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Braves Avoid Arbitration With Rex Brothers

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The Braves have avoided arbitration with lefty Rex Brothers, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It is a non-guaranteed deal, per the report.

MLBTR had not considered Brothers as an arb-eligible player owing to a club option, but O’Brien says the team was able to tender him a contract after declining that option. The end result will seemingly be somewhat similar, as Brothers will receive a split contract that pays him at a $1.1MM rate for time spent in the majors and a $450K rate for time spent in the minors, per ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). (That’s an unusually healthy payday on the minor-league side, it’s worth noting.)

Brothers is still optionable for the coming season, as Olney notes, which helps explain his appeal. He’s also still fairly youthful — he’ll turn 30 in a few weeks — and showed an average 95.8 mph fastball in the majors last year, representing a bounce back to his early-career heat after he experienced some shoulder woes. Similarly, Brothers managed a 13.3% whiff rate that hearkened back to his 2011-13 levels, when Brothers was a healthy and effective reliever for the Rockies.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether Brothers will be able to stay healthy and continue to avoid the free passes that have plagued him in recent seasons. He averaged 4.6 BB/9 to go with a healthy 12.6 K/9 in 23 2/3 innings in 2017. That’s not exactly a desirable walk tally, but is at least in the same range he once worked in better years. Brothers did also cough up 7.23 earned runs per nine on the season, though that’s likely due in large part to some sequencing misfortune and a few too many run-ins with righty hitters. He mowed down southpaw swingers, though, as he has done for much of his career.

Angels Acquire Jim Johnson, International Bonus Money From Braves

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6:40pm: Indeed, Angels GM Billy Eppler forthrightly acknowledges that the team sought the spending capacity “with an eye toward” pursuit of Ohtani, as Fletcher tweets. That the market now also features some notable potential consolation prizes in the form of younger international talent surely made it easier for the Halos to justify the gambit.

2:26pm: Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports that the Angels do indeed plan to use the extra funds in order to enhance their pitch to Ohtani. Further, he tweets that Johnson is technically only owed $4.5MM through the end of his contract, not $5MM, due to a $500K signing bonus that has already been paid out.

1:53pm: Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com reports (via Twitter) that the Angels will receive all of the Braves’ remaining pool space: a total of $1.21MM. While the CBA mandates that pool money must be traded in blocks of $250K, it also outlines an exception in the event that the club’s remaining pool space is less than $250K (which would apply to the $210K that remained after the first million).

As Mayo notes, this now gives the Angels a total of $1.315MM that they can offer Ohtani (or another international free agent, such as former Braves prospect Kevin Maitan).

1:13pm: The Braves announced today that they’ve traded right-hander Jim Johnson to the Angels in exchange for minor league lefty Justin Kelly. The Angels also pick up a yet-undetermined amount of international bonus money in the deal, per each club’s announcement.

Jim Johnson | Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Johnson, 34, parlayed a strong 2016 season into a two-year, $10MM contract with the Braves but flopped to the tune of a 5.56 ERA in the first season of that deal in 2017. The former Orioles closer and two-time American League saves leader logged 56 2/3 innings with 9.7 K/9, 4.0 BB/9 and 1.27 HR/9 in what proved to be his worst season since the 2014 season. Johnson’s once sky-high ground-ball rate (62.3 percent at his peak) sat at a solid but unremarkable level of 48.5 percent in 2017.

Despite the rough year, though, Johnson’s season wasn’t devoid of reason for optimism. His 9.7 K/9 rate was the best of his career, as was his 9.4 percent swinging-strike rate. His fastball maintained its 93-94 mph velocity, and metrics like xFIP (3.98) and SIERA (3.87) were considerably more bullish on his output. Johnson also isn’t far removed from a strong season; as previously alluded to, he turned in a 3.06 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.4 HR/9 and a 55 percent grounder rate in 64 2/3 frames as recently as 2016. For an Angels club that has already lost Yusmeiro Petit and also saw relievers Bud Norris, Andrew Bailey, Huston Street and (in a summer trade) David Hernandez depart, Johnson will give them a rebound option to soak up some of the lost innings.

Of course, Johnson is a bit pricey for a bullpen rebound candidate, earning $5MM in 2018. However, the Halos will also pick up some coveted international funds that they’ll add to what was a reportedly depleted total of $150K in their international bonus pool. International pool space must be traded in increments of at least $250K, per the collective bargaining agreement, so Anaheim will nearly triple its available resources even if they received only the minimum $250K. Those funds, of course, can be used as part of a pitch to Shohei Ohtani or to some of the Braves’ recently lost prospects, who are all subject to international pools.

[Related: Updated Angels Depth Chart and Braves Depth Chart]

Kelly, 25 in April, was a 33rd-round pick out of UC Santa Barbara in 2016 and spent the bulk of his first full professional season in the Class-A Midwest League. In 29 2/3 innings there, Kelly pitched to a strong 2.43 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 44.4 percent ground-ball rate. The Halos gave him brief looks in Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A late in the season, though none of those three cameos produced enviable results.

Overall, Kelly’s season wrapped up with a composite 3.53 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 63 2/3 innings (six starts, 19 relief appearances). Considering he’s the return in a move that amounts to a salary dump from the Braves, it’s not especially surprising that Kelly wasn’t ranked among the Angels’ top 30 farmhands. He could head to the bullpen for the Braves’ Class-A Advanced affiliate to open the 2018 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves Reportedly Shopping Matt Adams

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Nov. 30: FanRag’s Jon Heyman spoke to a source that stated Adams “won’t be with the Braves,” further indicating that the first baseman will either be traded or non-tendered by 8pm ET tomorrow evening.

Nov. 27: This Friday marks the deadline for MLB teams to tender contract offers to their arbitration-eligible players. Club will have until 8pm ET to agree to tender an offer or to non-tender such players, though the two sides will have roughly two months to work out an actual salary before arb hearings (if necessary) begin in February.

With that deadline looming, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (via Twitter) that the Braves are “pushing Matt Adams” to other teams, hoping to secure a trade for a left-handed slugger who otherwise could represent a non-tender candidate in Atlanta (as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted in the Braves’ Offseason Outlook). Atlanta has Freddie Freeman entrenched at first base, despite a brief experiment at the hot corner, leaving Adams as something of an odd man out.

Atlanta acquired Adams, 29, from St. Louis this past May when Freeman went down with a broken wrist that would sideline him for two months. Adams’ initial production following the trade was nothing short of jaw-dropping, as he exploded with a .298/.348/.661 batting line and nine homers through his first 135 plate appearances in Atlanta. From that point forth, however, Adams posted a fairly meek .251/.291/.455 line and seven homers through 179 plate appearances — numbers that are much closer to his career batting line of .271/.315/.469.

In the end, Adams posted career-highs in both homers (20) and OPS (.841), but the knocks against him were the same as ever. The big lefty batted just .180/.206/.377 in 63 PAs against left-handed pitching and demonstrated again that he is limited to first-base/DH on the defensive spectrum. Both the Cardinals and Braves gave Adams a brief look in the outfield, but he turned in negative marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (-5) and Ultimate Zone Rating (-0.7) in a small sample of 129 innings. His glovework at first base remained solid, but the market for first-base-only bats with significant platoon issues has become increasingly crowded in recent years as teams place greater emphasis on defensive versatility.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $4.6MM salary for Adams — not an exorbitant price to pay for an AL club seeking a cheap option at first base/DH. The Rays, Indians and Angels could all represent speculative landing spots for Adams, while the Rockies stand out as an NL club that could give him semi-regular at-bats at first base.

For teams that view Adams as a bench bat, however, committing $4MM+ to a defensively limited reserve option at this stage of the offseason is a tough sell. Mitch Moreland has a reputation as one of the game’s best defenders at first base and signed for a one-year, $5.5MM contract in Boston last winter, while Adam Lind, a player with a comparable skill set to Adams, settled for a one-year, $1.5MM pact with the Nationals in mid-February. Many teams would likely consider Adams a viable backup option behind their preferred offseason targets, but that won’t help him at this juncture of a slow-moving offseason, as the top targets for each of those clubs are all still in play.

Market Chatter: Stanton, Colome, Minor, Cobb, Markakis

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We heard somewhat varied reports yesterday on whether there was any real connection between the Red Sox and Marlins on Giancarlo Stanton. Today, there’s clear indication that the sides aren’t firmly engaged on the slugger: per Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal (subscription link), the teams have not engaged on the matter since the GM Meetings. It certainly sounds as if Boston is not actively pursuing Stanton, though it’s always possible that could change if his market continues to drag — which remains a distinct possibility. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that the Marlins haven’t set any sort of deadline for teams to submit their best offers, so perhaps Boston could reengage if their reported talks for White Sox star Jose Abreu do not prove fruitful.

Here’s more chatter on the trade and free agent markets:

  • It seems the Rays are at least entertaining the possibility of dealing closer Alex Colome, per Morosi (Twitter link), with “active discussions” said to be ongoing with multiple rival organizations. The Cardinals have “sustained interest” in Colome — a connection we first heard about two weeks back. Colome’s less-than-dominant 2017 campaign has likely cabined his trade value somewhat, though teams will still no doubt see significant value in the hard-throwing, high-leverage reliever. MLBTR projects that Colome will earn $5.5MM in his first of three potential trips through arbitration.
  • The Astros can now be added to the list of teams with some interest in Mike Minor, according to a report from ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Twitter link). Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle previously explained that the southpaw would make for an interesting target for the ’Stros; we have also heard of prior interest from the Mets, who Olney also names. There’ll likely be quite a few other teams poking around on his market, too, after a high-quality season in which Minor bounced back from shoulder problems. As a lefty with a starter’s arsenal, Minor could be awfully handy on plenty of rosters, though his contractual upside will likely be limited by his health history.
  • Free agent righty Alex Cobb, meanwhile, still seems to be facing a fairly wide-open market. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that “a lot” of teams have interest, but that there’s “nothing close” to coming together at the moment. Quite a few organizations could end up having interest in Cobb, who certainly has some earning upside beyond the four-year, $48MM contract that MLBTR predicts he’ll land. Cobb turned down a qualifying offer from the Rays, so the draft compensation he’ll return to the organization will depend upon whether or not he’s able to surpass our best guess and earn a $50MM guarantee.
  • The Blue Jays held talks with the Braves regarding veteran outfielder Nick Markakis, Morosi tweets. But the chatter has “failed to advance” and it’s not clear whether the sides will pick things up. Markakis has continued to put up roughly league average offensive numbers, compensating for a lack of pop with solid on-base numbers, but isn’t much of a value on a $10.5MM salary. Presumably he’d have provided the Jays with a platoon piece for their outfield mix, but it stands to reason that the organization is looking to spend a bit less than that — particularly given that it has other, greater priorities.

Braves Make Further Front Office Changes

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DECEMBER 1: In a surprising turn of events, the Braves have announced that Tinnish has withdrawn from the organization. In statements, both he and Anthopoulos attributed the decision to family considerations. Tinnish will instead remain with the Blue Jays organization.

NOVEMBER 27: The shakeup in the Atlanta front office is continuing, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Braves have “parted ways” with assistant GM Adam Fisher and hired Andrew Tinnish away from the Blue Jays as their new vice president of amateur/international scouting (Twitter links). With Fisher’s departure, Perry Minasian will become Atlanta’s new assistant GM and vice president of baseball operations.

Fisher’s departure from the organization comes less than three months after he was hired away from the division-rival Mets by since-departed GM John Coppolella. It seems the primary motivation here was simply to allow Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos a chance to shape his staff. As Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets, Anthopoulos sought to surround himself with familiar faces.

Rather than being pushed into a less substantial role, Fisher will now be allowed to find a new opportunity elsewhere. Clearly, given the timing of his hiring by the Braves, Fisher couldn’t have played a role in the rampant violations that led to Coppolella’s lifetime ban from baseball or Hart’s seemingly forced resignation from the team. According to Rosenthal, the Braves are still the hook for another two years of Fisher’s contract, though that’ll be somewhat offset if he eventually latches on with a new club.

Minasian was himself hired at the same time as Fisher, taking a position as director of player personnel. But he was once an Anthopoulos lieutenant in Toronto, the same organization he left when he came to Atlanta. Minasian will end up with a promotion in rank while continuing the contract he agreed to just a few months back.

In hiring Tinnish, the Braves add will yet another executive with roots in Toronto that date back to Anthopoulos’s time at the helm of that front office. As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca notes on Twitter, Tinnish had played a key role in the Jays’ international amateur efforts. Before that, his responsibilities were on the domestic side of the amateur market.

East Notes: Braves, Odorizzi, Colome, Rays, Nats, Bush, Red Sox

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The Braves lost their rights to 12 international prospects earlier this week as part of Major League Baseball’s punishment of the organization for signing violations, creating an unexpected influx of talent into the 2017-18 international signing market.  Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper ranks the top eight prospects of that group, with Kevin Maitan still leading the way, even if his star has somewhat dimmed after a lackluster first season in the minors.

Some items from around the two East divisions…

  • Jake Odorizzi and Alex Colome “have been popular in early [trade] conversations,” Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  The two pitchers are perhaps the most likely members of the Rays’ 12-player arbitration class who will be dealt in order to cut costs, as MLBTR projects that dozen players to earn $40.4MM in 2018.  Topkin figures that the Rays will be in heavy trade talks this week in order to move some of these names before Friday’s non-tender deadline.  There’s also the specter of a total rebuild, which would come if Tampa decided to move a franchise cornerstone (i.e. Chris Archer, Evan Longoria, Kevin Kiermaier) this offseason.  While the Rays will clearly shop the arbitration-eligible players first, Topkin wonders if the club would pounce if they got a great offer for one of Archer and company before any of the arb class had been moved.  Previous reports have cited the Twins’ interest in both Odorizzi and Colome, while the Cardinals have been linked to Colome in their search for bullpen help.
  • A case could be made that the Nationals should pursue a top-tier starting pitcher rather than just rotation depth this winter, though as the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes outlines, the team could be gearing up for a bigger pitching addition next winter.  The Nats will have over $50MM in salary coming off the books after the 2018 season, which could allow the club to sign or trade for a notable arm.
  • Nine-year big league veteran Dave Bush has been working as a Red Sox pitching development analyst for the last year, as the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato details in this look at Bush’s duties within the organization.  Bush sees his role as helping bridge the gap between the analytics department and young pitchers who may be being exposed to such information for the first time.  “Baseball is not known for accepting change in a hasty manner.  But I also think there’s also a benefit for someone like me, who has been a player,” Bush said.  “I’m comfortable having that conversation.  And it’s my responsibility to present information to them because I think it’s going to make them better.”  Bush’s duties are part of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski’s plan to overhaul how the Sox select and develop young pitchers, as the club has been notably short on homegrown arms over the last decade.

Offseason Outlook: Atlanta Braves

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MLBTR is publishing Offseason Outlooks for all 30 teams.  Click here for the other entries in this series.

After a disappointing season ended in front office calamity, the Braves will attempt to take the next step in their rebuilding process under new baseball leadership.

Guaranteed Contracts

Arbitration-Eligible Players (projections via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)

Free Agents

[Atlanta Braves Depth Chart | Atlanta Braves Payroll Outlook]

John Hart and John Coppolella provided a wild ride for the Braves’ faithful, engineering a variety of bold moves and stocking the organization with young talent. But rules violations led to the departures of both, along with league discipline that stripped the Braves of some of their most interesting younger prospects and constrained the organization’s ability to add new international talent in the coming seasons.

Former Blue Jays GM and Dodgers executive Alex Anthopoulos was brought in as an experienced hand who can get the organization back on track. But that doesn’t mean we should anticipate a quiet offseason. Though the new top baseball decisionmaker has suggested he’s not looking for a general shake-up, he swung quite a few blockbusters in Toronto and will surely have his own ideas about the roster he’s inheriting.

What remains unclear is just how aggressive the organization will be in seeking to put a winner on the field in 2018. The club enters the offseason with just over $90MM in likely commitments, including anticipated arbitration payouts. Depending upon how high payroll will rise, there could be some room for relatively significant additions. Alternatively, the club might seek to condense some of its upper-level young talent in an effort to land quality, controllable assets to the MLB roster. Entering the second year at SunTrust Park on the heels of the rules scandal, it’s possible to imagine some effort to push into contention. On the other hand, the hit to the team’s future interests may counsel in favor of some caution.

In his first acts in office, Anthopoulos took some low-cost opportunities to shore up the team’s bullpen — a notable area of need. But the pitchers he grabbed from his former organization — Grant Dayton and Josh Ravin — are just the kind of risky maneuvers we might have seen from his predecessors. The former will miss most or all of 2018 while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery while the latter has never held down a steady MLB job. But both have big-time swing-and-miss upside.

Lining up a strong and reliable relief corps, though, may well require more. There’s talent on hand, to be sure. Pitchers such as Arodys Vizcaino, Jose Ramirez, A.J. Minter, Mauricio Cabrera, Daniel Winkler, Luke Jackson, Rex Brothers, Jacob Lindgren, and Jesse Biddle have had some MLB success and/or shown impressive arsenals, not unlike Dayton and Ravin. But none of these pitchers has yet strung together multiple, successful MLB campaigns and several come with health concerns. Veterans Jim Johnson and Sam Freeman are in the picture, too, but there’s room here for further tinkering.

It’s not an altogether different picture in the rotation, which no longer includes three veteran arms — R.A. Dickey, Bartolo Colon, and Jaime Garcia — that opened with the club last year. Julio Teheran and Mike Foltynewicz are the two senior members of the staff at present; both will be looking to improve after producing middling results in 2017. They could be joined by a trio young lefties who are fresh off of their MLB debuts. Sean Newcomb still needs to hone his command to reach his ceiling, but turned in 100 solid frames. Luiz Gohara showed off his talent in five starts, posting 9.5 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 after mostly dominating in his first taste of the upper minors in an eventful campaign. And Max Fried also got a brief run in the bigs, though his overall effort on the year suggests some further seasoning may be in order.

Otherwise, the Braves have some back-end right-handed arms available in Lucas Sims, Aaron Blair, and Matt Wisler, all of whom have struggled in their early MLB time. More exciting arms — Mike Soroka and Kolby Allard — aren’t far off after turning in strong years at Double-A, but don’t currently hold 40-man roster spots.

With that wide array of options, the Braves could actually focus on paring back some excess depth over the offseason and into the camp, though there’s also some flexibility since all of those candidates can also still be optioned. Competing the open spots between this lengthy list of young pitchers is a reasonable approach. Some may also conceivably turn into bullpen candidates instead.

At the same time, the Braves will need to strongly consider pursuing upgrades if they truly hope to put a legitimate contender on the field for the coming season. There’s some merit to considering a solid veteran type to hold down some innings at the back of the rotation, though the team passed up on a chance to retain Dickey for the purpose (though he may have been headed for retirement anyway) and it is also arguable that a more significant addition would be warranted. It’s possible to imagine the Braves dabbling in the upper levels of the free agent market, perhaps going after a hurler such as Alex Cobb or finally landing the unicorn (top-end controllable starter) that the prior administration seemingly pursued for years. There’s a long slate of possibilities at a lower price point, of course, and the Braves might also conceivably take some lower-priced risks, with righty Chris Tillman representing the most intriguing bounceback arm available to the high bidder.

"Sep

There’s less to be done on the position-player side, though that shouldn’t be read as a suggestion that there isn’t any room for improvement. In addition to top star Freddie Freeman at first, the club is set up the middle with Ender Inciarte in center; Dansby Swanson, Ozzie Albies, and Johan Camargo in the middle infield; and Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki behind the plate. That’s far from the best group of core position player talent in baseball, particularly given that the young infielders still are not yet fully established and the catchers are only short-term assets, but it gives the organization a base to work from this winter.

The top priority, in all likelihood, will be improving at third base. Adonis Garcia has had stretches of competence, but he’s a 32-year-old player with a .267/.300/.414 slash through 944 MLB plate appearances. Former top pick Rio Ruiz may ultimately deserve a longer look, but he hit just .193/.283/.307 in his 173 trips to the plate at the game’s highest level last year and has not exactly dominated the opposition over two full seasons at Triple-A. Around this time last year, Coppolella gave some reason to believe Travis Demeritte might be the future at the hot corner, but he took a step back in 2017 and was not protected from the Rule 5 draft. (Dustin Peterson was also left open to being claimed in the draft.) The current prospect of note is Austin Riley, who knocked around Double-A pitching after a tepid run at the High-A level. But he’s still just twenty years of age and is far from a sure thing.

While the Braves could conceivably allow Camargo to play at third while utilizing Jace Peterson as a utility infielder, that would be an awfully risky way of constructing the infield for an organization that intends to improve its on-field product. Camargo turned heads last year, but benefited from a .364 BABIP and walked at only a 4.7% clip. Swanson struggled badly after an impressive MLB debut in 2016. That also serves as a reminder not to forget that Albies is still just twenty years old and may yet have his own growing pains to experience. The better bet would be to bring in a veteran to shore things up at the hot corner for at least a season or two. MLBTR guessed that the Braves could land top free agent Mike Moustakas, who lacks an obvious landing spot, but that was and remains a speculative connection. The Braves could look at other established players on shorter-term deals, potentially including free agents ranging from Todd Frazier to Yunel Escobar or potential trade targets that could include Yangervis Solarte and Nick Castellanos. At this point, frankly, it’s hard to guess what kind of direction the pursuit might take odds are, though, that there’ll be a healthy dose of opportunism guiding the effort.

The corner outfield is another area of some intrigue (though others could open based upon other moves). Atlanta could rely again upon veterans Matt Kemp and Nick Markakis while supplementing them with a reserve or two, possibly including Lane Adams, who showed well in his first real MLB time in 2017. But the organization would probably rather upgrade over those two — neither of whom profiles as a viable everyday player at this stage of their careers — and begin preparing for a future with younger options. Shedding some salary would be preferable, too. Markakis would make for a useful platoon or reserve outfielder for a contender, though he could also remain an appealing piece in Atlanta, while Kemp could fit on an American League team in search of pop. But dealing either will mean keeping some salary, particularly for the latter.

There are some similarities between the corner outfield and the third-base situations, with one major difference. Unlike at the hot corner, there is a clear heir apparent on hand to step into an outfield spot. Top prospect Ronald Acuna is likely ready for a big league test after blowing through the minors in 2017, though the team will in all probability at least start him in the minors to capture an additional season of club control. While pursuing other pieces in the corner outfield could still make sense, particularly if a truly appealing opportunity presents itself, one spot will undoubtedly be reserved for Acuna — who could be an everyday presence for the majority of 2018 and years beyond.

That leaves one interesting, unaddressed piece of the Braves’ offseason puzzle: Matt Adams. The first baseman was a sensation upon arriving in a midseason swap, but cooled down the stretch and also missed time with injury. The Braves dabbled with positional changes to accommodate his bat in the lineup — trying Freeman at third and Adams in left — but those seem likely to be left in the rearview mirror. Now, Adams looks to be an ill-fitting piece for a team whose best player is a young, left-handed-hitting first baseman. While it’s conceivable that he’d draw interest in trade, the 29-year-old is best limited to facing right-handed pitching and occupying first base or DH. Defensively limited, good-but-not-great hitters aren’t in short supply these days, so it’s not likely that the Atlanta organization will reap a big return — and it’s possible the team will simply non-tender Adams instead.

Ultimately, despite the loss of some notable prospect capital, Anthopoulos will have quite a few pieces and a bit of payroll flexibility to work with. The wild cards here are upper management’s views on the contention timeline and the new front office’s feelings about the club’s young talent. There’s a conceivable world where the Braves end up largely maintaining their current roster for the 2018 season, with a few tweaks on the margins. There’s another where Atlanta engages in quite a bit more swapping and acquiring of assets, reflecting both Anthopoulos’s preferences and perhaps also a determination that it’s time to move toward competition. And there’s a wide gray area in between, with plenty of stopping points along the way. What was always going to be a fascinating offseason to watch is all the more interesting after the curveball that kicked it off.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL East Notes: Marlins, Braves, Lind, Phillies

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Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter are still seeking additional investors for their ownership group even after being formally approved as the new owners of the Marlins, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The Sherman/Jeter group is still looking to add about $250MM from outside investors, though Heyman notes that the league is “quite comfortable” with the new ownership group’s current financial state. Interestingly, Heyman has obtained some slides from a “teaser” email sent to potential investors in which the Marlins outline a number of “strategic priorities” for improving revenue. Among the new means of revenue to be explored are a new television contract, selling the naming rights to the stadium, new sponsorship/advertising opportunities and an increased focus on utilizing Marlins Park to host non-baseball events (e.g. concerts).

Elsewhere in the NL East…

  • While former Braves president of baseball ops John Hart, current CEO Terry McGuirk and current president John Schuerholz all escaped league-issued punishment in the team’s international free-agent/amateur draft scandal, the entire scenario tarnishes their legacies within the game and within the Braves organization, writes Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required and recommended). That trio’s lack of oversight allowed the guilty parties within the organization to “run wild,” Rosenthal notes, and the uncertainty surrounding the involvement of Braves’ higher-ups will linger. Peter Gammons rhetorically asked, “So who in Braves’ ownership ok’d all the cash to Coppolella?” following the investigation’s completion (Twitter link). That is just one of the many questions surrounding the incident that remains unanswered — a reality that flies in the face of comments made by McGuirk last month when telling Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I don’t think there will be any questions (unanswered) when we are able to discuss it.”
  • In his latest Nationals Inbox piece, MLB.com’s Jamal Collier writes that he doesn’t foresee a reunion between the Nats and first baseman Adam Lind this offseason. Washington’s decision to turn down their half of a $5MM mutual option suggests that they’re not willing to pay him at a rate he may very well be able to find elsewhere on the open market. The Nats will likely utilize Brian Goodwin as a fourth outfielder in 2018, Collier notes, but Lind’s absence will make finding a backup first baseman/corner bat off the bench a priority this winter.
  • The Phillies have named 28-year-old Pedro Guerrero, a former Dodgers minor league infielder, as their new assistant hitting coach, per a club announcement. As Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out, that suggests that Rick Kranitz, who was the team’s assistant pitching coach in 2017, will be named the team’s new pitching coach for the 2018 season. The Phillies have previously announced that Kranitz would be on the staff next year but haven’t revealed his role with the team. However, they’re only allowed to add two more coaches before reaching the maximum allotment and still need a pitching coach, first base coach and bench coach. As for Guerrero, he’s an outside-the-box hire, to be sure. But, Guerrero has already spent two seasons as a minor league bench coach in the Dodgers organization  and has some familiarity with newly minted skipper Gabe Kapler from the pair’s time together in Los Angeles.

MLB Announces Permanent Ban For John Coppolella

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Major League Baseball has instituted a lifetime ban on former Braves general manager John Coppolella, according to an announcement from commissioner Rob Manfred. The heavy punishment comes as the league moves to punish his former organization for amateur signing infractions during his tenure as GM. Coppolella had already resigned from the Atlanta organization.

Beyond the lifetime ban for Coppolella, the Commissioner’s Office has banned former Braves international scouting director Gordon Blakeley for one year, and commissioner Rob Manfred has also indicated that other members of the Braves’ international scouting staff will be disciplined. Here’s the full statement from Manfred:

My office has completed a thorough investigation into violations of Major League Rules by the Atlanta Braves. The Braves cooperated throughout the investigation, which was conducted by MLB’s Department of Investigations. The senior Baseball Operations officials responsible for the misconduct are no longer employed by the Braves. I am confident that Terry McGuirk, John Schuerholz, Alex Anthopoulos and their staffs have and will put in place procedures to ensure that this type of conduct never occurs again and which will allow the Club to emerge from this difficult period as the strong and respected franchise that it has always been.

The investigation established that the Braves circumvented international signing rules from 2015 through 2017. During the 2015-16 international signing period, the Braves signed five players subject to the Club’s signing bonus pool to contracts containing signing bonuses lower than the bonuses the Club had agreed to provide the players. The Club provided the additional bonus money to those players by inflating the signing bonus to another player who was exempt from their signing pool because he qualified as a ’foreign professional’ under MLB rules. Consistent with the rules, the Braves could have signed all of the 2015-16 players for the full, actual signing bonus amounts. Had the Club signed the five players to contracts containing their actual bonuses, however, the Braves would have exceeded their signing bonus pool by more than five percent and would have been, under MLB rules, restricted from signing any players during the next two signing periods for contracts with bonuses greater than $300,000.

As a result of the 2015-16 circumvention, the Braves were able to sign nine high-value players during the 2016-17 signing period who would have been unavailable to them had the Club accurately accounted for its signings during the 2015-16 signing period. These players were Juan Contreras, Yefri del Rosario, Abrahan Gutierrez, Kevin Maitan, Juan Carlos Negret, Yenci Peña, Yunior Severino, Livan Soto and Guillermo Zuniga. In addition, the Braves entered into additional ’package’ agreements in 2016 and 2017 in which they signed Brandol Mezquita, Angel Rojas and Antonio Sucre for reduced amounts, and provided additional money to those players’ agents by signing other players affiliated with their agents to contracts with inflated bonuses. In order to remedy these violations, I am releasing these players from their contracts with the Braves and declaring them free agents eligible to sign with any other Club. The procedures governing the players’ release and the signing process will be communicated to MLB Clubs under separate cover.

The investigation also determined that the Braves: (i) agreed to sign six players to inflated signing bonuses pursuant to an agreement with prospect Robert Puason’s agent in exchange for a commitment that Puason would sign with the Club in the 2019-20 signing period; and (ii) offered prospect Ji-Hwan Bae extra-contractual compensation. In order to remedy these violations, I am prohibiting the Club from signing Robert Puason when he becomes eligible to sign, and disapproving the contract between Bae and the Braves, which has not yet become effective.

While the remedies discussed above will deprive the Braves of the benefits of their circumvention, I believe that additional sanctions are warranted to penalize the Club for the violations committed by its employees. Accordingly, the Braves will be prohibited from signing any international player for more than $10,000 during the 2019-20 signing period, which is the first signing period in which the Braves are not subject to any signing restrictions under our rules; and the Braves’ international signing bonus pool for the 2020-21 signing period will be reduced by 50 percent.

The investigation also determined that the Braves offered impermissible benefits, which were never provided, to a player they selected in the First-Year Player Draft in an attempt to convince him to sign for a lower bonus. As a penalty for the Club’s attempted circumvention involving a draft selection, the Braves will forfeit their third-round selection in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft.

With respect to individual discipline, former Braves General Manager John Coppolella will be placed on the permanently ineligible list, effective immediately. Former Braves Special Assistant Gordon Blakeley will be suspended for a period of one year, effective immediately, and may not perform services for any MLB Club during his suspension. I intend to discipline other Braves’ International Baseball Operations employees who participated in the misconduct after the completion of our internal procedures. My staff will speak to the Players Association and officials in the Dominican Republic regarding appropriate consequences for the representatives of the players who intentionally participated in schemes to circumvent our rules, none of whom are certified by the Players Association.

The ramifications are significant for the Braves, whose capacity for amateur talent acquisition over the next several years will be hammered. Both Maitan and Gutierrez were ranked among the Braves’ top 30 prospects at MLB.com, with Maitan having ranked fifth overall and Gutierrez ranking 30th. The forfeiture of those prospects will mean that more than $10MM worth of amateur bonuses have now been squandered, and the Braves will also feel that pain of MLB’s sanctions in next year’s amateur draft and through the 2021 season on the international market.

The role that former president of baseball operations John Hart did or didn’t play in these infractions remains unclear, but Hart, who was given a reduced role in the front office upon the hiring of new GM Alex Anthopoulos, announced his resignation from the organization last week. A split between the two sides seemed largely inevitable; either Hart played a knowing role in the most significant circumvention of MLB’s international amateur free agency system to date, or he exhibited a stunning level of negligence in allowing these infractions to be committed without his knowledge. Neither of those scenarios seems excusable.

The Braves have also issued a statement on the matter:

Today, Major League Baseball informed the Atlanta Braves organization of sanctions being levied as a result of their investigation. As MLB stated, the Braves cooperated fully throughout this investigation and we understand and accept the decision regarding the penalties that have been handed down. As we expressed last week, our organization has not lived up to the standard our fans expect from us and that we expect from ourselves. For that, we apologize. We are instituting the changes necessary to prevent this from ever happening again and remain excited about the future of Braves baseball. We do not plan to comment further on this matter.

That the Braves won’t comment further on the matter runs somewhat contrary to comments made by Braves CEO Terry McGuirk last month. Speaking with Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, McGuirk stated: “I don’t think there will be any questions (unanswered) when we are able to discuss it.” 

Meanwhile, Blakeley has also issued a statement on his year-long suspension (via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, on Facebook):

I am obviously very disappointed in the Commissioner’s decision regarding my suspension, particularly given my 32 years of untarnished service to the game. That said, I am in the digesting the Commissioner’s findings and considering all of my options going forward. I take responsibility for my actions in this situation; however, I always acted under the direction of my superiors.

MLB Strips Braves Of 12 Prospects, Applies Future Amateur Restrictions

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The Braves are slated to lose their rights to a dozen young prospects as punishment for international signing violations. Additionally, the Atlanta organization will face limitations on their amateur signing rights in the future.

Most notably, perhaps, the Braves will lose their rights to highly regarded prospect Kevin Maitan, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag first reported (via Twitter) and as earlier reporting suggested. A long list of others are also being stripped from the organization, as Ben Badler of Baseball America reported earlier. Backstop Abrahan Gutierrez, shortstop Yunior Severino, righty Juan Contreras, shortstop Livan Soto, righty Yefri del Rosario, shortstop Yenci Pena, righty Guillermo Zuniga, outfielder Juan Carlos Negret, and outfielder Antonio Sucre are also heading on to the open market, according to the Baseball America report. Those prospects were members of the club’s vaunted 2016-17 July 2 class. A big name from the following signing period, Korean shortstop Jihwan Bae, is also being taken from the team, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, with outfielder Brandol Mezquita and shortstop Angel Rojas rounding out the list of departing prospects.

Maitan, in particular, was viewed as one of the best young international players in recent memory at the time of signing. Despite a tough debut in the Appalachian League, the infielder ranks 38th on MLB.com’s latest list of the top prospects in baseball. Even if it’s true that the current front office is not quite as enamored with Maitan as some others, he’s a notable asset to lose. (BA’s J.J. Cooper rounds up the latest impressions of Maitan right here.)

Looking forward, the Braves will also face restrictions for future amateur classes, as Passan details. The club will be capped at $10K per player for the 2019-20 period and will not be allowed to sign shortstop Robert Puason. According to Passan, the investigation found that the team had improperly agreed to a deal with him ahead of his market eligibility. In 2020-21, Atlanta will operate with half of the hard-capped spending capacity it otherwise would have had access to. Also, owing to an offer of “extra benefits” to 2017 draftee Drew Waters, the Braves will lose their third-round pick in next summer’s draft.

Other organizations will surely flock to sign the players that are now free agents. Those prospects will be allowed to retain their original bonuses in addition to negotiating new ones. Generally, those players will be subject to the already-extant rules and limitations in the international arena. But Passan tweets that teams will be allowed to use currently available international funds or draw from their 2018-19 pool to sign these players (but may not utilize both). MLB organizations still have uncommitted international money — some of it likely earmarked for Shohei Ohtani and a few other quality names still available — so there could be quite some competition for the former Braves prospects.

Clearly, the Braves took a significant hit for the amateur infractions that occurred during the regime of president of baseball operations John Hart and GM John Coppolella. Those two executives have departed already (see here and here), with the latter having received the brunt of the public scrutiny. Though precise details are still largely unreported, Passan says signing-bonus packaging was the primary concern identified. While the Yahoo Sports report acknowledges that other organizations have likely engaged in generally similar behavior, it seems the Braves’ actions were particularly brazen and widespread.

Newly minted GM Alex Anthopoulos will still have plenty of talent to work with, but the cupboard of young talent won’t be quite as stocked as the organization had hoped when it snapped up an impressive group of international free agents — evidently, through illicit means. On the one hand, these penalties won’t have any direct effect at the MLB level, since none of these players was close to the big leagues. On the other, Anthopoulos will not have as much flexibility to part with far-off talent if he enters the trade market in search of assets. That’s all the more notable given the restrictions on international spending rights for the coming seasons. The net result is that the Braves’ talent intake at the most youthful level will have been substantially curtailed for multiple consecutive seasons. Such a result runs directly counter to the overall strategy that the organization had employed.

For Anthopoulos to craft an overall slate of players that promises the kind of sustainability that Atlanta (like all organizations) hopes to create, he’ll have to remain all the more mindful of finding opportunities to draw in younger assets even while exploring ways of moving the major league roster into position to contend. Taking chances on talented but risky players on the 40-man roster is one way of infusing talent, but the club would need to sacrifice certainty and/or tie up valuable roster spots to do much of that. It’s also possible that the Braves will end up moving some higher-level prospects to build out the lower levels, though again that’s a diversion of resources that could otherwise be utilized in other ways. Any way you slice it, the organization will be much more constrained than it would have been absent the penalties. Of course, that also seems to be a fairly natural result of the fact that the team acquired these young players in an improper manner (the details of which, somewhat surprisingly, have yet to be fully detailed in firm reports).

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