The Braves have released lefty Paco Rodriguez, Mark Bowman of MLB.com was among those to report on Twitter. He had been competing with Eric O’Flaherty and Kevin Chapman for a spot in the Opening Day pen.
Rodriguez, 25, has been working back from a Tommy John procedure he underwent in October of 2015. He did manage to make it into four spring games, but failed to win the organization’s confidence after agreeing to a $637,500 arbitration salary earlier in the offseason. Atlanta will owe him about a sixth of that sum.
The Braves had picked up Rodriguez in the three-team, thirteen-player swap the organization struck back at the 2015 trade deadline. That deal has not turned out well for Atlanta thus far; all they have to show for the loss of lefty Alex Wood and MLB-ready prospect Jose Peraza, at this point, are young lefty Joey Wentz (chosen with the competitive-balance pick acquired in that deal) and minor-league righty Zachary Bird. (And that’s before getting into the money still effectively owed to Hector Olivera, though his contract was sent to the Padres as part of the salary maneuvering in the deal that brought Matt Kemp to the Braves.)
Maybe they’ll resign him to a minor league deal
That’d be awesome, but I can’t imagine him not getting snatched up by someone like NYY.
Oh man, I personally would love to see Rodriguez go to the Yankees. Low risk, high reward kind of player.
Bird was actually taken by the Rangers in the minor league portion of the Rule 5. It’s just Wentz these days. Womp womp. What an excellent trade for ATL.
I know it’s not enough, but I believe they structured the top-half of their draft based on getting Wentz at overslot money, drafting Ian Anderson #3 overall and signing him to underslot money.
You’re absolutely right weekapaug.. To me, this was by far the worse trade for the braves. I love kemp, but I think I’d rather have wood and peraza without the money that we have to pay kemp. and Bird did go to the rangers, so tough loss all around.
I don’t get this, I know he had tj but he could build his way back up
yankees need to pick this guy yp
Maybe he could end up with the Mets to help fill in while Familia is suspended or maybe even the Red Sox if Thornburg isn’t ready for opening day(but then again Rodriegez might not be ready for opening day himself)
What a disappointment. I was really looking forward to finally seeing Paco in action this year. Here’s to hoping EOF doesn’t flame out once again.
Agreed, I was really hoping that Paco would had produced enough to contribute this season in Atlanta. I also hope that EOF doesn’t crash and burn.
It looks like the Brewers are going to break camp without a lefty in the Pen. I could see him latching on in Milwaukee. Seems like the type of project the Brewers would take on. Grow his value and flip him just like they have been doing with the rest of that bullpen.
Yet another reason “just get the TJS” is a really dumb thing to say. Not a guarantee they’ll come back at all, much less improved.
Get him Giants
Braves need to pick him up, stat.
He hasn’t pitched in 2 weeks. I’m thinking he’s had a setback.
Also, who knew the Hector Olivera trade could actually get worse?
Never doubt the Braves decision making on situations like this. They’ve always had a great feel for when to move on from a pitcher. That being said, this is gut punch. Would have been nice to salvage some value from that awful trade. One of those trades that looked bad and the beginning and got even worse
Joey Wentz and Matt Kemp are not a bad consolation. Sure, it would have been nice to hold onto Peraza and see what was left of Wood, but they took a chance on an affordable international bat that blew up, while pivoting nicely by adding Kemp to effectively be that bat they were hoping Olivera would be.
Peraza has turned into something nice, but he had no spot with Swanson/Albies and not transitioning to CF well. Glad he’s in CIN getting a chance, but Wentz could be something special.
No reason they couldn’t have acquired Kemp regardless. It isn’t as if the Padres ascribed any value to adding Olivera, who was immediately DFA’ed.
They wouldn’t have acquired Kemp if not the Olivera debacle. It was just their way to save some face and replace a big RH bat crater that I’m sure they had financially and structurally planned to have for the next 3-5 years. Its like the pink 7th place participation ribbon you get as a kid when there are only 7 competitors in your event.
Yea. I mean, it’s hard to tell if Wentz is a good or bad consolation at this point. Sure seems fine right now. Hopefully Kemp turns out to be incredible this year, so then we can say that’s not a bad consolation. But his contract is what kinda zeros him out to me. I’d like to have Peraza without the money attached. and honestly speaking, might be nice to have wood instead of trading for Garcia? idk … cheaper, and don’t have to drop the prospects we did to acquire Garcia. It’s just an opinion on my part.
Also, I think we could have found a spot for Peraza. I don’t think Albies or Swanson would have changed that much.
We traded nothing for Garcia. Just filler prospects. Peraza has no place on this team. He’s a soft hitting MIF, he would have been wasting away on a bench spot. We got value out of Wood before it was too late. I like the guy but he wasn’t anything special. The fact we have Wentz out of all these players is a win
Well, let’s be realistic man. Peraza could easily find a spot on the field, if not, then we would move swanson or albies. cause all these guys can play somewhere in the infield. There was a while where people though swanson would go to third. and Peraza wouldn’t waste away on the bench. That’s yet to be determined, but he’s projected to be a pretty good ball player. and yea, we didn’t trade much, but if we kept wood (who would likely pitch good enough for a 1 year filler), then we don’t get rid of any prospects. Which in theory could become good or be traded for someone that could provide more value than a 1 year start.
That’s my thought process at least. I’m not arguing the Garcia trade is bad, i’m just saying maybe it wouldn’t be needed if we still had wood.
I see what you’re saying, but to get where we are now all these things had to happen. So to go back and tweak them and still keep what we have going on isn’t likely to happen. I’m happy with the current course and position of the team, a few trades were regrettable but atleast they weren’t monster trades that would come back around and bite us.
Don’t forget the horrible Simmons trade.
Difficult to Understand this move while he has an option remaining. Could have just sent him down. Probably need the 40 Man slot. Chapman will surely go as well and either Ramirez or Roe. Those roster spots are precious.
Roe has been having a terrible spring.
Please Atkins sign Paco as the second lefty instead of Loup
makes no sense
WHAT?! This makes no sense unless he tore his UCL again and they just haven’t said anything. Sucks. I was really stoked to have him in the pen this year…
I don’t understand this one
Something stinks with this whole situation. As a Braves fan I know Coppy scrapes the bottom of the barrel to find every penny and hidden gem. To let a quality (potentially after TJ recovery) LH reliever w/ 2 options left go by releasing him instead of DFA him makes zero sense. I guarantee they could have DFA him and got SOMETHING from another team in a trade. Either the Braves felt he has no value suddenly or there is something that went on behind the scenes. I’m guessing the latter b/c I’m hearing rumors of “not progressing how we wanted.” To me that is AKA for either being a super lazy SOB and not hiding it, or did or said something to piss the Braves FO off. I hope more details surface as I’m very confused.
Giants need to pick him up for a minor league piece just in case considering Will Smith is getting TJ and they only have osich and okert in the pen, and blach most likely.