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
sometimes it’ll win you the highest office
@mac. And he lives rent free in your head.
He may end up back stocking shelves. That’s tragic.
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 pitched in Miors last season and did not do very well. Doesn’t look like he was close enough to get a shot at MLB level to justify a roster spot. Braves seem very keen when it comes to managing roster spots. A lot of recognizable names they ve traded or non-tendered. Time will tell how they ve done managing the roster.
I to was a little surprised seeing his name though. He’s only one who I felt compelled to look at on Baseball Reference.
He hasn’t played in years. Can’t keep wasting money and space on guys like that.
Is he like a Touki Toussaint?
Not really. Touki has great stuff but could never put it together.
Ynoa was actually pitching great, even with just a mainly 2 pitch repertoire. But he got hurt and hasn’t been able to make it back.
So different circumstances for both
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.
On paper, yes. On the field, solid maybe
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.
That’s 15 mil too much.
Any post from you is 1 too many. Either post reasons why or just do not comment on my posts.
Amazing work taking on the full freight for a 1 dimensional DH in November! Perry you’ve done it again!
Soler will hit .240 with 20 hrs and 70 rbis and strike out 200 times. Couldn’t they get that production from literally 20 different guys at DH for a fraction of that salary? Hmmmm, yes, yes they can. Or even better, put Trout at DH and sign a decent outfielder for 13 mil??? Hmmm, yes, yes they can. A blind monkey could run the Angels better than Minasian and Arte.
just some numbers:
1-Career bWAR/650 PAs = 1.1
2-bWAR per 667 PAs for the past 3 years = 1.0
Hard to believe that the LAA farm doesn’t have a 1B/3B/DH type that can provide something similar.
They probably don’t have anything ready but they’ve tied up 2 years of payroll at market rate for Soler’s age 33-34 seasons. Clogged up DH abs so they can’t cycle Trout, Ohoppe, etc. through.
Doesn’t make much sense for a non contender that needs to continue rebuilding. Soler is fine and they might be able to offload the rest of his contract at the deadline if he’s hitting again. But they didn’t have to take it on in the first place. No significant prospect value will be recouped.
And when you have much bigger needs in the rotation and the bullpen. Was spending $13MM a year for Soler the best use of your capital?
I’d say definitely not.
Soler was the 4th best DH in the NL and 6th best in MLB. The three ahead of him in the NL made $46 million, $20 million. and $18 million. One just happened to be on the team that traded him to the Angels.
As a team the Angels DH combined for a 79 OPS+, 42% below Soler. Acquiring Soler is a very good deal for the Angels.
That you have no clue about how much of an upgrade Soler is for the Angels and how inexpensive Soler is for what he produces with the bat is not a good look for you.
121 OPS+. Top 4 in the NL for a DH. Top 6 in MLB. soler would have been the best hitter on the Angels last season. Try looking up the stats before commenting. Then you don’t appear to be so low IQ. .
Joe, 121 OPS+. WAR doesn’t matter much for DH’s. Just how well you can hit.
Soler would have been the best hitter on the Angels last season of players with more than the 126 PA Trout had. Those are the players already on the MLB team. Not minor leaguers. .
His hitting was 42% better than the players that batted in the DH slot in the lineup for us. 42% better. How many teams make a 42% improvement and only pay $13 million for it?
Here are the Angels top 30 prospects. mlb.com/prospects/angels/
Which one of them is stepping in and having better than a 121 OPS+? I think Lugo may be able to step into the OF and be slightly better than Moniak and Adell, but not put up a 121 OPS+ as a rookie. Believe it. The Angels farm system is that bad.
If you really want to bring WAR into it for a DH, the players that were in the DH slot for the Angels put up a -2.5 WAR. Soler was 3.6 WAR better.
It was an EXCELLENT use of Arte’s capital. It improved DH production by 42%, 79 OPS+ in 2024 to Soler’s 121 OPS+.
Soler instantly became the best hitter on the Angels not named Trout.
Angels CBT payroll is $178 million and Jeff Fletcher of the OC Register said Arte was willing to raise payroll up to around what it was in 2023 or $232 million. Still under the CBT which is Arte’s M.O. He uses the CBT as a hard cap.
That leaves $50+ million for the Angels to go after pitching. Since Arte never allows his GMs to sign a starting pitcher to longer than a 3 year deal, that means you won’t see $30 million AAV pitchers in an Angels uniform any time soon.
Sugano at 2/20 and Junis at something similar and Minasian has lots of room to add some peripheral players and still keep under Arte’s budget.
Please keep spouting BS to show us just how little you understand about the Angels and baseball in general.
@outinleftfield: Good rebuttals from you. Agree w/your analysis. Braves fan, btw. You even got proven right on your point about Arte not allowing his GM’s to sign a starting pitcher to longer than a 3 year deal w/Kikuchi’s signing today.
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.
I wouldn’t call Ozuna “from the Braves” a wife beater, I’d call him a drunk driver instead. Not much better, but it’s more accurate.
Ozuna was suspended for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy..
Police bodycam footage showed Ozuna choke his wife and throw her against a wall.
The release from the Sandy Spring PD said they, “witnessed the suspect grabbing the victim by the neck and throwing her against a wall. … In addition to the strangulation attempts, the suspect also struck the victim with his arm which had a cast from a previous injury.”
Try to spin it anyway that makes you feel better about yourself. Ozuna is a wife beater.
Does that somehow make it better that Ozuna choked his wife, threw her against the wall, and beat her with an arm that had a cast on it in front of police officers and on video?
Pads Fans,
If Soler posts a 121 OPS+ again, that’s certainly valuable. Of course, his bad defense counters that somewhat, and Ozuna already is Atlanta’s DH, so one of them would have to play the field.
DWH then.
Also a POS.
His wife is also a husband beater, apparently.
Read somewhere that she broke a plate across his face and that’s what started the incident … also heard a more probable version where she threw a plate at his head. Who knows? Obviously can’t confirm that plates were involved … but yeah the consensus is that they have an interesting relationship. Not that it justifies what he’s done of course.
Pads Fans
Does that somehow make it better
=========================
It makes it 100% worse imo. Anyone can snap, but even crazy people generally control their temper in front of the police. To choke your wife in front of the police is a whole different level of crazy.
Considering Soler has averaged 122 OPS+ the last 2 seasons, its pretty certain that he will do so again. Or at least very close to that.
Defense doesn’t matter at DH. Just hitting.
It all depends on what they do with the cash saved by dumping Soler. And it needs to be said that throwing money at Drew Smyly (which they’ve done in the past) would be the worst use of that money.
Ozuna is significantly better. They don’t fit on the same team. AA needed to patch a hole at the deadline so he grabbed Soler. Pretty tough deadline to patch holes this past season.
The fact that he was able to dump off the rest of Soler’s contract was fantastic. Soler doesn’t have any surplus value on that contract. He now has a whole offseason to find cheaper or better alternatives that make more sense.
They’re not going to do anything, obviously. They’re cutting costs.
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
I would have preferred that and keeping Laureano, even at his higher salary.
Laureano isn’t left handed. Watch Alex sign Joc
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.
They can find plenty of 5th 6th starters for that much that perform just as poorly as he does. Best not to lock that money down now
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
No doubt we were gonna trade him. I’d still think we can get more than just a salary dump out of him though. Surely a salary dump for a pitcher that we could actually use, like a bullpen arm or even a minor league that isn’t consider a legit prospect but perhaps a project with upside
I told my friend who’s a Braves fan that it was going to be exactly what would happen too. That they’d either look to trade him for something else, sign him for lower or non tender him if they couldn’t do either of those. But I figured he’d just wind up non tendered.
I’m pretty sure most people, including the MLBTR writers called the Canning non-tender
I didn’t see it on mlbtr and unfortunately most of my Braves fan friends are casual, not as into it as I am. And everyone on the internet “pretends” to be diehards.
Dumping Soler’s whole deal was a win. I thought they’d roll the dice on Canning but that alone was a huge W.
Soler doesn’t fit on a team with Ozuna.
Bingo. The whole Soler deal was to try to get some life in the lineup at a low cost for the rest of the year, with no real intention of it going beyond the year.
The fact the Braves so easily moved off his salary is really amazing. Even when AA makes move that seem irrational he always has the long play in view.
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.
100%. I bet he gets a guarantee of $3.5MM with incentives to push him up to his arb salary.
They could have kept Laureano if they hadn’t committed to Kelenic.
what commitment? they could non-tender him also and cut ties easily.
But there’s more upside to keeping him at a lower salary than Laureano.
I bet that even if Kelenic wasn’t in the roster, they would have non-tender Laureano
I think they want to keep Kelenic and see if he can still improve. I’d still like to see them re-sign Ramon at a lower price. He’ll probably sign somewhere else for more than they’re willing to pay.
I think they’re just trying to clear as much payroll as possible, either to get back under the threshold or to make space for another SP, RP and outfielder.
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.
I agree, but that is his ceiling. He had some really good stents with the A’s before he fell off. Be interesting to see where he lands. I’d be ok if reds kicked tires on him if they miss out on others
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
Jerry R Treats are not the same treats that you and I would eat.
He could use some edibles
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.
So are you saying that we should reward people who fail to produce just because they have service time in?
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.
Or more realistically they see all the talent available out there, so Braves are freeing up as many roster spots and cap space to restructure their lineup.
@Big whiffa
Realistically, yes, but I wanted to bring some low level trolling to the conversation. Thanks for calling out my BS.
It worked ! Rotf
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Go back to Reddit if you want to complain about Trump.
You came here from Reddit. That explains so much.
Braves can–and should–do better than Laureano.
He’s just barely average without the juice.
i remember when ynoa was their best hitter for a week in 21
I remember that grand slam he hit against WSH.
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.
True, but he’d be the starting RF until RAJ returns in … May?
Ynoa would have only cost 700k. The Braves cleaned house last year on those pitchers to the Sox. Soler has become the Modern roger marris or Dave kingman . He can rake in the hrs but is traded often.
As a Braves fan this is concerning. Fried is probably gone. I am not as happy just losing Soler as a lot of other fans. Numerous other issues like will Acuna be himself or something else. Seems AA is starting to getting cheep cheep. 2025 might be a tough year.
The Braves non-tendering Canning shows how poorly run the Angels are. The Angels hung on to Canning for years and the Braves immediately cut him loose. That’s why the Braves win and the Angels lose.
Concur. Not to mention they unloaded a overpaid one dimensional DH on the Halos. It’s a win win for Atl. Angels outclassed and outsmarted again. Soler will provide no more offense than Mickey Moniac this year.
It’s much too early to judge these moves. Seems to me that the Braves are clearing salary and roster spaces so that they can sign or trade for players who are better or at least give better value. I expect that they will succeed in this. Right now the Braves need a SP, a RP, a LF and bench players/depth.
dont forget about that huge hole they have between 2b and 3b
cleared another $13 million off the books… AA is putting the braves in a great position if they were to trade or pick up someone in FA that we can extend…spent $278 in 2024, now sitting at $183
FWIW, I was surprised that the SFG were able to dump the Soler contract, and then equally surprised that Atl could dump him.
Not sure if the projected numbers are correct, but Cot’s has Braves at $216m CBT, as oppoed to almost $279m last year. Not certain if they want to get that high again, but they should have room to get one frontline starter and still have some spending room during the season.
Seems like the market will be inflated again this year with the Dodgers and MEts helping to push it way up. Will other teams ever realize that the potential marketing benefits of some of these overseas guys will pay for the luixury tax and part of their salary? Keep wondering why the Braves don’t even seem to try, as they do have some global presence (obviously not in line with the Dodgers, Yanks, Giants and Mariners).