’s Yomiuri Giants

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Veteran outfielder Gerardo Parra has reached an agreement to sign a contract with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Giants announced Wednesday (hat tip: Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker, on Twitter). The Giants have announced the move in a press release on their official web site. It’s a $2MM deal that includes a $3MM vesting option for 2021, per Jose Rivera of ESPN Deportes (via Twitter).

The 32-year-old Parra, a client of Octagon, won a World Series ring with the Nationals and will now head overseas for the next chapter of his career. He signed a minor league contract with San Francisco last offseason but ultimately landed with the Nats after being cut loose by MLB’s Giants.

Though he hit just .198/.278/.267 in 97 plate appearances during his abbreviated run with San Francisco, Parra found second life after latching on with the Nationals. In addition to posting a much-improved .250/.300/.447 batting line in 204 plate appearances with the eventual World Series champions, Parra won the hearts of Nationals fans when adopting “Baby Shark” as his walkup theme. That children’s song/internet phenomenon became something of an anthem and a rally cry at Nationals Park, serving as a memorable subplot in a storybook season for the entire organization.

Parra has played in parts of 11 Major League seasons — mostly with the Diamondbacks — and is a career .276/.323/.404 hitter with 88 home runs, 264 doubles, 42 triples and 96 stolen bases. He’s a two-time National League Gold Glove Award winner and, in addition to his time with Arizona, San Francisco and Washington, has also played for the Brewers, Orioles and Rockies at the MLB level.

Additional Charges Filed Against Felipe Vazquez

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Twenty-one new charges have been filed against Pirates left-hander Felipe Vazquez, Rich Cholodofsky and Renatta Signorini of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report. Vazquez is currently being in Westmoreland County Prison on previously filed charges of sexual statutory assault of a minor. He was denied bail at a preliminary hearing Tuesday after the prosecution argued that Vazquez is a “significant flight risk.” The new charges, brought to light today, allege possession of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a minor.

The timeline for an eventual ruling and potential sentencing aren’t immediately clear, though the mounting number of disturbing charges against the former All-Star pitcher make it difficult to envision him ever returning to a big league mound. Depending on the findings of the court, Vazquez could face anything from extended jail time to deportation. He’s currently on administrative leave under Major League Baseball’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy.

Braves Re-Sign Chris Martin

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The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve re-signed right-hander Chris Martin to a two-year contract. The deal is worth a guaranteed $14MM and will be evenly distributed at $7MM per season, according to the team. Martin is represented by ISE Baseball.

Chris Martin | Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

It’s the third notable relief pickup of the past week for the Braves, who already snagged arguably the top reliever on the market last Thursday when signing Will Smith to a three-year, $40MM contract. Atlanta also re-signed veteran righty Darren O’Day to a one-year, $2.25MM deal in the early stages of the offseason. Between Smith, Martin, O’Day, Mark Melancon and Shane Greene, the Atlanta bullpen will head into the 2020 season as both a much more established and much more expensive collective unit than it did in 2019.

Martin, 33, enjoyed the finest season of his professional career in 2019, pitching to a combined 3.40 ERA with a masterful 65-to-5 K/BB ratio in 55 2/3 innings of relief between the Rangers and Braves. The towering righty, listed at 6’8″, opened the season in Texas but found himself pitching for the Braves down the stretch after Atlanta traded former first-rounder and top prospect Kolby Allard to the Rangers to acquire him on July 30. He was set to make his postseason debut against the Cardinals in the NLDS when an oblique injury cropped up and forced him out of the game before throwing a pitch in what proved to be a pivotal moment in the Braves’ postseason loss.

This past season, Martin posted a career-high 95.7 mph average fastball and logged career-high marks in swinging-strike rate (12.4 percent) and opponents’ chase rate (38.3 percent). The only pitcher in baseball (min. 50 innings pitched) who boasted a lower walk percentage than Martin’s 2.3 percent mark was Atlanta teammate Josh Tomlin (2.2 percent), but Martin’s 30.1 percent strikeout rate was nearly double that of Tomlin. The extent to which he can replicate his enormous gains in swinging-strike, chase and walk rates will determine Martin’s success in his second stint with the Braves, but there’s little denying that he was among the most appealing arms available on the market this winter.

Prior to landing far and away the largest contract of his professional career, Martin, has had one of the most fascinating odysseys in all of baseball (as most recently chronicled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tim Tucker). Drafted out of high school in ’04 and junior college in ’05, Martin opted not to sign in either instance and ultimately went undrafted in 2006 after undergoing shoulder surgery that he believed would end his baseball aspirations. Years later, after working as a UPS driver and working at Lowe’s, a game of catch with a friend brought about the realization that his surgically repaired shoulder no longer caused him pain.

A second indie ball stint was parlayed into a minor league deal with the Red Sox, who traded Martin to the Rockies in 2013. Just four years removed from delivering packages and driving a forklift, Martin made his MLB debut with the Rockies in 2014. Brief stints with the Rox and Yankees didn’t yield favorable results, and Martin ultimately found his first seven-figure contract pitching overseas for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan. His dominance in NPB led to a two-year, $4MM deal with the Rangers. Prior to today’s announcement, Martin’s career earnings between MLB and NPB checked in south of $7MM. The two-year, $14MM agreement matches the prediction included in MLBTR’s Top 50 free agent list, where Martin ranked 27th.

Early in the season the Braves will continue to deploy Melancon as the club’s closer, general manager Alex Anthopoulos suggested following the signing of Smith (link via Matthew Leach of MLB.com). That should lead to a primary setup corps of Smith, Martin, Greene and O’Day, with a number of the Braves’ young arms combining to round out the bullpen mixture. Luke Jackson, Grant Dayton, A.J. Minter, Chad Sobotka and Jacob Webb will be among the names considered by the Atlanta brass, barring additional bullpen acquisitions and or roster moves that send some of those incumbent options elsewhere.

Rob Manfred Discusses Astros Investigation

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Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the ongoing investigation of the Astros organization at this week’s owner’s meetings, ESPN’s Jeff Passan writes. The league began looking into the Astros on the heels of a report from The Athletic wherein four former employees, including right-hander Mike Fiers, detailed a practice in which the Astros utilized center-field cameras to steal pitch signs and alert the hitter to what pitch was about to be thrown.

“I’m not going to speculate on whether other people are going to be involved,” Manfred told reporters today. “We’ll deal with that if it happens, but I’m not going to speculate about that. I have no reason to believe it extends beyond the Astros at this point in time.”

In the past, both the Cardinals and Braves have been sanctioned under Manfred. The Cards were hit with a $2MM fine and lost their two highest draft picks when former scouting director Chris Correa illegally accessed the Astros’ proprietary database. The Braves were barred from signing international players for multiple signing periods and stripped of 12 prospects they’d signed after extensive violations of the league’s international signing rules were discovered.

Manfred declined to speculate as to the potential punitive measures that would be levied against the Astros organization, instead stating that any discipline will be dependent on “how the facts are established at the end of the investigation.” The commissioner wouldn’t rule out a repeat of those prior sanctions — loss of draft picks and international free agency restrictions — but also was sure to specify that his authority allowed a “broader” range of potential disciplinary measures. There’s no active timeline for the investigation to wrap up.

“Any allegations that relate to a rule violation that could affect the outcome of a game or games is the most serious matter,” Manfred said Tuesday. “It relates to the integrity of the sport.”

Braves Add Five Players To 40-Man Roster

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The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contracts of outfielder Cristian Pache, catcher William Contreras, right-hander Jasseel De La Cruz and lefties Tucker Davidson and Phil Pfeifer.

Each of Pache, Contreras, De La Cruz and Davidson rank inside the Braves’ top 15 prospects over at MLB.com, with Pache considered to be among the elite prospects in all of baseball. Pache, who turns 21 today, is an elite center field defender who is fresh off a .277/.340/.462 batting line put together against vastly older competition between Double-A and Triple-A this season. Contreras, also 21, is the younger brother of Cubs backstop Willson Contreras. He hit .255/.314/.354 in 416 plate appearances between Class-A Advanced and Double-A in 2019.

Both Davidson, 24, and Pfeifer, 27, reached Triple-A for the first time this season, though both pitchers’ time with Atlanta’s Gwinnett affiliate was brief late in the season. De La Cruz, meanwhile, topped out at Double-A. All three worked more as starters than relievers, giving the Braves another wave of near-MLB arms from which they could draw during the upcoming 2020 season.

The addition of all five prospects protects them from being selected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft. The deadline for all 30 MLB teams to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft is tomorrow evening. Atlanta’s 40-man roster is now up to a count of 38 players.

Giants Hitting Coach Alonzo Powell Accepts Job With Japan’s Chunichi Dragons

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Giants hitting coach Alonzo Powell has accepted a position as the new hitting coach of the Chunichi Dragons, the Dragons announced this week (hat tip: Jim Allen).

Powell’s status with the Giants was up in the air following the organization’s recent hiring of Gabe Kapler as the successor to iconic manager Bruce Bochy. It’s common for clubs to restructure their coaching ranks with the hiring of a new manager; the Giants already appear set to lose Hensley Meulens and already saw bullpen coach Matt Herges hired away by the division-rival Diamondbacks. Newly hired managers are frequently allowed to appoint their own staff, although Giants mainstay Ron Wotus will remain on hand as the team’s third-base coach.

It’s not exactly an unfamiliar jump for Powell, who played as an outfielder with the Dragons in six seasons from age 27 through 32 (1992-97). During an impressive run with the Chunichi club, Powell was a three-time batting champion who hit .300 or better and posted an OBP north of .350 in five of his six seasons. Powell maintained an OPS better than .900 in four consecutive years there, including an eye-catching .355/.405/.584 slash in 1995.

Powell has extensive experience as a minor league hitting coach and manager. He’s previously served as an assistant hitting coach with the Padres and Astros as well as interim hitting coach with the Mariners back in 2010.

Mariners Add Kristopher Negron To Player Development Staff

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve hired recently retired infielder/outfielder Kristopher Negron as an assistant to director of player development Andy McKay. In his new role, the 33-year-old Negron will assist “in all aspects of player development, including on-field instruction and mentoring minor league players on what it means to be a great teammate,” per the Mariners’ release.

“I’ve had the unique perspective of watching Kris play in high school, competing against him in junior college, and then having him be part of the Mariner family the past few years,” said McKay in a statement announcing the hiring. “During these 15 years, whether it was in high school or the Major Leagues, Kris has earned an unparalleled level of respect from his coaches, teammates, fans and members of the media. We couldn’t be more excited to bring Kris into player development where he will immediately begin to impact our people and our process both on and off the field. This is a great day for the Mariners.”

Negron played in parts of six Major League seasons, including 2018-19 stints with the Mariners. Dating back to his 2012 debut with the Reds, he’s seen time in Cincinnati, Arizona, Seattle and Los Angeles and appeared in 170 Major League games. He also played in parts of 10 Triple-A seasons (14 minor league seasons overall) and appeared at every position on the diamond outside of catcher.

Tomorrow Is The Deadline For Rule 5 Protection

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As reflected in MLBTR’s handy list of key offseason dates, November 20th is the deadline for teams to protect otherwise-eligible prospects from this year’s Rule 5 draft. Teams must add such players to their 40-man rosters by 8pm ET tomorrow or risk losing them to competitors when selections are made on December 12th.

Eligibility is determined by reference to the age and timing of entry to the professional ranks. A player that signed at 18 years of age or younger and has five seasons of pro ball is Rule 5 eligible if he is not added to the 40-man roster in advance of the deadline. Players that signed at 19 or older and have four seasons of professional experience are also eligible to be selected if they’re not added to the 40-man roster tomorrow. (In other words, college draftees out of the 2016 class, high school draftees out of the 2015 class and most international amateurs signed in the 2015-16 international period are eligible this year if not protected.)

Teams that make selections in the draft will gain conditional control over the chosen players. To be kept permanently, a player must stay on the MLB roster for an entire season, with at least ninety days spent on the active roster. It’s plausible to imagine that the addition of a 26th active roster spot this year will facilitate the utilization of the Rule 5 process.

Full coverage of the Rule 5 landscape will necessarily await tomorrow’s decisions. The need to make tough calls will prompt some action around the game, though it remains to be seen whether that’ll be the usual run of moves on the margins or if a blockbuster or two could be swung. Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper is as usual champing at the bit, so he has released a prediction of some interesting players that are relatively likely to be left unprotected.

As you might imagine, it’s easier to account for protection of prospects for teams with extra 40-man roster space. But it’s not as simple as having an opening. You also must be able to maintain a player in that spot throughout the winter and into the season. Adding a player that wouldn’t have been selected (or wouldn’t have lasted on an active roster) therefore carries its own risk: if you end up needing the roster space, you might have to expose such a player to outright waivers in the middle of the season. It’s worth noting, too, that some teams have already added players that they wish to protect.

There are tons of factors that go into these decisions, but roster space does still matter. Here are the number of open 40-man spots for each MLB team, as things stand this morning (per MLB.com’s roster pages):

10: Nationals

8: Cubs, Twins

7: Braves, Brewers, Tigers, White Sox

6: Astros, Red Sox

5: Mariners, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Orioles, Phillies, Reds

4: Rangers, Rockies, Yankees

3: Dodgers, Mets, Rays

2: Angels, Cardinals, Indians

1: Pirates

0: Athletics, Blue Jays, Padres, Giants, Royals

Elements of this post are adapted in part from a prior post by MLBTR’s Steve Adams.

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