The Braves opened camp in 2026 hoping for a full season from outfielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar. He'd missed 80 games in 2025 following a PED suspension but was productive upon returning. With designated hitter Marcell Ozuna out the door, Profar and newly signed outfielder Mike Yastrzemski had plenty of runway to frequent playing time.
Of course, we now know that Profar isn't likely to play a single game in 2026. He's staring down yet another PED-related suspension, and the punishment for second-time offenders jumps from 80 games to 162 games. Profar and the MLBPA appear intent on appealing the ban, but there's no precedent for a suspension being completely overturned.
At best, Profar can probably hope for a slight reduction, and even instances like that are rare. Right-hander Michael Pineda saw a 2019 suspension reduced from 80 to 60 games, but only after providing sufficient evidence that the banned diuretic he took was not used as a masking agent for PEDs. Profar didn't test positive for a masking agent but rather exogenous testosterone.
Assuming Profar's season-long ban is upheld, Atlanta will have some decisions to make. The Braves are already down their shortstop and two rotation arms this spring. Ha-Seong Kim required surgery to repair a tendon in his hand after slipping on some ice in the offseason. Righties Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both underwent elbow surgery to remove loose bodies and/or bone spurs.
The Braves are now also without Profar, who'd been in line for regular at-bats and was hoping to build off the sound .248/.358/.446 batting line (126 wRC+) he logged in 355 plate appearances upon returning from last year's suspension. The veteran switch-hitter walked at a huge 13.2% clip and only struck out in 15.8% of his plate appearances. He connected on 14 home runs, 16 doubles and a triple while contributing nine steals (in 11 tries) on the bases.
Losing Schwellenbach, Profar, Kim and Waldrep before the halfway point in spring training is a rough way to begin the season for an Atlanta club hoping for better health than in an injury-decimated 2025 campaign. If there's a silver lining for Braves fans, however, it's that Profar's suspension sends him to the restricted list and mandates that he will not be paid his $15MM salary. The Braves are not only off the hook for that $15MM -- they're also spared $3MM of associated luxury taxes they'd have paid to the league.
There's obviously no guarantee that Atlanta reinvests the full freight of the money they're now spared. The Braves could opt to lean on in-house solutions to plug their newfound roster gaps, then readdress when the trade deadline rolls around. That's a defensible strategy, though the counterpoint would be that spending some of those funds on immediate additions would bolster the team's chances of making it to late July as a contender.
Much of free agency and the trade market has been picked over, but there are some options for president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos to explore with his unexpected $15MM of payroll flexibility late in the winter. MLBTR's Tim Dierkes more briefly touched on this topic in yesterday's mailbag, but let's take a look at some more possibilities.
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Seems like it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to just call Boston about Yoshida… Contract value is close as is offensive production when healthy. They could probably get the Sox to eat about half if not more of the money anyway. Open up some budget for the trade deadline, as needed.
Seems like a win-win and I doubt Boston would ask for much / anything in return as long as they shed some of the money.
I think the Braves would probably be looking for a RH bat to platoon with Yaz, or a much better defender to put in the OF o give Acuna days at DH.
Now if Duran was available then Atlanta would not worry about the platoon situation. Duran would be in the outfield and Yaz would be the guy that plays the outfield to give Acuna days at DH
Duran at this point is likely off limits unless we get a power hitter in return. The biggest issue with the Sox right now is the lack of power and Duran at this point is one of our power hitters (relatively speaking, not classically speaking).
I agree that Duran is likely off limits…
I’m not convinced the Braves make any moves really. one or both of Kim and Murphy could be back early May. That gives them more options at that point.
I think Dubon and Eli White are both going to get the chance to play almost every day. Yaz may even get a chance to hit lefties.
The Braves also seem to like their internal pitching options. I like the possibility of Ritchie being the 5th starter if he can prove throughout spring that he is ready.
Plus, they could have all 3 of Schwellenbach, Waldrep, and Smith-Shaver back by mid-June to July.
“Duran at this point is one of our power hitters”
IMO, All these players are better power hitters. Each had higher Slugging last year.
Anthony
Contreras
Abreu
Casas (depending on when he’s brought up)
So, 4th or 5th place. Duran is a better pure hitter than some of those guys, but they have more power.
Sox would love to trade Durran. Trouble is he’s expensive for a controllable asset. This trade idea makes good sense on paper, but the bean counters would have to work out the $ heading back to ATL, and this is the same presumable roadblock to his being moved already.
chief:
“he’s expensive for a controllable asset.”
$7.7M is ‘expensive’?
A team would be paying $7.7M for a player who produced 3.9 FWar in 2025.
—
He’s a deep discount at that price.
Smith Shawver won’t even be 12 months post full TJ surgery in June. He’s not pitching again til 2027.
@Teri.
AJSS had TJ surgery early June. 12 months would be early June. He could possibly be available more like mid-July.
He had surgery June 9th
@Teri AJSS didn’t have TJ, he had the brace surgery, which has a slightly shorter time to recover.
Does Atlanta have any spare LH relievers? Yoshida + $$ for left handed bullpen help.
Aaron Bummer…deal
Aaron Bummer, but once again Yoshida doesn’t seem to lineup well for Atlanta. They need a rh hitter and/or someone who can play the outfield. Yoshida doesn’t meet either of those needs.
Both Yoshida and Profar are under contract for next season and the Braves may not be looking to add payroll for next year.
Tommy Pham is still available, as is Rowdy Tellez, Justin Turner, Hunter Renfroe, and a host of players on minor league contracts that will be available after they don’t make their respective team’s rosters
No one wants your garbage.
I figured the best win-win trade that could be made for Yoshida is flipping him to get Andrew Benintendi back. Change-of-scenery move for both guys, salaries are virtually identical. Benintendi goes back to where it all began, providing more LH power to the lineup than Yoshida brings. Yoshida gets to play with Murakami, which hopefully helps both guys over a long 162-game season away from home.
Boston really has no use for Benintendi. And if they ever took back an OF, itd need to be a righty.
Reason of is lefty heavy, they don’t want another lefty of bat. Thats one saving grace to yoshida being around is he’s a righty stick.
Benintendi isnt as good a hitter anymore as yoshida, and, faces the same playing crunch.
IF AA calls breslow, he should give a cheeky response like yoshida for Sale.
Yoshida bats left-handed.
Pretty much everything about the swap is even. The Red Sox would come out with $1.5 million in savings in both 2026 and 2027, and that slight of an increase should not a problem for the White Sox. Both players are sunk costs right now, so what could it hurt?
Great comment.Yoshida would thrive there. .282 lifetime avg mlb never really got going due to injuries..326 lifetime in Japan very intriguing if Sox eat contract.
Except the Braves don’t need a LH bat unless he can play the outfield on a consistent basis.
Yoshida is not a RH platoon option for Yaz, or able to play the OF on a consistent enough to let Acuna DH
Regarding Eric Lauer being a trade candidate for the Braves, I wonder if that’s why the team pulled Cease from the start vs Atlanta today in favour of Lauer.
The Jays are visiting. They only have 4 regulars (if Straw, Heineman and Schneider are considered regulars) in the lineup. Cease is pitching a sim game at the Jays complex.
$210M players dont ride buses!
I really would hate to see Lauer traded. Gausman and Berrios are reasonably sure things but Ponce, Yesavage, and Scherzer are not.
Jays have a lot of starting pitchers but hardly a locked down rotation especially early.
I’m guessing the Braves will keep options available by standing pat and waiting to see if they can stay within striking distance until the deadline with what they have. If they come out of the gate 26-42 or something they’re close enough to be able to dip under the luxury tax. Currently $246mm…only $2mm over the first threshold.
FYI J.R. Richie was demoted amd will likely not be the no 5 starter
When did Ritchie get demoted? Owen Murphy and Garrett Baumann both got demote Wednesday.
Don’t want to start his service time clock. They have already been bad with that in recent years. Look for Elder and Wentz to make the team.
Ritchie hasn’t been sent to mil camp as of this morning. Still listed as a non roster ML ST invite.
My bad, confused him with Owen Murphy. Thanks for correcting.
The Braves should start a rebuild and tear it all down. Riley…gone, Olson… gone. Acuna…gone, Albies…gone, Iglesias…gone, Sale…gone. Let’s get ready for the 2028 season! And punt on ‘26 & a strike shortened ‘27!
That would bring in some serious prospect capital for sure.
A random reminder that drinking alcohol while pregnant can hurt the baby.
No way they can rebuild within 2 years.
Also if you really did want to rebuild by 2028 what is the point of trading Riley and Olson? Olson isn’t a free agent until 2031 and Riley 2034, assuming options are exercised.
This makes 0 sense. I do agree with a rebuild but we need to be more realistic about the timeline it will require. 2032 is what they should target and I actually have them keeping Riley since he’ll still be around for a few seasons at that point.
Hell no.
Give it a week, Michael Conforto will be getting cut by the Cubs
We can trade you Lee and Sosa for pitching prospect
Yoshida +$$ for a lefty reliever
Yoshida + Pitching for Lefty reliever + prospects
Seriously, no one wants Yoshida. You’re stuck with him.
And to think, Nick Castellanos was sitting there for the entire off-season for the low, low price of $20M!
Ummm…no he wasn’t. He was a Phillie, and they ate his contract upon his release. He signed with the Padres for league minimum.
Wow, you must be fun at parties.
He must be fun at parties because he’s accurate? Huh?
Yes, exactly. Castellanos was available for the entire offseason for essentially a bag of sunflower seed shells, so yes he was available for the low, low price of $20M. This is not that hard.
No one was going to pay him $20 million to trade for him because he’s not worth it. I have an old beer can that is available for $10 million, it’s been sitting around for a while.
See, this wasn’t that hard a concept to grasp. And thank you for finally reaching this conclusion. To borrow your very concise quote, “Huh”?
They will used it at the trade deadline. The Profar gift wrap money.
That makes sense. Lot of players making quite a bit need to show why they were worth it rather than FO outspending for those on IL too much or underperforming.
And trade who? Braves fans act like that doesn’t cost more than the money spent or something. Then wonder why the farm system has 0 position players and only a handful of pitchers.
The farm system is thin because the Braves keep graduating players that produce at the MLB level and went through an international signing ban. But I completely disagree that the Braves don’t have enough on the farm to complete 1 of 2 trades at the deadline. They got Chris Sale for Vaughn Grissom and Nacho Alvarez is better than Grissom was. They’ve got a ton of pitching. Hayden Harris has value as a reliever. Jon Gil and Alex Louise both look like potentially legit shortstop prospects.
Hard to spend $ at the deadline. Usually the currency is prospects. Only a third of season left so teams won’t save much in a salary dump.
Money matters if you’re taking on a contract in a trade. You’re giving up prospects making nothing, and taking on an mlb contract, so that $15 million matters
Yoshida is a Professional hitter
I can be had for the low, low price of $100 K this season. I have the contact ability of Joey Gallo, The Power of Juan Pierre, Hitters eye of Michael Harris II, Fielding Abilities of Adam Dunn, The throwing ability of New York Yankees version of Chuck Knoblauch, The speed of Cecil Fielder, and the temperament of Carlos Zambrano. Put me in coach, I’m ready to play, today!
Great opportunity just opened up for the Orioles. The Braves need a big bat OF after profar suspension. And that freed up $18mm.
Who is out there that makes about that much and plays OF and hits homers? If we can think of someone, he could really fit the bill for a Braves team that wants to contend for a wild card.
Take Tyler O’Neill (probably the correct spelling should be Tyler On IL) and send back one of the 7 sub 4 runs allowed relievers and a win-win would be had by all.
Nobody takes O’Neill and that full salary & gives an asset back. Braves are certainly in a tough spot but i think O’Neill needs at least half a productive season to have any shot of being a viable trade candidate.
Orioles aren’t in the position to give up a position player right now IMO. I think Beavers is very good but you’d be counting on him as a surefire everyday player this year if you deal O’Neill. With all the infield injuries at the moment—I don’t see any surplus. Blaze was going to factor into the outfield but he’s going to be a full time infielder for a while:
@saj
O’Neill plus 8m in 2026 and 8M in 2027 to Atlanta for Aaron bummer.
Bummer is about as overpaid as Oneill. They’d have to send money but probably closer to 5 rather than 16.
I think other braves RPs would be doable, but Bummer is probably not enough of an upgrade for Os to bother.
Bummer’s owed $9.5M for 2026 and will be a FA after the season. No need to obscure the amount or terms. “……about as overpaid as Oneill.” Really?
Yup, I’d say really. Baseball trade values model is decent for mediocre vets like these and it has -6 AB vs. -9 TON $mm on them.
Or 3 yr war: TON .8/yr, Bum 0. (Yes, we all know that war underestimates value for RPs)
Btw, On I L is a moderate platoon guy, about avg vs same side in his career.
@braves25: Get what you’re doing here 25, but that seems like a big overpay for a weak side platoon bat that has significant injury and performance problems. Imo, White’s a better option for the money—salary, health, speed, and defense.
Not making playoffs by starting AAAA guys. You have 15$-$18 mm to play with, buy something that at least can be good. As dodgers show, talented but injury prone guys just waste $ on the IL but if you can get em healthy they carry you.
Y’all can probably get Will Benson in a couple of weeks.
You don’t replace Profar. You should already have 3 starting outfielders and a 4th 5th 6th option. You replace the 5th or 6th option.
Chances are if Profar leaves PED’s alone he reverts back to his pre-PED days and being a below average MLB hitter–92 wRC+ career hitter before 2024! I think Profar did the Braves a favor by failing a drug test and giving them $15mm more available payroll. Clearly his 2024 ‘career year at age 31’ was PED induced..and he clearly believes he can’t hit enough without PED’s otherwise he wouldn’t have done what he did. ‘Replacing’ a 92 wRC+ hitter who can’t play defense shouldn’t be hard to do.
Yeah, but they were counting on 3 war 120 wrc Profar.
Profar had a solid season the first time around in SDP as well. He’s an absolute airhead for burning his guaranteed money.
Profar has only had one 3 WAR season and that was his PED-induced 2024. He hasn’t even accumulated 10 WAR in his entire career. Not sure why people think this guy is productive without PED’s. He clearly knows he’s not.
Let’s not forget AA paid a guy who has been awful up until his 1 career year and decided to throw a 3-year deal at him.
Meanwhile he can’t be bothered to pay for the guys that have consistently performed for the Braves year after year, like Max Fried.
He has butchered this team completely. The farm system is done because he’ll trade and extend a worse (or at best…equivalent) first baseman. He’ll trade more prospects to flip one younger catcher that’s cost controlled and showing signs of being terrific for another catcher that’s value was a coin toss and also extend him to a higher contract. He’ll repeatedly sign injury prone or aging veterans to large 1-year deals every time with little return on investment for them.
And now? Now he’s refusing to rebuild when it’s necessary. Every year extending the time further out for when they could truly be competitive again watching players walk as contracts expire leaving the Braves with a gutted farm, multiple holes in the roster that grow a little bigger every year, and a bloated payroll from poor extension choices.
I’ve never seen someone nuke a promising pool of talent so fast.
The Braves should take Profar to Court and get out of this contract for 2027. The Braves shouldn’t have to live up to the contract when Profar has done nothing to fulfill his end of the deal.
Sammy Sosa