The Braves made five non-tenders this evening. Most notably, they parted ways with outfielder Ramón Laureano and recent trade pickup Griffin Canning. Atlanta also dropped lefty reliever Ray Kerr and righties Huascar Ynoa and Royber Salinas.
Laureano caught on with the Braves in May after being released by the Guardians. He had a surprisingly strong finish, hitting .296/.327/.505 with 10 homers across 226 plate appearances. Laureano’s dismal early-season production with Cleveland left his season batting line right around league average: .259/.311/.437 with 11 homers through 309 trips to the plate.
The late-season turnaround was Laureano’s best extended stretch since his 2021 suspension for performance-enhancing drugs while a member of the A’s. It’s fair to wonder if that was more than a small sample mirage. He struck out at an elevated 28.3% clip while walking only 3.5% of the time with the Braves. Laureano has never been an elite contact hitter, but he drew walks more consistently during his best years in Oakland. Atlanta wasn’t sufficiently convinced to retain him at a salary which MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected at $6.1MM.
Canning’s non-tender may come as a bit of a surprise. The Braves just acquired him three weeks ago in a one-for-one swap that sent Jorge Soler to the Angels. That was far more about shedding Soler’s salary than an indication that the Braves valued Canning in particular. The Angels were willing to assume the remaining two years and $26MM on Soler’s contract, which wasn’t a tenable price for an Atlanta team that has Marcell Ozuna locked in at designated hitter.
Indeed, MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted within our Soler writeup that the Braves could cut bait with Canning entirely if they didn’t agree to a deal below his $5.1MM projected salary. Atlanta could’ve viewed the righty as a candidate for a “pre-tender” deal that checks in below his projection so as to avoid a non-tender. Whether the Braves never pursued that or Canning simply didn’t have interest in signing at a discounted rate, the result is the same. He’ll hit free agency, which probably would’ve been the case had he not been traded. The Angels would likely have non-tendered him themselves.
Canning will look elsewhere for a landing spot after struggling to a 5.19 ERA in 32 appearances for the Halos last year. The UCLA product has battled injuries over his five-year career, though he’s intermittently flashed mid-rotation potential. He had a 4.32 ERA with a near-26% strikeout rate in 127 frames a year ago. Canning should be able to find an MLB deal, presumably with a lower base salary than the arbitration projection, now that he’s a free agent.
The other cuts were about clearing roster space rather than shedding salary. Kerr and Salinas have yet to reach arbitration. Ynoa was arb-eligible but projected for a salary barely above the league minimum. Kerr underwent Tommy John surgery in June and will miss the bulk of next season. Ynoa hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2022, while Salinas has yet to make his MLB debut. Atlanta could look to re-sign any of them to minor league deals. They’ll likely try that route with Salinas, in particular, as they just claimed the 23-uyear-old off waivers from the A’s three weeks ago.
Ynoa is surprising.
Not really. He hasn’t been able to pitch for the Braves in two years and he keeps having setback after setback. I believe he’s got shoulder issues currently
Was he out of options?
Yes he was out
Yeah punching that bench in Milwaukee was really dumb
@getrealgone2 He was really looking good and done something stupid like that to derail a promising future.
Yep he sort of shot himself in the foot there. Temper tantrums do have consequences sometimes
Like 2 & 3/4 he hurt himself, punched the bench in Milwaukee, in May of whatever year it was. It was when pitchers were still hitting, he was mashing.
He threw 50 innings of 2.70 era ball to start 2021 and that’s about it. Finished the season poorly and hasn’t pitched since his 6 innings in 2022.
I wished the braves could’ve at least give a shot to get ynoa back on track like they tried to do with Mike soroka
They could still bring him back on a minor league deal. It’s likely all he’ll get from any teamZ. So if he feels like the Braves organization treated him well during his injuries and rehabs I’d assume there’s a good chance he’ll still be in the system.
He hasn’t played in years. Can’t keep wasting money and space on guys like that.
Is he like a Touki Toussaint?
Angels can resign Canning 🙂
Angels would be big winners if they got both soler and canning
Or would they?
Canning is a junior college pitcher at best.
I know you’re joking, but please, no.
How’s about a college junior pitcher at worst?
No, at worst I take him yard in record league. He’s a staff ace in D2 junior college though.
Okey dokey.
Perry gets Soler at $13 million and gets Canning back at $2-2.5 million.
Soler was just a pure salary dump…..would think they could have received a lower level prospect instead of a future non tender
I think the main objective was to make Minasian believe that Soler is worth his remaining contract so that the Braves didn’t need to kick in cash. Well done, AA.
Soler was a 121 OPS+ hitter. The 2nd best hitter on the Braves. Canning was a 5.19 ERA pitcher. The Angels got something of value. The Braves did not.
The Braves avoided spending $13M each of the next two years on Soler. That’s something of value.
The Braves can trade for him at the deadline again.
121 OPS+ is a huge loss to any lineup. I know that Ozuna the wife beater will be at DH in Atlanta, but Soler has value.
@gbs42 $16M per actually. Soler had a similar production season to Justin Turner.
Its $13 million. He got a $9 million signing bonus from the
Giants.
Jorge Soler dh-rf
3 years/$42M (2024-26)
3 years/$42M (2024-26)
signed by San Francisco as a free agent 2/13/24
$9M signing bonus
24:$7M, 25:$13M, 26:$13M
Pads: There’s a statue of Bobby Cox outside of the stadium. Marcel’s got nothing on him.
Ceballos has looked pretty good in the giants system. Probably won’t make it, but a free prospect for a salary dump is nice
Non tendering Canning confuses me, he’s not great but 5 mill for a 5th-6th starter isn’t bad
Why lock it in now? They can set their sights higher and fallback to lesser options if needed.
Hopefully they can offer him a couple of million instead and save the rest.
Braves should non-tender Problem Child aka The Angry Young Man aka Problematic Anger Management Protocols aka Jerred Kelenic
Braves don’t have $5million to spend on low ceiling lottery tickets. They’ve still got Ian Andersen, AJSS, Waldrep, Elder, Dylan Dodd, Grant Holmes, and Winans. They got in-house options.
Ynoa was out of minor league options. Probably wouldn’t have made 26 man roster.
Laureano?
His #s were very decent for atl
Going back to Kelenic it looks like.
I would not be surprised if Atlanta offers Laureano something around a two year contract in the area of 5 to 7 million total value. I think they liked his overall play, but imagine they can get him at a lower AAV.
I called the Canning non-tender when they traded for him… I thought that was a waste of a trade and pure salary dump to begin with.. Stinks.
With Ozuna coming back Braves had no use for Soler. No way the Braves were going to put him back in the outfield regardless of how good his bat can be
AA may have considered keeping Canning until the later news about Jimenez. Getting another effective reliever is more important than keeping a borderline below mediocre starting pitcher. They might be able to sign him to a lower deal or even an milb deal.
agreed
Plenty of non-competitive teams can use a #5 innings eater. He’ll get a ML deal.
They could have kept Laureano if they hadn’t committed to Kelenic.
Laureano did have good #’s with the Braves last year but his 28% K rate vs 3.5% BB rate screams those #’s are unsustainable.
Didn’t know they got Salinas back. Or is that a mistake?
Also, I hope they keep Kerr somehow.
Turns out they claimed Salinas off Waivers from The Athletics three weeks ago.
Oh dang that was short reunion. Thanks Stallionduck!
The Canning Can Can.
In addition to Ray Kerr,
(who with his name should have the opportunity to bat)
Also non-tendered was JOE KERR !!
Listening to talk radio this afternoon as we drove through LA and they were saying Canning lives just a 20 minutes from Anaheim and wouldn’t it be funny if he ended up back with the Angels on a lower cost deal if the Braves non-tendered him.
Looks like they could be right.
The Braves were not going to pay $6 million for Ramón. They might offer him a lesser contract.
Huascar should not have fought the wall, because in most cases the wall always wins, but Huascar can say, I fought the wall, and the wall won.
Just another brick in the wall
@Fred: You’re right that Ynoa shouldn’t have punched that wall, but I think the biggest issue is that he lost 4-5 mph off his fb after the TJS. Velocity never came back this past season and he spent too much time on the mil IL as well. Looks like the Braves think he’s washed.
They could have traded all 5 to the White Sox for treats
I get why these guys were non-tendered but it’s starting to look like the system is broken. Players are guaranteed raises regardless of how good/bad they are, and while most of them deserve to get paid more as their career goes on, teams just non-tender them and they sign for less. Realistically no one is going to pay the arb prices for guys like this so it’s a waste of time.
Seems like the system is working.
Sounds like they’re cleanin’ house faster than a dust storm rolls through Kansas.
We’re not in Kansas anymore York, that’s what we have to come to terms with first. They may cancel baseball next season because Trump wants to use MLB stadiums as holding pens for all the illegals he wants to deport.
Braves can–and should–do better than Laureano.
i remember when ynoa was their best hitter for a week in 21
Surprised Kelenic is being brought back but he won’t make much and they aren’t ready to give up on him. I’ll miss razor Ramon but 6M is kinda steep for a 4th OF.