The Braves announced today that they have signed right-hander Joe Jiménez to a three-year, $26MM deal. The righty was about to become a free agent but will stick with Atlanta instead. The client of ISE Baseball will make $8MM in 2024 and then $9MM in each of the two subsequent seasons.
Jiménez, 29 in January, spent his entire career with the Tigers until he was traded to Atlanta coming into the 2023 season. He ended up having a strong campaign, making 59 appearances with an earned run average of 3.04. He struck out 30.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at just a 5.9% clip. He wasn’t used in the most high-leverage spots, earning just 13 holds and no saves on the year. He also appeared in just one of Atlanta’s postseason contests, but the results for the year were impressive nonetheless.
The decision makers in Atlanta are clearly enamored with Jiménez, having parted with prospects Justyn-Henry Malloy and Jake Higginbotham in order to get him from Detroit last offseason. That was on the heels of a strong 2022 season wherein he made 62 appearances with a 3.49 ERA, 33.3% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate. When combined with his one season in Atlanta, he has a 3.27 ERA over 121 appearances in the past two years, striking out 32% of opponents in the process. He’s now been able to parlay that two-year run of strong results into a solid three-year deal.
The contract is generally in line with those for other non-closer relievers in recent years. Rafael Montero got three years and $34.5MM from the Astros, Taylor Rogers three years and $33MM from the Giants, while Kendall Graveman got three years and $24MM from the White Sox.
Atlanta was set to lose a decent chunk of its bullpen to free agency, with Jiménez, Pierce Johnson and Jesse Chavez slated to hit the open market this winter. Collin McHugh, Brad Hand and Kirby Yates could join them depending on how their contract options play out. But Johnson and the club reached a two-year extension last week and now Jiménez is staying as well, allowing them to stick with incumbents like Raisel Iglesias, A.J. Minter and Tyler Matzek.
For other clubs who may have been in the market for a reliever like Jiménez, they will now have one less option available to them on the open market. Josh Hader is clearly the top relief arm available, but the tier below him also has intriguing options such as Jordan Hicks, Reynaldo López and Robert Stephenson. It’s possible Chad Green could join them, depending on how his convoluted contract plays out in the coming days, while Yuki Matsui is looking to make the move from Japan.
Roster Resource currently pegs Atlanta’s 2024 payroll at $174MM with a competitive balance tax number of $205MM. This deal will add $8MM to the payroll and $8.67MM to the CBT number, since the latter is based on the average annual value of the entire contract. They have until Monday to decide on options for players like Charlie Morton, Eddie Rosario, McHugh, Hand and Yates. Triggering any of those would put some extra money onto the books but turning them down will leave them with extra items on the winter to-do list. The base threshold for the luxury tax will be $237MM in 2024.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Well that was fast
November is usually AA’s busiest month. They have a bunch to 60 IL guys that need to get moved around too, so expect a handful of more moves
AA already getting started
Like him a lot, smart decision, sign him before the market picks up
$26M for Joe Jimenez! Wow, especially with relievers being so inconsistent.
Indifferent. He was very solid, but losing him wouldn’t have been awful either.
Now hopefully, they trade Fried and don’t bring back Morton. Rotation needs to be retooled completely.
Trade Acuna? Do you wear a helmet to the supermarket?
No. Probably just a few dozen masks to be super safe
He wears a tinfoil hat.
Why on Earth would you trade Fried and cut bait with Morton when the team already needs 1 more dependable SP? So you want to go into the winter basically needing to fill the 2-4 slots in the rotation? That literally makes no sense. I’m glad you’re an armchair GM, and not a real one.
Because you can get 1 or 2 solid young starters in a trade for Fried. Unless they plan to extend him, there is no point in keeping him for 1 more season cause this team will never get past another DS with the current rotation.
That doesn’t help the Braves next season, and that matters because the time is now for Atlanta to compete. You’re completely overlooking the fact that both Strider and Fried did their jobs well against the Phillies, too. The Morton injury just left the Braves a starter short, and Philly pitched outstanding. It happens.
Besides, even if they can’t extend Fried, they’ll get a comp pick for him anyway. All they need to do is add one more SP and the rotation is fine.
I understand any player can go down suddenly with no prior injury history, but Fried is a ticking time bomb. Trade him while the value is relatively high.
Seattle is a great fit,
Trade for either Gilbert or Kirby + Crawford (plus). The Braves give up Fried and Grissom. Then sign Montgomery.
As for Morton, he has proven he cannot be relied on for the last 3 seasons.
Rotation
Strider
Gilbert/Kirby
Montgomery
Elder
AJSS
Trading Fried for prospects, the likely best case scenario would be one becomes a serviceable middle of rotation arm. When teams trade a guy like Fried they rarely get back a player who has anywhere near the success of the established MLB player being traded away.
And as for the Braves, they are in win now mode. Their best option if they don’t extend him is probably to ride him out and get the extra pick when he declines qualifying offer. Unless by the off chance they go full on Mets implosion prior to trade deadline, which seems rather unlikely.
> Trade for either Gilbert or Kirby
> + Crawford (plus). The Braves give
> up Fried and Grissom.
“I picture Seattle Mariners execs right now tripping, clawing, fighting over themselves on the stairs just to get to the phone to accept that offer before it disappears.”
—No one
Man dont know where you are getting your value on players at but I cant see Mariners trading Gilbert or Kirby for that light of package alone. Specially if they are going to try and give Texas and Houston a run for their money again.
Hem if anything they’d be fighting to be the one who gets to laugh AA off the phone and maybe troll him a lil bit for floating such a ridiculous offer lol
Are you joking?? They are in no way a great fit. SEA also is in win now mode they would not trade either Gilbert or Kirby who have years of team control and are proven at MLB level for a rental pitcher such as Fried.
@Hemlock, I often see people come up with some really lop sided trade scenarios on here. But at least most of them although absolutely unrealistic try and address each teams needs. This dude is basically proposing just straight up pillaging SEA for years of team control. And then to try and justify it he doubles down tossing Crawford in the mix.
Part if me wants to believe he’s being sarcastic but other than the players mentioned none of it is worded sarcastically.
@tigers we call that move “the king of cards” round these parts lol
Pete
I put down “No one” in my comment meaning no one would ever make such a statement. Gilbert and Kirby are extremely valuable. Plus Crawford??? Fried has no team control after ‘24. Seattle guts their rotation for a starter who probably just leaves them after a year. I like Fried, but come on. This sort of trade makes no sense and it’s just silly.
I understood your comment dude I was just making a joke about how absurd it would be if the braves actually tried to offer that trade.
Lmao
Ah ok cool just wanted to make sure
Dude, I had always by far thought Yankees fans were most obnoxious. And to an extent held Cards fans in a somewhat high regard. I could not believe tho how quickly they turned on team having one down season that was pretty foreseeable. And although I think Nootbar is a fine ball player, I can’t believe how many Cards fans unknowingly speak of him as if he’s in this rung just below Griffey and Mantle.
I’m a Braves fan, and I could almost guarantee Seattle isn’t making that trade. They’d have to pay Fried too. If they’re prepared to spend, they may as well just spend for Snell while keeping the controllable pitching they have.
As others have said, Seattle and Atlanta don’t really fit as trade partners anyway.
exactly right… either extend him, or trade him.
They don’t really have that luxury. They are already in need of 2 SPs. They re a win now team, to replace him in free agency along with the 2 other spots would be way to costly.
Seattle & Braves match up on a trade. It’s just not the blockbuster fans want. But I think a Grissom for Bryan Woo deal works for both teams.
I remember some irrational comment made last year about how Acuna should be traded for Soto straight up.
My fear Is that My Mets are going to blow up the starting pitching market when free agent season start.
Don’t worry. They will just sign some other guy who is about 43 years old to a 43.3 MM aav deal and dump him for salary relief later on.
Did Jamie Moyer ever officially retire?
Eh I’m glad they at least got back 2 prospects, one which immediately became their number 1.
Nah, they’re tanking this year.
Sonny Gray already trying to get his old NYC apt.
Extremely happy with this move this early.
Sign Sonny Gray and trade for Dylan Cease without giving up AS-S or Waldrop.
And how do you suggest they do that?
Cease can be traded for a package centered around Grissom. Maybe Vines who is almost MLB ready and Shuster who although hasn’t been very good is MLB ready.
I don’t think White Sox if they deal Cease believe they are contenders next year but Shuster could hold down a rotation spot on a bad team.
If White Sox want Elder & Grissom I would not be opposed to that either.
Somebody could (and would) beat that package for Cease easily.
Atlanta doesn’t really need both. Strider, Fried, Morton and an addition would make a formidable 1-4. There is nothing wrong with using Elder as a 5th starter, while having the rest of the young pitching and Sororka for depth.
There is a lot of clutter in the minors. Dodd, Schuster, Vines, Winans, AJSS..addition by subtraction here(AJSS is the only standout player from this pool)
Ynoa is a wild card as hes coming back from TJS, He should have a full spring training under his belt, and probably not many restrictions.
But overall they’d need at least 1 . Morton is not a lock to come back next season, if he decides to retire, then they need 2 SP in the offseason.. Fried’s elbow is kind of shaky. I’d be nervous about any lingering effects from that. . Soroka needs a full year in the Minors to retool everything. That turbo sinker isnt turbo anymore he needs to add another pitch to the mix. Not sure what their plans are for Allard or Chirinos, but they are more of long relivers.
Really looking forward to see if Ynoa can get back into the firm he showed for a while.
Soroka is done. He is this era’s Mark Prior.
I don’t think that’s written in stone. While that is probable, Soroka could just as likely be a valuable 4th/5th starter
Overpay! This contract will not age well
He will be 29 for next season. This new contract covers his ages 29-31. The Braves had him for a year and they liked what they saw. Who knows how it will work out. They know more about him than the typical free agent, so there’s that.
Slow down, JayHeck. It isn’t like they gave him 10 years and $300 mill.! This is an affordable deal. If he continues the trends of the past two seasons, especially as they introduce him into higher leverage situations, it will be quite a deal. If he gets injured or the walks return, that’ll be another matter.
You’re accounting for inflation? Under 30? Check. K% above 30? Check. Deal isn’t over 5 years? Check. Well you get the drift… These players are being signed to 8-9 mil per season. That’s the going rate. If you keep comparing to years ago then it’s always going to look like an overpayment.
As everyone else said 8-9 million is standard. If anything the fact the Braves jumped on this deal literally right after the World Series ended shows that they know Jimenez would have gotten offrs from a lot more teams at this range.
Let’s be honest, this is a bit of an overpay. The guy is inconsistent. Plus is value in production was roughly 3.9 mil according to FanGraphs last season. He’ll likely be good and I can’t complain much, but it’s definitely money we can allocate towards better arms elsewhere
The market is set. It’s a pretty good deal, considering it could shift when all the BP needy teams start their bidding wars. Would you prefer Chad Green and his intricate contract? Jimenez was a beast on Detroit and I see no reason why he cannot maintain that quality going forward.
I wouldn’t call Jimenez a “beast.” He was good, not great. Out of his 5 seasons in Detroit, he had 1-1/2 very good seasons, the half being the year he was named to the All Star team.
I don’t love Joe, but am awestruck by every photo with him in blue eyeliner, but that’s not an overpay for a decent RP in their prime. Look at what HOU paid an older Neris last year. ’24 should be better with ATL knowing where to pitch him.
Inglesias, Minter, Johnson, probably all in front of him in the bullpen. Plus Matzek is back.
WAR isn’t a good measure for relievers. Even FG writers will admit that. He’s been consistent over his last two years and isn’t likely to decline given his physical age. It’s one less spot to fill for AA.
Sources reported that with both this signing and Johnson the players agreed to donate 1% of the total to the Atlanta Braves Foundation. Anybody have any insight into this? Is that something other teams do as well?
money laundering
Pablo Sandoval got that contract from the Red Sox so John Henry didn’t catch a RICO Charge
Some do, but it’s the same foundation setup I believe for Henry Aaron Fund and others that benefit from it. I wouldn’t doubt ATL including an addt 1% to do this, so it gets the player/team PR points and they’re intentional in their community outreach, which is better than not knowing. mlb.com/braves/community/atlanta-braves-foundation
American League All Star Joe Jimenez
The Rangers just won it all and both Pierce Johnson and Joe Jimenez have lucrative contracts. Don’t bother spending money on a bullpen. Get 4 guys that throw 100, an elite spin rate curve ball, someone who’s been around for a decade, and keep your fingers crossed
sounds easy enough
If the average joe knows that, don’t you think other teams do as well. The fact of the matter is that alot of those guys are failed starters from early on that turn into great relievers later.
Every so often you land a college reliever that’s stays a reliever and is successful like an AJ Minter. That’s not all that common though. Teams will even take those guys and try to make them starters, just because there’s such a high value in starters.
Also, every GM takes a few shots each year on guys like these, but you can’t count/rely on them. Typically, you’ll hear of a few success stories, but for each one there’s 20-30 if not more flops.
Jimenez is a good reliever, but more than $ 8.5m/y is quite a lot. I am happy for him, and the Braves generally make smart decisions.
Gruß,
BSHH
AA da god! ….just for making moves.
Who cares how much money he got paid its not your money. Great move by the Bravos.
Sure, but any amount pushes them closer to a tax rate level they’ve never paid before, which could be a max. They looked more comfortable going over that last year with the right person/deal, but they aren’t owned by Cohen, so there’s finite funds available for a publicly-traded team.
The Braves revenue was $570 million plus. They are making incredible profit margins and haven’t come close to being in the red. If they spent $100 million more an player payroll they still wouldn’t lose money.
What were the Braves expenses? Revenue in isolation is meaningless.
Can someone make sense of Jimenez’s usage for me? I don’t think he pitched once in the playoffs. Didn’t pitch much down the stretch. I got the sense they were staying away from him. And now they sign him to a three-year deal at decent non-closer money.
Was he hurt at the end of the year but they think he’ll be healthy again next?
He also had back surgery before he came to ATL. With how dicey backs can be, a three-year deal for a guy you didn’t use in high-leverage situations seems weird.
Jiminez threw 1 scoreless inning in the playoffs. Although he was ineffective the first 2 months of the season, possibly due to an off season back procedure, he was quite good from June on.
Yeah the back thing was a real issue. When he started pitching better in June. Snit used him like he had a back surgery in the off season. They like what they saw and got him for 3 years. May be a year too long, may not. Iggy, minter, Matzek, johnson, and now JJ—a good starting 5 of 8. With possible Yates(probable at 4.5), Lee, Jesse, Ynoa, Daysbel, Nick Anderson, Tonkin, allard, Jonny, and a bunch more fighting for the last 3. Could be a good/not great pen. Like most years.
I remember when Joe was supposed to be the next best closer in baseball when he was in the minors. He was nearly un-hittable. Then he finally got to Detroit and it was like he forgot how to pitch. He’s had maybe two good seasons in his Tigers tenure. I’m glad to see him having success and getting rewarded in Atlanta. Hopefully he can build on last season instead of back to his rollercoaster ways.
>in the minors … nearly un-hittable
> forgot how to pitch (in MLB)
Obvious, but—
Minor league hitters are not as good as MLB hitters. Success becomes difficult.
The Braves’s problem is that they care too much about analytics. Vaughn Grissom, in my opinion, is one of the best hitters in the league. He just needs a chance. They barely ever give him consistent playing time. Just because a player doesn’t walk or their defense isn’t the best doesn’t make them a bad player. I’d give up Baty and Houck for him right now
> They barely ever give him
> consistent playing time
Up until this point there has been nowhere to play him. I doubt they specifically leave an opening for him for 2024. Too risky. His only path to playing time is a lengthy injury to a MLB regular at a position that he plays, which has not happened yet.
Pretty typical LOLMETS fan take.
You can keep Baty & Houck. Who cares too much about analytics? Bruce Bochy doesn’t.
Yea, let’s ignore ANALytics and go back to the good ol’ eye test. lol
Wow…now 2 Braves relievers are making more than Albies. Disgraceful…
Just stop it.
Exercise Yates and McHugh’s options, decline Hand’s and the Braves will already have a damn fine looking bullpen before the other 29 GM’s even return from their vacations
Every Brave is signed for somewhere between 3 and 10 years.
Solid signing but I like the pierce Johnson deal a little better.
The trade that sent Jimenez to Atlanta seems like it’s going to end up being a win-win for both clubs. Justyn-Henry Malloy hasn’t made it to the majors yet, but he’s on the doorstep and looks like he’s going to be a good one.
Hell yeah, he was the one reliever I wanted the braves to bring back more than any. Love this guys strikeout stuff. AA is like my late great aunt who got all her Christmas shopping done by October lol.
Should decline all options other than maybe Yates. Bring back Charlie at a lower number, and got sign Brantley to play left and bring a better hit tool into the lineup.