The Braves announced today that they have signed both right-hander Reynaldo López and left-hander Aaron Bummer to new contracts. They also selected right-hander Domingo Gonzalez to the roster.
López will make $30MM over the next three years: $8MM in 2025, $14MM in 2026 and $8MM in 2027. On his previous deal, he was set to make $11MM in ’25 and ’26 with an $8MM club option and $4MM buyout for ’27. This deal effectively guarantees that club option ahead of time while allowing Atlanta to move some of his money from the ’25 ledger to the ’26 ledger.
Bummer’s deal had two club options for ’25 and ’26, both valued at $7.25MM with $1.25MM buyouts. Per today’s announcement, he is now guaranteed $13MM over the next two years: $3.5MM in ’25 and $9.5MM in ’26. That’s slightly less than the $14.5MM he could have made if both options were eventually picked up but he gets the security of having it locked in now, staving off any chance of an injury or a decline in performance hurting his future earning power. In this instance as well, the club moves some money from ’25 to ’26.
Before the offseason has really even begun in earnest, Atlanta’s payroll and competitive balance tax situation have already been a clear focus. Almost as soon as trades were allowed to happen, outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler was flipped to the Angels, essentially as a salary dump. Atlanta got right-hander Griffin Canning in return but it seems their primary motivation was to get rid of the two years and $26MM left on Soler’s deal. Now, a couple of days later, they announced these reworked deals. In both cases, the goal was seemingly to give Atlanta a bit more spending power in the upcoming offseason.
According to RosterResource, Atlanta is currently slated to have a payroll of $191MM and a CBT number of $210MM. The latter is higher because it’s calculated based on a contract’s average annual value rather than what the club is set to actually pay in 2025. The club has signed some backloaded extensions, which leads some players to have a higher CBT hit than their current salary.
The club finished 2024 with a payroll of $232MM and $277MM. Looking ahead to 2025, there’s some breathing room relative to last year’s numbers, but triggering options on Marcell Ozuna ($16MM), Travis d’Arnaud ($8MM) and Luke Jackson ($7MM) will eat up some of that. The club also has plenty on its offseason to-do list, with Max Fried and Charlie Morton now free agents, opening up two holes in the rotation. The club might consider upgrading on Orlando Arcia at shortstop, Sean Murphy at catcher or Jarred Kelenic in the outfield.
In the case of López, his new deal won’t impact his CBT hit. He signed a three-year, $30MM deal with Atlanta last winter, a deal that came with a $10MM luxury tax calculation. This new deal also has him slated to make $30MM over the next three years, keeping the CBT hit the same.
In terms of pure dollars, he is now guaranteed $4MM extra than previously, with that club option locked in. If he should suffer an injury or a decline in performance between now and then, he has prevented the club from going with the buyout. In exchange, the club gets a small increase in spending power this winter by moving $3MM of his salary ahead by a year. His return to a starting role was a big success this year as he posted a 1.99 earned run average in 135 2/3 innings.
With Bummer, the club clearly wanted to keep him around but worked out some details that they liked better than those options. This will actually increase his CBT hit relative to 2024, but by a bit less than if they had just picked up the option.
Atlanta acquired Bummer a year ago when he still had one guaranteed season left on his deal with the White Sox. Per the rules of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players union, a player’s CBT hit is recalculated at the time of a trade. Bummer was set to make a $5.5MM salary in 2024 and $1.25MM buyout on the option, so his CBT hit was $6.75MM in 2024. He had a strong season, posting a 3.58 ERA out of Atlanta’s bullpen this year.
If Atlanta had picked up the ’25 option, his CBT hit would have jumped to $8.5MM, when factoring in the $7.25MM salary and the $1.25MM buyout on the ’26 option. Instead, Atlanta has locked him in at $13MM for the next two years, reducing his CBT hit to $6.5MM. They also backloaded the salary so that they have more money to spend on the ’25 club. For him, he’s potentially leaving a small amount of money on the table, as he could have eventually made $14.5MM if both options were triggered. But he now has more guaranteed up front, so he’s protected against a big surgery or some other unfortunate developments cropping up between now and his second option decision.
Perhaps Atlanta expects to have a bit less of a payroll crunch a year from now. Ozuna’s contract will be done after 2025, as will that of Raisel Iglesias. They have ’26 club options for players like Chris Sale, Pierce Johnson, Ozzie Albies, David Fletcher and Arcia that they could walk away from, depending on each player’s health and performance between now and then. RR currently pegs Atlanta for a $137MM payroll and $136MM for CBT purposes in 2026. However, those numbers will eventually climb based on the options and players who qualify for arbitration, as well as with any multi-year deals the club gives out this winter.
Gonzalez, 25, was originally signed by the Pirates but Atlanta nabbed him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. Players who have played parts of seven years in the minors, including the cancelled 2020 season, can qualify for minor league free agency. That was about to be the case for Gonzalez but Atlanta wanted to keep him around, so they’ve added him to the roster today.
He was in a swingman role when in the Pirates’ system but Atlanta has had him working primarily in relief since they grabbed him. He has posted huge strikeout totals but also given out a high number of walks. He spent all of last year in Double-A, posting a 4.19 ERA in 53 2/3 innings. He struck out 30.5% of batters faced while giving out free passes at a 13.3% rate. This year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A. He had a 2.91 ERA in 52 2/3 innings, increasing his strikeout rate to 38.8% while decreasing the walks to 10.3%. Those strong results will get him onto a major league roster for the first time and he should compete for a role in Atlanta’s bullpen next year.
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
What a great year Lopez had
braves25
AA is staying busy.
avenger65
Nice to see two White Sox escapees being paid amounts they’d never get from uncle jer. Also, how is $5M “SLIGHTLY less?”
braves25
13m that he is guaranteed now is slightly less than the 14.5 he could have gotten if Atl picked up the option next year.
RunDMC
Move more money off ’25 books by renegotiating deals. Love it.
Saint Nick
Gonna need it for Soto 😉
LonnieB
RunDMC
I’m expecting Soto right after Bauer
LonnieB
lol yeah I’ll 2nd this one. They both might be after trading for Ohtani and the ghost of Pete rose RIP
Lindor's Bodyguard
And Addison Russell for SS.
chiefnocahoma1
The Kaiser
You ain’t getting soto
Atloriolesfan
They committed over $10m to save $2m on the 2025 CBT number. That’s a team with a big CBT problem.
bhambrave
Those buyouts counted against the the total CBT over fewer years. By guaranteeing them, they spread over the total years of the contracts. Lopez CBT went from $13M per year for two years to $10M per year for three years. Bummer would have cost them $8.5M CBT in 2025. Now it’s just $6.5M in 25 and in 26. They wanted to keep them anyway, so it’s a more efficient structure.
braves25
@Atloriolesfan
Actually Lopez CBT stayed the exact same and Bummer’s CBT went up. So this is actually the opposite of you suggesting the CBT being a problem.
Ultimately is was about moving overall dollars around some. Moving from 2025 to 2026 much like you see in the NFL.
bhambrave
I like these deals. They give the team a little more payroll wiggle room, both in actual pay and in the CBT.
More to come…
I wouldn’t be surprised if they offered d’Arnaud 2yr/$12M.
LonnieB
I honestly see D’Arnaud retiring after this season and becoming an ATL coach. We have catchers in the pipeline that he could benefit and spending more time on murphy’s development would be great. Big D is coach material. Hopefully our new hitting coach changes things. Braves have been due for some development changes even at the MLB level. Too much comfy is not great.
bhambrave
I think they’ll at least bring d’Arnaud back for 2025. I think Murphy’s main problem in 25 was injuries.
LonnieB
‘24 unless you are miss Chloe 😉
bhambrave
Oops. My bad.
bravesfan
Fantastic deal for the Braves and good for both Bummer and Lopez. Win for all sides involved. And for fans who will freak out about bummer, you clearly have no idea that he was not only one of our better bullpen arms statistically but he was also one of our must underutilized (meanings used in low leverage situations) in the pen. He’s the 2023 Joe Jiménez. Great #’s, great underlying #’s, snit just wouldn’t use them right
LonnieB
Between watching cox and snit (we don’t talk about the dark ages in between) it’s the same . Like a high school coach playing the seniors just cause.
bhambrave
I’m guessing Gonzalez replaces Jackson on the roster?
Saint Nick
Gonzalez has crazy strikeout numbers. 80+ in 52 IP. Looks like a nice bullpen option.
LonnieB
Jackson is an ATL legend along with Matzek butt those are hard outliers to their current abilities/production. I love wild new BP guys every year.
LonnieB
1. Great move for Lopez
2. Sean Murphy will not be upgraded. He had an injury/down year. They signed him for the long haul right or wrong.
braves25
Playing d’Arnaud more could alone be an upgrade. If a team wants Murphy trading him and bringing up Baldwin could be an upgrade too
LonnieB
I’m not sold on losing Murphy yet. Cap D doesn’t need to play a full season. He’s injury prone too. A new season of them both being healthy would prove robust I think.
RunDMC
d’Arnuad is 36 y/o by ST — I wonder how many C at 36 play more than ~35% of games behind the plate (and ATL doesn’t have a DH spot they can keep d’Arnaud’s bat in without playing him at C). He was forced to play too many games in ’24 b/c of Murphy’s injury and he could benefit from Murphy’s health, especially the amount of concussion’s d’Arnaud has had.
LonnieB
My thoughts exactly DMC
LonnieB
Baldwin looks good but sometimes it adds up on paper and doesn’t prove to work in real life.
This one belongs to the Reds
Aaron says that contract’s no Bummer.
LonnieB
It would be a bummer to lose him. He’s a low key beast. AA did well there.
Blackpink in the area
I think these moves make sense as well as trading Soler. But it appears the Braves are not overflowing with money and that’s a bit concerning.
LonnieB
Braves will never be LA or NY but we have just as many legit rings in the last 10 years so I’ll take it.
LonnieB
And infinite more than NYM or PH so that’s also a plus.
Bart Harley Jarvis
Infinite more is my favorite number.
Sunday Lasagna
Since the Mets inception in 1962, the Braves have won 2 WS titles, the Phillies have won 2 WS titles, and the Mets have won 2 WS titles.
Which team will get to 3 first?
Lindor's Bodyguard
Marlins 2 titles.
Nationals 1 title.
I vote Mets!
UKPhil
@ Sunday L
Just to be annoying, the Marlins also have 2 WS titles in a much shorter timeframe. Y’all have a couple of years head start
Abishai Aziz Al-Doory
nah. even the richest people on earth do stuff like this. i.e moving money around to save money.
More importantly, AA said he expects the payroll to go up from 2024. So no worries.
Sunday Lasagna
What makes AA good? Between Toronto and Atlanta he had one WS title in 14 years. Doesn’t seem all that impressive.
Braves have the 6th highest payroll so it kind of goes without saying that they should make the playoffs every year.
So why is this guy so loved?
bhambrave
2021.
RunDMC
They’ve won the division every year since he’s been in ATL, until this year. Kept/acquired/developed start talent — and the separator that very few of his peers can do — retain most of them, not all. When they needed a bat, enter Donaldson rectifying his career. He chases the bag to MIN, need a bat, enter Ozuna, who has a career year. Need a innings-eater on a short-term deal, enter Morton wanting to stay near his FL home, and come back to where it all started. Homer googles off — I’d think the Acuna/Albies extensions alone would award him a key to the city and his own day in April. I can’t think of another recent year in pro sports where it was overwhelmingly obvious how valuable a GM was, than in 2021, when almost all of the moves he made were invaluable to winning a title, and without one of the sport’s brightest stars (Acuña).
FartPocket
David Fletcher for Jordan Montgomery.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Bummer deserves like 5 salaries
The Kaiser
It amazes me how Atlanta continues to get away with under paying there player’s.
DarkSide830
NO Saints ahh moves.