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José Bautista To Officially Retire

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José Bautista hasn’t played in a big league game since 2018 but had never officially retired in the years after his last appearance. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet was among those to report today that Bautista will sign a one-day contract with Toronto to officially retire as a Blue Jay, as part of the ceremony wherein he will be added to the club’s Level of Excellence on Saturday.

Bautista, now 42, didn’t have the typical path to baseball stardom as he wasn’t a high draft pick or top prospect. The Pirates selected him in the 20th round of the draft in 2000 and he would get some modest attention from prospect evaluators after that, with Baseball America ranking him #14 in the system in 2002 and #7 in 2003.

In 2004, he had an especially unusual season, getting selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft. As the season wore on, he was claimed off waivers by the Devil Rays, then was subsequently traded to the Royals, Mets and back to the Pirates. He would stick with the Pirates for a few years, mostly as a third baseman but also playing some outfield. He showed glimpses of his potential at the plate, hitting 16 home runs in 2006, 15 the year after and another 15 in 2008.

That 2008 season saw him traded to the Blue Jays in August for a player to be named later, which was eventually revealed as Robinzon Díaz. A fairly forgettable transaction at the time, it would later prove to be the start of the defining era of Bautista’s career.

His first full season as a Blue Jay wasn’t especially noteworthy, as Bautista hit 13 home runs in 2009, though there were a few developments that would prove to be important in later years. He began incorporating a leg kick into his swing and also started to spend more time in right field, with his strong throwing arm a good fit for that spot.

In 2010, at the age of 29, Bautista broke out in stunning fashion. He launched 54 home runs for the Jays that year, setting a new single season record for the franchise. He also showed a keen eye at the plate, drawing walks in 14.6% of his plate appearances. His .260/.378/.617 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 165, indicating he was 65% better than the league average hitter. The Jays decided to bank on that breakout, giving Bautista a five-year, $65MM extension that covered his final arbitration season and four free agent years, with a club option for 2016.

He followed that up with an even better season overall. His home run tally dropped to 43 in 2011, but his patient approach allowed him to take advantage of pitchers giving him less to hit. He was walked in 20.2% of his trips to the plate in 2011, leading to a .302/.447/.608 slash line. His 180 wRC+ was the best in the majors that year and would eventually prove to be his personal best as well. He was considered to be worth 8.1 wins above replacement by FanGraphs and 8.4 by Baseball Reference. He came in third in AL MVP voting behind Justin Verlander and Jacoby Ellsbury.

His production would continue in fairly similar fashion for years to come, defined by both his power output and on-base abilities. From 2012 to 2016, he hit between 22 and 40 home runs each year with his walk rate never finishing below 13.1%. Despite that excellent production, and that of another late-blooming star in Edwin Encarnación, the Jays struggled to push too far beyond .500 in most of those seasons.

The 2015 season finally changed that, with the Jays aggressively bolstering the roster by adding Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin and others in the offseason. The trade deadline saw further aggression, with the club adding a batch of players headlined by Troy Tulowitzki and David Price. The moves paid off when the Jays surged in the final months of the season and finished 93-69, winning the American League East and cracking the postseason for the first time since 1993.

Bautista’s first opportunity to play in the playoffs would lead to a singular moment and image that are now cemented in the minds of millions of baseball fans. The Jays squared off against the Rangers in the Wild Card series, which had a best-of-five format at that time. The Jays lost the first two games but rallied to tie it up and force a fifth contest.

In the deciding game, the Jays fell behind in the top of the seventh 3-2 on a strange play wherein Rougned Odor scored when Martin’s attempted throw back to pitcher Aaron Sanchez hit the bat of Shin-Soo Choo and ricocheted away. Home plate umpire Dale Scott initially ruled the ball dead but the umpiring crew eventually allowed the run to score. That soured the mood in the stadium, with many fans throwing debris to express their displeasure.

In the bottom of the frame, several defensive miscues from the Rangers allowed the Jays to tie the game up before Bautista launched a two-out, three-run home run to give the Jays a 6-3 lead. Bautista reacted to the emotionally-charged atmosphere by flipping his bat high into the air, which proved to be controversial in some baseball circles, though it would quickly become an iconic moment among Jays’ fans. Toronto held on to win that game but would lose to the Royals in the ALCS.

After Bautista’s extension ended, the Jays gave him a $17.2MM qualifying offer for 2017. He rejected that and became a free agent but eventually returned to Toronto via a one-year, $18.5MM deal. He still hit 23 home runs and walked in 12.2% of his plate appearances, but his overall production fell to .203/.308/.366 and a wRC+ of 81.

In 2018, he returned to the journeyman status that started his career, bouncing to the Braves, Mets and Phillies. He didn’t sign with a club in the years to come, though he did reportedly consider a comeback as a two-way player in 2020, but later threw some cold water on those reports. He played for the Dominican Republic team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were pushed to 2021 by delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now it seems his playing days will be officially ended during this weekend’s festivities, tying a bow on one of the more unique baseball journeys. Though Bautista began and ended his career as a journeyman, he had a late bloom that led to a lengthy stretch as one of the best players in the league. From 2010 to 2015, he hit 227 home runs, easily the most in the league for that time with Miguel Cabrera second at 199. He slashed .268/.390/.555 in that time for a wRC+ of 156 and tallied 33.2 fWAR, that latter figure placing him sixth among position players. His 60 outfield assists in that stretch were topped by just three other big leaguers. He engineered many memorable moments during that peak, too many to list here, featuring both his tremendous talents as well as his fiery and standout personality.

Over his career as a whole, he played 1,798 games and took 7,244 trips to the plate. He launched 344 home runs and walked at a 14.2% rate, leading to a .247/.361/.475 batting line and 126 wRC+. He had 1,496 hits, 1,022 runs scored, 975 driven in and stole 70 bases. He tallied 35.3 fWAR and 36.7 bWAR. He made six straight All-Star teams from 2010 to 2015, led the league in home runs twice, earned a couple of Hank Aaron awards and three Silver Sluggers. As a Blue Jay, his tallies of 38.3 bWAR and 36.2 fWAR are both the best in franchise history among position players, with only Dave Stieb and Roy Halladay ahead of him overall.

We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Bautista on an incredibly special career and wish him the best in all his post-playing endeavors.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Mel Roach Passes Away

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Former major leaguer Mel Roach recently passed away, per an obituary from a funeral home in Virginia. He was 90 years old.

Roach was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1933. He played baseball at the University of Virginia before signing with the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. He got a brief start to his big league career by getting into three games that year and five more the next. Military service prevented him from appearing in either the 1955 or 1956 seasons, but he was able to resume his baseball trajectory in 1957.

He spent most of that year in the minors but was called up and appeared in seven games for Milwaukee. The club won the National League pennant and faced the Yankees in the World Series. Roach didn’t appear in any games in the series but Milwaukee was victorious, defeating the Yanks in seven games.

He was able to carve out a part-time utility role in the majors after that. In 1958, he hit .309 in 44 games, playing first and second base as well as the outfield corners. Unfortunately, a hard slide from Daryl Spencer injured Roach’s left knee on August 3. He required surgery that kept him out of action for the rest of that season and part of the following year as well.

He would continue in that part-time utility role through the 1962 season, eventually spending some time with the Cubs and the Phillies. He finished his career with 227 major league games played, notching 119 hits, including 25 doubles and seven home runs. He scored 42 runs, drove in 43 and retired with a .238 batting average.

After his baseball career was over, Roach got a job with the Bank of Virginia Trust division and stayed with that company for 25 years. He is survived by his wife, two children and five grandchildren, among other family members. We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

Braves Activate Max Fried, Designate Dalton Guthrie For Assignment

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Aug 6: Guthrie has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A, as noted by Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Going forward, Guthrie figures to provide the Braves with solid depth in the minor leagues as a utility option with previous big league success (albeit in a small sample) and solid defensive versatility.

Aug 4: The Braves announced this morning that the club had designated outfielder Dalton Guthrie for assignment. Guthrie’s spot on the 40-man roster will go to left-hander Max Fried, who was activated from the 60-day injured list this morning.

Guthrie, 27, made his major league debut with the Phillies last year but has bounced around multiple organizations this season. He was first DFA’d by the Phillies back in June after posting a meager .167/.286/.208 slash line in 23 games at the big league level for Philadelphia this season. He was then swapped to San Francisco in a cash deal shortly thereafter, though he spent only nine games in the organization before being designated a second time and claimed off waivers by Atlanta. His tenure in the Braves organization now seems likely to come to an end after a similarly short ten-game stint in Triple-A with the club.

Overall, Guthrie sports a career slash line of .244/.393/.333 with a 25% strikeout rate and a 16% walk rate in the major leagues, though those numbers come from a sample of just 56 trips to the plate. In more robust sample size of 694 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, Guthrie has posted a .296/.359/.455 triple slash with a 20% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. In addition to his solid bat, Guthrie offers valuable versatility, with considerable experience at second base, third base, shortstop, and all three outfield spots.

All of that makes it seems fairly likely that Guthrie will be once again claimed on waivers by a club with 40-man roster space and an interest in adding an optionable utility piece to their big league bench or minor league system. That being said, if Guthrie does go unclaimed on waivers, the Braves will have the ability to assign Guthrie to the minors outright, retaining him in the organization through the end of the season without requiring a 40-man roster spot.

Guthrie’s exit from the organization makes way for Fried to return from the injured list ahead of his planned start this afternoon against the Cubs. The runner-up in NL Cy Young award voting last year, Fried is on the shortlist of the game’s best left-handed starting pitchers with a career 3.05 ERA and 3.29 FIP in 658 1/3 innings. He’s missed nearly the entire season due to a forearm strain, with just five starts under his belt to this point in the season, though he did manage to post a sparkling 2.08 ERA in those 26 innings of work.

Fried’s absence has forced the Braves to piece together production from a bevy of young arms including Jared Shuster, Dylan Dodd, and AJ Smith-Shawver, as well as veteran arms like Kolby Allard, Michael Soroka and Yonny Chirinos. That group has largely struggled, with Smith-Shawver’s 4.57 ERA the only figure among them that clocks in under 5.00, but that hasn’t stopped the Braves from storming to an MLB-best record of 69-37. Fried’s return to the rotation alongside the likes of Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, and Bryce Elder should only bolster the club’s chances of holding their already-significant 11.5 game lead in the NL East.

Braves Re-Sign Charlie Culberson

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Charlie Culberson is back with the Braves, as the veteran’s MLB.com profile page reveals that the veteran utilityman has signed a new minor league deal with the team.  Culberson was designated for assignment and outrighted off Atlanta’s 40-man roster within the last week, and he elected to become a free agent on Thursday.

This is the second time in a little over a month that Culberson was DFA’ed and outrighted, and then went into free agency only to shortly re-sign with the Braves.  It continues a curious 2023 season for the veteran, who has spent over two months on Atlanta’s active roster with only a single in-game appearance — a pinch-hit single on July 16, in an 8-1 Braves loss to the White Sox.  Since the Braves’ core of position players have been so generally durable and overall impressive this season, there simply hasn’t been much playing time available for any of the bench players, let alone a proverbial 26th man like Culberson.

Still, the organization obviously has a kinship with Culberson, who previously played for the Braves from 2018-20 and hails from nearby Rome, Georgia.  He’ll head to Triple-A Gwinnett for now, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back on the active roster sooner than later, even if trade deadline acquisition Nicky Lopez will now be Atlanta’s top backup infield option.

With at least one game played this year, Culberson has now been a part of 11 different Major League seasons since debuting with the Giants in 2012.  Culberson has hit .248/.294/.386 over 1312 career plate appearances, appearing in 586 games with the Giants, Rockies, Dodgers, Rangers, and Braves while getting significant playing time at every position except catcher and center field.

Charlie Culberson Elects Free Agency

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Aug. 3: Culberson has rejected his outright assignment in favor of free agency, reports Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’s now free to sign with any club, although it’s certainly possible that he’ll return to the Braves on a new minor league contract — just as he did back in June, following his last DFA and subsequent outright.

Aug. 2: The Braves announced this afternoon that utilityman Charlie Culberson was outrighted to Triple-A Gwinnett. He went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment on Monday.

Culberson has had a very atypical season. The Braves have carried him on the MLB roster for around two months over a pair of stints. Remarkably, he’s only appeared in one big league game during that stretch — singling as a pinch-hitter on July 16. Culberson is clearly a well-liked figure in the Atlanta clubhouse, but they’d had little desire to get him onto the field around a star-studded infield.

The Braves acquired Nicky Lopez from the Royals last week to serve as a glove-first depth infielder. That pushed Culberson off the roster for the second time this season. Last time, he elected free agency but quickly returned to the organization on a minor league contract. He’ll again have the right to test free agency after clearing waivers.

Culberson has struggled in a limited look with Gwinnett this season, hitting .204/.234/.255 in 34 games. He’s appeared in 11 MLB seasons as a bench player. He’s a career .283/.311/.429 hitter against left-handed pitching but has a .218/.278/.349 line versus righties.

Padres, Braves Have Been Involved On Verlander; Astros Still Perceived As Likelier Landing Spot

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1:40pm: The Padres are out on Verlander at this point, tweets SNY’s Andy Martino. The Giants, who briefly threw their hat into the ring, have also backed out of the bidding.

11:55am: Feinsand reports that the Astros were close to a Verlander deal last night but that “things have really cooled down” today. He says the sticking point in the talks was the players going to the Mets, not the financials.

11:46am: Heyman tweets that while the Braves have been involved on Verlander, they’re not strongly in the mix at present.

11:14am: With just over six hours to go before the deadline, rumors about Justin Verlander’s future continue to swirl. The Astros, Dodgers and Orioles have all been linked to the three-time Cy Young winner. They’re not the only clubs with interest, however.

Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports (on Twitter) the Braves are also in conversations on Verlander. Meanwhile, Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweets that the Padres are involved, though it’s not clear how serious San Diego’s interest is. The Friars also like Detroit southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez, suggests Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on Twitter).

Even with the revelations of Atlanta and San Diego being at least on the periphery of the Verlander market, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that the previously-known trio of Houston, L.A. and Baltimore appear to be leading the market. Andy Martino of SNY and Bob Nightengale of USA Today both reiterate that Houston appears the likeliest landing spot.

Neither Atlanta nor San Diego has a strict rotation need. The Braves have some uncertainty towards the back of the staff at present, relying on recent waiver claim Yonny Chirinos to start games. Yet they’re a virtual lock to secure the NL East title and a first-round bye given their 11-game lead in the standings. Any additions at this point are geared more towards the playoffs. Max Fried will soon be back to join Spencer Strider at the top of the rotation. Bryce Elder and Charlie Morton are each playoff-caliber starters, while Kyle Wright could also factor into the plans in October.

Still, the Braves’ excellent roster at least affords them the flexibility to kick the tires on luxury buys. Verlander has an accomplished postseason track record. He’s not pitching at last year’s Cy Young level, but he carries a 3.15 ERA over 16 starts this season. It seems an open question whether the Mets would actually pull the trigger on a move to Atlanta, however. New York flipped David Robertson to Miami, so they’re not categorically opposed to intra-division trades. Yet Robertson is an impending free agent during a season in which the Mets are more or less conceding their playoff chances. Dealing Verlander, under contract for next year, to a club with which New York will ostensibly try to compete for a division title in 2024, would be a much bigger move.

San Diego seemingly checks in on every big-name player available. The Padres are reportedly targeting position player depth and bullpen help, which indeed seem like bigger concerns than the starting rotation. San Diego’s starters lead the majors with a 3.63 ERA and rank seventh with a 24% strikeout rate. With Blake Snell and Seth Lugo (by likely declining a player option) seemingly a few months from free agency, there’s an argument for the Friars looking for rotation help controllable beyond this season. That said, their reported diligence on Verlander and Rodriguez seem more like the Friars’ general approach of staying involved on any star.

Verlander is owed around $14.2MM on his record salary through season’s end. He’s due $43.333MM next year, while his contract contains a $35MM vesting/player option for 2025. The Mets would have to pay down some portion of the salary. They’re clearly amenable to doing so, though reports have suggested they value Verlander more highly than they did Max Scherzer — whose contract they paid down to $22.5MM over the next two seasons to land Luisangel Acuña from Texas.

Braves Acquire Brad Hand

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The Braves have acquired reliever Brad Hand from the Rockies, the clubs announced. Minor league reliever Alec Barger goes to Colorado in a one-for-one swap. Atlanta already had an opening on their 40-man roster.

Hand was one of the more obvious trade candidates this summer. The veteran reliever signed a buy-low deal with the Rockies late last offseason. He received a $1MM bonus for making the roster and is playing the year on a $1.5MM salary. Less than $500K remains to be paid out, though he’s also guaranteed a $500K buyout on a $7MM option at season’s end. That provision was a club option for Colorado but converts to a mutual pact now that Hand has been traded.

It’s largely immaterial, as Colorado never seemed likely to exercise the option. Hand has been a solid but unexceptional middle innings arm for the Rox. He’s tallied 35 2/3 innings through 40 appearances, working to a 4.54 ERA. That’s his worst ERA since moving to the bullpen seven years ago, though pitching half his games in Coors Field hasn’t done him any favors.

Despite the diminished run prevention, Hand has gotten an uptick in swing-and-miss. His 26.1% strikeout rate is his best mark in three seasons. His 9.7% swinging strike percentage is still a fair bit below-average but a little better than those of his prior two years. While he’s gotten tattooed by right-handed hitters, Hand has stifled lefties to a .143/.276/.204 batting line with 20 strikeouts in 59 plate appearances.

He’ll add a veteran specialist to a relief corps which Atlanta has sought to deepen over the past week. The Braves also acquired Pierce Johnson from Colorado and recently claimed Yonny Chirinos from Tampa Bay. They’re not impact additions, but Atlanta’s bullpen is already strong. The Braves enter play Tuesday with a 3.67 relief ERA that ranks fifth in the majors. It had been righty-heavy with Dylan Lee on the injured list; Hand adds a second option behind A.J. Minter, likely for more situational work.

In return, Colorado picks up some upper minors relief depth. Barger, 25, is a former 17th round selection out of North Carolina State. He’s spent the season at Double-A Mississippi, working to a 3.29 ERA with a quality 29.3% strikeout rate. Barger’s 12.8% walk percentage is elevated, but the Rockies are clearly intrigued by the bat-missing potential and the bottom line results. He’d be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter if not added to the 40-man roster, though the trades of Johnson and Hand (and likely a forthcoming deal of Brent Suter) could open an opportunity for him to get a late-season debut.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Rockies were trading Hand for Barger.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Braves Looking For High-Leverage Relief Help

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With the deadline now a day away, the Braves are looking for pitching, with Jon Heyman of The New York Post relaying that help at the back of their bullpen is a target area.

The club in Atlanta is in a stronger position than any other in the majors. They have a lead of 11.5 games in the National League East, while none of the five other division leaders have a gap larger than two games. They are the closest thing to a lock in baseball right now, with a potent lineup that’s strong from top to bottom and a rotation that’s set to see Max Fried come off the injured list soon.

Considering all that, there’s not too much for them to improve, but even the best teams can squeeze in another high-quality reliever. The bullpen in Atlanta is already in strong shape as it is, with their collective 3.67 earned run average the sixth-best in the majors. They’ve recently added Pierce Johnson into the mix but there’s no reason they couldn’t bolster the group even further.

There’s some precedent for the club adding to the top end of their bullpen even when it’s already in good shape, as it was just a year ago that they traded for Raisel Iglesias despite having Kenley Jansen already in the closer’s role. That was a bit of a future-focused move, as Jansen was an impending free agent but Iglesias still had three more years on the deal he originally signed with the Angels. It beefed up the relief corps for the stretch run while also allowing them to fill the closer vacancy before it even became vacant.

Here in 2023, Iglesias has taken a bit of a step backwards from his previous work. He suffered a right shoulder strain during Spring Training and began the season on the injured list but was able to return by early May. Since then, he’s recorded 20 saves, posting a 3.69 ERA in 34 appearances. That’s not a disastrous figure, but it’s a drop from his 2.55 mark across the three previous seasons. His 31.1% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate are both strong numbers, but slightly off from his 34.8% and 5.1% marks in that 2020-2022 stretch.

Most clubs would love to have an elite reliever like Iglesias, but the fact that Atlanta thinks it can upgrade in this department just goes to show how few holes the club has at the moment. But beyond Iglesias, their other high-leverage relievers also have some question marks. A.J. Minter got off to a terrible start, as he had a 7.43 ERA on May 26. He righted the ship with a 1.56 ERA over his next 20 appearances but then landed on the IL due to shoulder inflammation, just getting activated today. Kirby Yates has a 3.38 ERA but is working around a 13.1% walk rate thanks to a .226 batting average on balls in play and 87.1% strand rate. Collin McHugh has a 3.98 ERA as his strikeouts have been vanishing, punching out 16% of batters this year compared to 28.7% in the previous two campaigns. The club also has each of Dylan Lee, Jesse Chavez, Nick Anderson and Tyler Matzek currently on the 60-day injured list.

If Atlanta can find an elite arm to add into that mix, there’s some room for improvement. Heyman mentions Josh Hader of the Padres and David Bednar of the Pirates, but both will be hard to pry loose from their respective clubs. The Friars are five games out of a playoff spot but reporting seems to indicate they want to try to go for it rather than give up on their season. Unless they get blown away prior to the deadline, they might just hang on to Hader. The Bucs are out of contention but control Bednar for another three years and he’s a fan favorite, having grown up in the Pittsburgh area.

Scott Barlow of the Royals is probably available but he’s having a down year, with his 5.35 ERA more than double the 2.30 mark he had over the past two seasons. He’s probably been a bit unlucky given his .340 batting average on balls in play and 61.6% strand rate, but his 12.5% walk rate is also a big jump for his 8.4% clip in 2021-2022. The Mariners are reportedly willing to listen to offers on Paul Sewald, who has a 2.88 ERA from the start of 2021 to the present, striking out 35% of hitters in the process. The list of trade candidates includes many other potential options, with varying degrees of availability and skill.

Braves Designate Charlie Culberson For Assignment

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The Braves made a series of roster moves this morning, per a club announcement. The club designated infielder Charlie Culberson for assignment to create room on the 40-man and active rosters for newly-acquired infielder Nicky Lopez. Meanwhile, left-hander A.J. Minter was activated from the 15-day injured list. Minter claimed a roster spot that was vacated by right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver when he was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett last night.

Despite the fact that Culberson was selected to the Major League roster on June 30, he appeared in only one game with the Braves and tallied a single plate appearance on July 16, during which he delivered a base hit. He’s otherwise been on-hand as bench depth but hasn’t been plugged into a game. This is the second time this season Atlanta has designated the veteran utilityman for assignment; he cleared waivers, elected free agency and quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal last time around.

Culberson, 34, has also appeared in 24 Triple-A games this season, batting .204/.234/.255 through 107 trips to the plate. It hasn’t been a strong year on the whole, but he’s beloved in the Braves organization, from the clubhouse to the fanbase, for his prior stints there in 2018-20. During that three-year period, Culberson delivered roughly league-average offense on the whole and appeared at every position other than catcher and center field. His penchant for clutch hits and walk-offs endeared him to Braves fans during that time, and Culberson enjoyed a career-best season with Atlanta in 2018 when he hit .270/.326/.466 with a dozen homers in 322 plate appearances.

The Braves will have until tomorrow evening’s trade deadline to trade Culberson if they choose, but it seems likelier that they’ll hope to pass him through outright waivers. He’d have the ability to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency once again, but given how quickly he re-upped with the Braves on a new minor league deal last time around, the same sequence could play out following his second DFA of the season.

Latest On Justin Verlander

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7:36PM: The Braves have also “checked” on Verlander but aren’t currently in talks with the Mets, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets.

5:50PM: Following the Mets’ trade of Max Scherzer to the Rangers led to further increased speculation about a trade of fellow high-priced, multi-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. Several teams have been tied to the nine-time All-Star, including the Rangers, Astros and Dodgers. However, Andy Martino of SNY reports that the Mets value Verlander much differently than Scherzer. They’ve placed a higher asking price in terms of prospects and aren’t willing to pay down salary to the same extent they were in order to move Scherzer.

Astros fans may be hoping for a reunion with Verlander, who won his third career Cy Young Award in Houston last season, but it doesn’t appear that’s likely. Astros GM Dana Brown tells Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM that his team isn’t in the market for a starting pitcher right now and is instead focused more on the back of the bullpen and a left-handed bat (Twitter link). Per Martino, the Astros indeed checked in on Verlander, but the teams were “nowhere close” to agreeing on his value.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale hears similarly, writing that while Houston and New York have indeed discussed a Verlander deal, an Astros source tells him they’d likely require the Mets to pay down a “significant” portion of Verlander’s salary this year and next. Verlander’s $35MM vesting option for the 2025 season, which triggers upon reaching 140 innings pitched next year, is another hang-up in a potential deal. All of that complicates a potential Verlander/Astros reunion, which clouds the water on a trade in general. Like Scherzer, Verlander has a full no-trade clause — and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Astros are “perhaps” the team for which he’s most willing to waive that protection.

Broadly speaking, everything will hinge on Verlander’s preferences. Via SNY’s Steve Gelbs (Twitter link, with video), the 40-year-old righty said following Sunday’s game that his openness to a trade “largely depends on how the organization views next year,” adding that he’s “committed to trying to win a championship” in Queens but would be more open to waiving his no-trade protection if Mets decision-makers feel it’s best to take a step back in 2024. The Mets will have plenty of rotation questions with Scherzer now in Arlington and Carlos Carrasco hitting free agency at season’s end. Presently, Verlander, Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana are the only surefire starters signed into 2024. Depth options like David Peterson, Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and Jose Butto all remain on hand as well.

Early indications are that the Mets don’t view this as a large-scale teardown. GM Billy Eppler plainly said after yesterday’s Scherzer trade that he does not view the current step back as a rebuild (link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com) They’ll have ample financial firepower to pursue new arms to fill out the rotation in the offseason — with a particularly deep crop of free agent starters available. Shohei Ohtani, Julio Urias, Lucas Giolito, Aaron Nola, Blake Snell, Sonny Gray, Marcus Stroman, Jordan Montgomery and NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto are among the names in the upcoming class of free agent arms.

The Mets already have nearly $220MM in guaranteed money on next year’s books, per Roster Resource — a number that includes the $26.833MM they’ll pay Scherzer. (Texas is picking up a reported $16.5MM of next year’s salary.) That’s before factoring in Brooks Raley’s $6.5MM club option or arbitration raises for a group of ten players, headlined by first baseman Pete Alonso. Owner Steve Cohen trotted out a record payroll of more than $350MM this season, so clearly the capacity for spending is there — it’ll just be a matter of whether the Mets want to spend to that extent again after this year’s efforts fell flat in notable fashion. Trading Verlander would radically lower that 2024 financial outlay, but it’d also only create another hole that the Mets would likely need to fill in the rotation (likely via free agency).

For now, they’ll have about 48 hours to see if anyone’s willing to meet their asking price on Verlander — and then to gauge whether the right-hander is amenable to the deal.

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