Braves Rumors

Braves Return Rule 5 Pick Anyelo Gomez To Yankees

By Mark Polishuk | March 20, 2018 at 3:57pm CDT

The Braves have returned Rule 5 draft pick Anyelo Gomez to the Yankees, as announced by New York’s official Twitter feed. The 25-year-old right-hander has been assigned to the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate. Atlanta had originally selected Gomez out of the Yankees’ farm system with the eighth overall pick of last December’s Rule 5 Draft.

Gomez owns a 3.24 ERA, 9.3 K/9, and 2.58 K/BB rate over 269 1/3 career innings in the minors. Most of that experience is in the lower levels, though he impressed enough in 2017 to earn a promotion to Double-A (36 2/3 IP over 17 games) and even a brief two-inning cup of coffee at the Triple-A level. Gomez started just one of his 38 games last season, and the move to the bullpen resulted in a 1.92 ERA in 70 1/3 innings across all levels. With an abundance of strong arms in the minors, Gomez’s return only further reinforces the Yankees’ depth, though he is probably behind several other pitchers in terms of getting a big league promotion some time this season.

The Braves technically had two Rule 5 picks on their roster, as injury-plagued right-hander Dan Winkler’s Rule 5 status is still in effect despite missing much of the last three seasons due to injuries. Winkler and the other intriguing arms in Atlanta’s system created a tough road for Gomez to find a spot on the 25-man roster, and he didn’t help his case with a rocky performance (10.80 ERA) over 8 1/3 Spring Training innings.

Braves Reassign Ronald Acuna To Minor League Camp

By Jeff Todd | March 19, 2018 at 5:58pm CDT

The Braves have re-assigned much-hyped prospect Ronald Acuna to minor-league camp, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was among those to report on Twitter. He’ll presumably open the season at Triple-A.

It’s rarely notable when a 20-year-old is moved out of major-league camp. Then again, it’s fairly rare even to see a player of that age on the MLB side in the first place.

Acuna is a particularly special case. He began the 2017 season as a highly-regarded but largely untested youngster and finished the campaign as arguably the game’s best overall prospect after blitzing up the minor-league ladder. He opened at High-A and ended at Triple-A, improving his output all the while. Acuna finished with a cumulative .325/.374/.522 slash over 612 trips to the plate, adding 21 long balls and 44 steals to go with it.

Recent developments have only raised Acuna’s profile further. He mashed his way through the Arizona Fall League and has laid waste to the Grapefruit League this spring, posting a .432/.519/.727 batting line with four home runs and four swiped bags in 52 plate appearances.

There’s not much question that Acuna is ready for the majors. But the Braves are evidently not quite ready for him to join the active roster. That’s hardly a surprise, as the organization has consistently indicated Acuna would open in the minors, but it remains quite notable.

It’s impossible to ignore the service-time factors at play here. So long as Acuna is not allowed to accrue 172 days of service in the coming season, he won’t accrue a full season of MLB service. That would allow the Braves to play him in the majors for most of the upcoming campaign while still controlling him for six full seasons after that point. (Of course, the club might also try to hold him down long enough to prevent future Super Two status, though that would be yet a harder sell.)

Of course, even a delay of a few weeks’ time can have an impact on a team’s won-loss record. But that’s not a particularly pressing concern for this organization. While Atlanta had been looking to 2018 as a season to gear up for contention, a series of events — the poor finish to 2017, stunning front office upheaval, and big salary swapping trade that pushed financial obligations forward — seemingly conspired to change the plans.

In that regard, the considerations are a bit different than in the much-discussed case of then-top-prospect Kris Bryant back in 2015. Bryant, who was also a good deal older than Acuna, started in the minors despite a torrid spring and was held down just long enough for the Cubs to ensure that additional season of control. He played in 151 games after arriving and helped lead the team to a postseason berth.

We’ve never yet seen a situation as eyebrow-raising as Bryant’s and probably never will. But Acuna is certainly in the same general category: a super-premium prospect who has shown everything needed to prove he’s ready — at least from an on-field perspective — to play at the game’s highest level. Instead, the Braves will at least open the year with some kind of platoon in left field, likely featuring some combination of Lane Adams, Charlie Culberson, Danny Santana, Preston Tucker, and/or Ezequiel Carrera.

Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos explained his thought process to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, stating that Acuna’s own developmental needs were the primary concern. Atlanta’s new top baseball decisionmaker also suggested he would not have been as inclined as the prior front office group to move Acuna up so quickly last year.

It’ll be interesting to see whether or how the Major League Baseball Player’s Association addresses today’s decision by the Braves. The union has already felt squeezed on the free-agent side of the service-time spectrum, making it especially notable to see a top young talent handled in a manner seemingly designed (at least in part) to delay his entry onto the open market.

AL Notes: Rays, Cobb, Archer, Twins, Tigers, A’s

By Connor Byrne | March 19, 2018 at 12:21pm CDT

Even though right-hander Alex Cobb is still a free agent as the regular season closes in, there won’t be a reunion between him and the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Cobb’s not going to end up signing for a price the Rays deem palatable, Topkin suggests, even though he’s amid a highly disappointing trip to free agency after rejecting the team’s $17.4MM qualifying offer at the outset of the offseason. As they begin life without Cobb, the Rays are set to use a four-man rotation – something their top starter, Chris Archer, discussed with Travis Sawchik of FanGraphs. “The concept makes sense,” said Archer, who noted it’s particularly logical for low-payroll teams to have “four guys on the shuttle making $500,000 each,” as opposed to one player earning $2MM-plus. Although, Archer cautioned that it’s “hard to sustain” a bullpen-heavy plan over the course of a 162-game season. Archer’s also wary about how teams going to more of a bullpen approach could affect player development, as he explained to Sawchik, whose quote-filled piece is worth reading in full.

Braves Sign Anibal Sanchez

By Steve Adams | March 19, 2018 at 11:09am CDT

MARCH 19: Sanchez’s deal is worth $1MM, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets.

MARCH 16: The Braves announced that they’ve signed right-hander Anibal Sanchez to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League camp for the remainder of Spring Training. The veteran Sanchez, a client of agent Gene Mato, had previously been in camp with the Twins on a non-guaranteed deal but was cut loose when Minnesota’s signing of Lance Lynn ended his bid for a rotation spot. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported recently that Sanchez was nearing a deal with a new club (Twitter link).

Sanchez, 33, wrapped up a five-year, $80MM contract with the Tigers last season, during which he delivered two sensational seasons followed by three ugly years. From 2015-17 with the Tigers, Sanchez logged a total of 415 2/3 innings and surrendered 262 earned runs (5.67 ERA) on 462 hits (85 homers) and 131 walks. Sanchez still shows a penchant for missing bats (8.2 K/9 over the final three years of the deal, 8.9 K/9 in 2017), but his ground-ball rate has eroded and he’s become stunningly homer prone.

The Twins saw enough to give Sanchez a 40-man roster spot earlier this spring, though his contract came with a non-guaranteed salary of $2.5MM, and Minnesota opted to give him 30 days’ termination (roughly $417K) upon signing Lynn, thus allowing Sanchez to reenter the free agent pool with a notable parting gift.

With the Braves, he’ll serve as depth for a starting staff that looks likely to include Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz and Brandon McCarthy but has some uncertainty beyond that trio. It’s not known what veteran lefty Scott Kazmir has to offer after missing the 2017 season due to injury, and while the Braves have an enviable stock of arms on the cusp of MLB readiness, none has yet solidified himself as a definitive big league starter, Sean Newcomb, Luiz Gohara, Max Fried and Lucas Sims are all vying for rotation spots, while righties Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair remain on the 40-man roster (though that latter pairing has had its fair share of opportunities and subsequent struggles in the Majors).

NL East Notes: Braves, Newcomb, Mets, Montero, Vargas

By Connor Byrne | March 17, 2018 at 10:29pm CDT

Left-hander Sean Newcomb will open the year in the Braves’ rotation, Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. He’ll be part of a quintet that should also include Julio Teheran, Brandon McCarthy and Mike Foltynewicz, though it’s not yet clear who will occupy the fifth spot. The 24-year-old Newcomb debuted in the majors last season and recorded a 4.32 ERA/4.19 FIP across 100 innings, also posting a promising K/9 (9.72) but a troubling BB/9 (5.13). Braves manager Brian Snitker is impressed with the progress Newcomb has made since last year, saying: “Amazing where he’s at to me right now from where he was a year ago. How much improvement that guy’s made. The confidence, his mound presence, the competitiveness, the whole thing from a year ago today. It’s so much better.”

Now for the latest on one of Atlanta’s division rivals…

The Mets are considering trading out-of-options right-hander Rafael Montero, who’s drawing some interest from other teams, Matt Ehalt of The Record reports. A deal is not imminent, though, according to Ehalt. The 27-year-old struggled in the majors last season during his first extensive action in the bigs, with a 5.52 ERA and a 5.07 BB/9 over 119 innings (34 appearances, 18 starts). He did strike out 8.62 batters per nine and log a 4.37 FIP, though, to go with a 48.1 groundball percentage.
Mets southpaw Jason Vargas took a line drive off the right hand Friday, and now his status for the start of the season is in question, per Tim Healey of Newsday. X-rays came back negative, but Vargas noted that “it’s sore,” and he’s set to see a hand specialist (though he seems largely unconcerned). Manager Mickey Callaway added that he’s “not quite sure” whether the Mets will be able to open the year with Vargas, who’s currently in line to start their third game of the season. The Mets added Vargas on a two-year, $16MM deal in the offseason, hoping he’d provide a competent innings eater to a rotation that lacked those during an injury-plagued 2017.
More on the Mets, who utilized infielder Wilmer Flores in left field on Saturday. If the Mets are serious about Flores as an outfield option, it could benefit the rest of their roster, Tim Britton of The Athletic observes (subscription required). Flores as a fifth outfielder would give the Mets the ability to assemble a 13-man pitching staff, including eight in the bullpen, Britton notes. Regardless, Callaway is intent on finding at-bats for Flores, who was an above-average hitter from 2016-17. “You saw why he needs to be playing multiple positions, because the kid can hit,” Callaway said. “We need to get him as many at-bats as we can this season.”

Latest On Greg Holland

By Steve Adams | March 15, 2018 at 1:08pm CDT

The market for Greg Holland has seemingly been tepid, at best, in recent months. Two teams that have at least considered him as of late, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman, are the Braves and the D-backs. Atlanta has “checked in” on Holland, while Arizona has considered a run at him as well. One oft-connected team that doesn’t seem likely is the Nationals, as Heyman adds that the they’re “not planning” to pursue him at this juncture of the offseason. (That aligns with comments GM Mike Rizzo made to the media early this afternoon.)

The Diamondbacks already have a plethora of arms vying for bullpen spots, though as the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro recently pointed out, there are potentially as many as three spots up for grabs. Archie Bradley is considered to be among the ninth-inning favorites in D-backs camp, with Brad Boxberger and Yoshihisa Hirano also vying for saves, but Holland would give them a more established arm and deepen the overall bullpen mix in a year Arizona plans to contend. Payroll, of course, could be an issue for the D-backs, though it wasn’t long ago that they were trying to find creative ways to fit J.D. Martinez onto the books.

As for the Braves, their late-inning mix is also murky. Arodys Vizcaino figures to open the year in the ninth inning, with Jose Ramirez, A.J. Minter and Sam Freeman among the setup options helping form the bridge from the rotation to Vizcaino. There’s obviously strong incentive for the Braves to forgo signing Holland. As a rebuilding club that may not yet be ready to contend, the Braves surely don’t relish the idea of surrendering draft picks to sign a player who rejected a qualifying offer.

I’d add that at the same time, the Braves needn’t fret much over the international forfeitures they’d face, as they’ll he handcuffed in that regard anyhow following the November scandal that prompted John Coppolella to resign as GM. Beyond that, high-end bullpen arms are always in demand at the deadline, and it’s not outlandish to think the Braves could receive a better prospect than the one they’d acquire with the third round pick they’d be forced to punt. (Losing the slot value of that pick in their draft pool, however, would limit their ability to get creative, though.)

Finding teams that make sense as an on-paper fit for Holland is hardly a problem. Virtually any club in the league could stand to improve by pushing its seventh-best reliever to the minors and adding Holland to the bullpen mix. However, we’ve already seen a significant portion of the league largely sit out the free agent market, and at this stage of the offseason, more teams are up against payroll limits and reluctant to forfeit a draft/international considerations. There’s still enough time in spring that Holland could potentially make a handful of appearances before Opening Day, but the longer he waits, the more his early-season availability will be called into question.

Braves To Sign Ezequiel Carrera

By Jeff Todd | March 13, 2018 at 1:05pm CDT

The Braves have agreed to terms with outfielder Ezequiel Carrera, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). It’s a minor-league deal, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (Twitter link). Carrera can earn $650K in the majors, Bob Nightengle of USA Today tweets.

Carrera was recently released by the Blue Jays, sending him onto the open market in the middle of Spring Training. That move allowed the organization to avoid most of the $1.9MM arbitration salary it had agreed to with Carrera at the outset of the offseason.

As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reminds us on Twitter, current Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos was responsible for bringing Carrera to Toronto back when he ran the Jays’ baseball operations. Clearly, Anthopoulos is a believer, though it’s not clear whether Carrera will have a real shot at earning a roster spot over the final weeks of Spring Training.

Carrera, 30, did have a strong 2017 season in which he posted a .282/.356/.408 batting line with eight home runs and ten steals over 325 plate appearances. Whether now or at some point during the campaign to come, he could be an option as a reserve/platoon outfielder in Atlanta. Currently, the team appears to be slated to utilize fellow left-handed hitter Preston Tucker in a similar role.

NL East Notes: Phillies, Conforto, AGon, Robles

By Jeff Todd | March 13, 2018 at 11:16am CDT

As the Phillies introduce Jake Arrieta today, the organization is now much more clearly in a competitive posture than it was at the outset of the winter. But the pedal won’t be fully pressed down, it seems, despite the presence of a few other notable free agents who’d improve the near-term outlook in Philadelphia. GM Matt Klentak says that he does not anticipate any further additions before the start of the season, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki tweets.

Alex Anthopoulos On Jays Tenure, Braves Future

By Jeff Todd | March 12, 2018 at 9:56pm CDT

Current Braves and former Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos joined MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand for a wide-ranging podcast chat. It’s a great listen in full for fans of either of those organizations or anyone interested in learning more about Anthopoulos’s path in the game.

Anthopoulos opened up on some key elements of his time in Toronto now that a few years have passed. He served as GM there from 2010 to 2015 before moving on to a stint with the Dodgers front office and then landing the GM gig in Atlanta last fall.

While the end to his perch atop the Jays’ baseball ops department was obviously bittersweet, particularly as it came right on the heels of a bitter ALCS loss, Anthopoulos also made abundantly clear that he feels no ill will at all toward current club president Mark Shapiro. Rather, he says, the fit just did not seem optimal and he elected not to sign a five-year offer to remain.

Anthopoulos answered a bevy of questions about some of the key deals swung during his tenure, going all the way back to the organization’s admitted good fortune of landing of pre-breakout stars in Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. Of note, he acknowledged — as he was not really willing to do at the time — that Bautista might not have been extended in early 2011 had it not been for the earlier swap that took Vernon Wells’s extension off the books. (Anthopoulos also acknowledged feeling some unease after many big moves, including the Bautista extension and even the acquisition of Josh Donaldson.)

There’s plenty more historical examination in the chat, including the recruitment of Russell Martin. That deal went down when the Jays decided to offer an additional season and $8MM in guaranteed money, boosting the organization’s offer over the four-year, $74MM scenarios that other teams had dangled. Among other memorable moves, Anthopoulos explains the trade deadline double-play that landed Troy Tulowitzki (link) and David Price (link). That mid-season, go-for-it maneuver came about because the team (correctly) believed it had a rare chance at a big run if only it could shore up its run prevention.

Anthopoulos says he received interest from a number of clubs after deciding to leave the Jays, but his decision ultimately boiled down to one between the Astros and Dodgers. In the end, he cites his longstanding relationships with president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi as the primary decisions to choose the opportunity presented by the Dodgers.

Likewise, in moving on to Atlanta, Anthopoulos said he was convinced not only of the state of the organization’s resources but also that it’d be enjoyable to work under team chairman Terry McGuirk. The international signing scandal that opened the GM seat cost the organization some prospects, but Anthopoulos suggests that does not change the overall trajectory of the team, which he says is loaded with young talent.

The Braves certainly have not engaged in a ton of momentous dealmaking since Anthopoulos took over, but he did discuss the massive salary-swapping arrangement he worked out with the Dodgers. It helped, he acknowledged, that he had just been with the Los Angeles organization, as he knew its intentions and had plenty of trust with its leadership. While both sides explored other possibilities before pulling the trigger on the deal, Anthopoulos says it was the “only deal that was going to make sense” for the Braves involving Matt Kemp.

Moving Kemp to clear the way for the eventual call-up of Ronald Acuna was the “number one priority from a player standpoint,’ says Anthopoulos. Reallocating salary commitments to the 2018 season functioned to create ample “financial flexibility” for the organization moving forward. It seems the goal for the coming season is to develop and assess young players before deciding whether and how the organization “might need those dollars” it freed for the future.

At spring camp, Anthopoulos says, he’s focused on getting to know the young players who are vying to become parts of the organization’s future. Some, he acknowledges, may end up being traded. The spring offers a chance to gain new insight on the “human element,” Anthopoulos says, calling that one of the many elements he has gained additional appreciation for over his decades in the game.

NL Notes: Reds, Nats, Brewers, Braves, Cubs

By Connor Byrne | March 11, 2018 at 3:25pm CDT

Injuries continue to plague Reds right-hander Anthony DeSclafani, who’s now dealing with an oblique issue, C. Trent Rosecrans was among those to report (Twitter links). There’s no timetable for DeSclafani’s return, per Rosecrans, who adds that he “felt discomfort” during his start Friday and then underwent an MRI. DeSclafani previously missed two months during the 2016 campaign with an oblique injury, and then sat out all of last season with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament, depriving the Reds of one of their top players. When he was available from 2014-15, DeSclafani logged a 3.74 ERA/3.79 FIP with 7.48 K/9 and 2.48 BB/9 across 308 innings.

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