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Braves Release Matt Carpenter

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The Braves have released veteran infielder/designated hitter Matt Carpenter, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Atlanta acquired Carpenter a few days ago, taking on $4MM of this year’s $5.5MM salary (and the associated luxury tax hit) as a means of effectively purchasing left-handed reliever Ray Kerr from the Padres.

While the Braves had hoped to trade Carpenter in similar fashion to Marco Gonzales, Evan White and Max Stassi (all of whom they acquired and quickly dealt away in salary-driven swaps), it seems they weren’t able to find a taker for Carpenter even at that rate. He’ll now be a free agent who’ll cost a new team only the league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster — the Braves and Padres will remain on the hook for the rest of his salary.

Carpenter, 38, had a brilliant bounceback season with the Yankees in 2022 when he slashed .305/.412/.727 with 15 home runs in just 154 trips to the plate. A broken foot ended his season, but that eye-popping resurgence was still enough to land him a two-year, $12MM deal with the Padres last offseason.

Unfortunately for the Padres and Carpenter alike, his 2023 campaign looked more like the 2020-21 version of Carpenter who’d looked to be on the decline. In 237 plate appearances with the Friars last year, Carpenter hit just .176/.322/.319. He still walked at a massive 17.3% clip, but Carpenter’s strikeout rate spiked as his exit velocity and hard-hit rate trended in the other direction. The former Cardinals star’s newfound focus on elevating the ball at career-high levels served him well in 2022, but he perhaps took that too far in ’23, lifting 10 harmless pop-ups in his tiny sample of plate appearances. Given his huge walk and strikeout rates, Carpenter only put 125 balls in play last year — 10 of which were effectively automatic outs.

Now that he’s a free agent and can be signed on a league-minimum MLB deal or even on a minor league deal and spring training invite, Carpenter should draw interest from teams seeking left-handed bats. A return to that Herculean production from the summer of 2022 might not be plausible, but there’d be little to no risk for a new club trying to catch lightning in a bottle in the same manner as the 2022 Yankees did.

Braves Plan To Trade Matt Carpenter

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The Braves are planning to trade DH Matt Carpenter, report David O’Brien and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (X link). Atlanta acquired the left-handed hitter this evening in a salary-motivated swap with the Padres.

San Diego’s primary goal was offloading a portion of Carpenter’s $5.5MM salary. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reported that the Padres were kicking in $1.5MM to facilitate the trade. The Braves took on $4MM in salary and luxury tax obligations. The Friars saved $4MM in cash and $4.5MM against the competitive balance tax.

Carpenter’s CBT number was marginally higher for the Padres than it is for Atlanta. His two-year, $12MM deal with San Diego was front loaded, as he collected $6.5MM this year. That came with a $6MM tax hit as the contract’s average annual value, but a traded player’s CBT calculation for an acquiring team is recalculated based on how much they’re still owed at the time of the trade — in this case, $5.5MM for one year.

The point of the trade for Atlanta was to essentially “purchase” the rights to hard-throwing depth reliever Ray Kerr, whom San Diego included in the deal. As a second-year luxury tax payor in the second tier of penalization, the Braves are paying a 42% tax on the $4MM of Carpenter’s salary they assumed. The trade will cost them around $5.68MM altogether. Atlanta’s competitive balance tax number sits around $267MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. The third tier of penalization kicks in at $277MM.

Atlanta’s front office has somewhat curiously taken on a handful of underwater contracts as a means of adding talent at the bottom half of the roster. They almost immediately traded Marco Gonzales and Evan White after bringing them in alongside Jarred Kelenic. Catcher Max Stassi, whose contract was included in the David Fletcher trade, was promptly flipped to the White Sox. Carpenter appears next in line.

As was the case with Gonzales and Stassi, the Braves might have to pay Carpenter’s salary all the way or near the league minimum to find a taker. The veteran is coming off a .176/.322/.319 showing.

Braves Acquire Matt Carpenter, Ray Kerr From Padres

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7:12pm: San Diego is including $1.5MM in cash, reports Dennis Lin of the Athletic (on X).

6:48pm: The Padres and Braves have agreed to a trade, per announcements from both clubs. Designated hitter Matt Carpenter, left-hander Ray Kerr and cash considerations are heading to Atlanta in exchange for minor league outfielder Drew Campbell.

Carpenter, 38, had a multi-year run of success with the Cardinals but his production dipped towards the end of the previous decade, to the point where he hit just .169/.305/.275  in 2021. He made a concerted effort to revamp his swing before 2022 and it seemed to work. He hit an astounding .305/.412/.727 for the Yankees in 2022, but in just 47 games before he fouled a ball off his foot and had his season ended by a fracture.

The Padres decided to bank on that bounceback, signing him to a two-year deal going into 2023. That guaranteed $12MM and allowed him to opt out after the first season.  He couldn’t keep that magic run with the Yankees going, as his time as a Padre resulted in a line of just .176/.322/.319. As a player who saw all of his time at either designated hitter or first base, the complete lack of offensive productivity put Carpenter on the fringe of the roster.

San Diego kept him on the roster all season. Carpenter made the easy decision to exercise his $5.5MM player option. That’s not an outrageous sum but clearly beyond what San Diego wanted to devote to a player on the bubble. The Friars have spent much of the offseason cutting payroll. It’s unclear how much of the Carpenter deal for which the Padres remain responsible after accounting for the cash considerations, but they’ll offload some portion of the money in exchange for sending Kerr to Atlanta.

A 29-year-old reliever, Kerr was acquired from Seattle as part of the Adam Frazier deal over the 2021-22 offseason. The 6’3″ southpaw has pitched in 29 MLB games over the past two seasons, most of which came this year. Kerr owns a 5.06 ERA in 32 innings, but he has shown a promising arsenal. He has punched out an above-average 28.1% of batters faced at the highest level. Kerr fanned 29% of opponents while pitching to a stellar 2.25 ERA in 36 Triple-A frames last season.

Kerr has atypical velocity for a left-hander. He averaged 96 MPH on his heater and a solid 82.5 MPH on a curveball in his MLB time this year. That resulted in an excellent 14.7% swinging strike percentage. He has never consistently harnessed that power stuff, however. Kerr walked nearly 10% of opponents in the majors and over 11% of batters faced in Triple-A. Over parts of six minor league seasons, he owns an 11.6% walk percentage.

With less than one year of major league service, Kerr is at least two years away from arbitration. He still has a minor league option remaining, so the Braves can keep him at Triple-A Gwinnett for another season. Kerr slots in behind A.J. Minter, recent trade pickup Aaron Bummer, Tyler Matzek and Dylan Lee on the lefty relief depth chart.

Atlanta has shown a willingness to take on part or all of other teams’ undesirable contracts to acquire players of interest. They took on money in the Marco Gonzales and Evan White deals to bring in Jarred Kelenic from Seattle. They subsequently offloaded Gonzales to the Pirates and flipped White to the Angels as part of a deal that brought in David Fletcher and the Max Stassi contract, which they subsequently paid down to deal the catcher to the White Sox.

It’s fair to wonder if they’ll look to move Carpenter as well. For now, he projects as a left-handed bench bat. Atlanta is in the the second tier of luxury penalization and will be second-time payors next year. They’ll therefore pay a 42% tax on whatever portion of the Carpenter contract they’re assuming.

San Diego also adds the 26-year-old Campbell. He was a 23rd round pick in 2019 out of Louisville. A left-handed hitter, Campbell posted a modest .254/.307/.404 slash in 300 plate appearances as a 25-year-old in Double-A. He can play all three outfield spots but spent more time in a corner this year. After going unselected in the Rule 5 draft, he’s likely to start the season in Triple-A.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Braves Outright David Fletcher

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The Braves announced Wednesday that infielder David Fletcher, who they acquired from the Angels last week, has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. The move amounts to a formality, as Atlanta was surely aware that another team wouldn’t claim Fletcher and the $14MM still guaranteed to him on his current contract. The Angels outrighted Fletcher twice during the 2023 season. At 4.168 years of MLB service time, he’s four days shy of being able to reject an outright assignment while still remaining the entirety of that sum.

David O’Brien of The Athletic tweets that Braves brass still “fully expects” Fletcher to be their primary utility infielder next season. For the time being, however, passing him through waivers creates some extra flexibility by opening a spot on the 40-man roster. The Braves can always select Fletcher back to the 40-man roster prior to Opening Day. Once he’s accrued even four more days of service time, they’ll lose the ability to shuffle him around in this nature, as Fletcher could elect free agency and retain his salary, leaving Atlanta on the hook for that money.

It’s still a modest surprise to see Fletcher outrighted at the moment, given that the Braves already had five open spots on the 40-man roster. Timing aside, the outcome was always going to be the same when he was placed on waivers though, so making the move now versus making the move in February changes nothing. It sounds quite likely that Fletcher will be added back to the 40-man before long — if not prior to Opening Day then early in the 2024 campaign.

Fletcher, 29, came to the Braves as part of a convoluted series of trades that have added a considerable amount of money to Atlanta’s luxury tax ledger but haven’t left the roster with much in the way of clear upgrades. The Braves acquired Jarred Kelenic, Evan White and Marco Gonzales for Jackson Kowar, prospect Cole Phillips and cash — then immediately flipped Gonzales and cash to the Pirates for a player to be named later. White was traded to the Angels alongside minor league reliever Tyler Thomas to acquire catcher Max Stassi and Fletcher. Atlanta quickly sent Stassi and cash to the White Sox for another PTBNL.

Ultimately, they were left on the hook for the remaining $14MM on Fletcher’s deal, nearly three quarters of Gonzales’ $12.25MM salary, and the associated luxury taxes they’ll pay on each player. It’s a steep price to pay to effectively buy low on Kelenic and install Fletcher as a utility infielder — particularly when the Braves already had a very similar utility option in Nicky Lopez, who was traded to the ChiSox as part of the Aaron Bummer trade. Perhaps the PTBNLs acquired for Gonzales and Stassi will be of some significance, but it’s hard to imagine a team in the Pirates’ or White Sox’ positions giving up substantial prospect talent for short-term stopgaps — even at positions of need and with paid-down salaries.

Fletcher signed a five-year, $26MM extension with the Angels on the heels of a .298/.356/.395 showing from 2019-20 — a productive stretch at the plate during which he fanned at a tiny 10.1% clip and played superb defense between three infield spots (second base, third base, shortstop). He’s since floundered at the dish, however, batting just .259/.296/.327 in 990 plate appearances. Fletcher’s bat-to-ball skills have actually improved (8.6% strikeout rate), but his quality of contact has plummeted and rendered him an unimpactful player in the batter’s box. He’s still a versatile and talented defender, and the Braves will likely lean on him as a glove-first utility option this coming season.

White Sox Acquire Max Stassi From Braves

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December 11: Atlanta is paying Stassi’s deal down to the league minimum, according to the Associated Press; they’ll send $6.26MM in cash. That amount also counts against the Braves luxury tax number, which sits at an estimated $263MM according to Roster Resource. As second-time payors in the second tier of penalization, they’ll pay a 42% tax on that money. Stassi will cost the Braves around $8.89MM overall.

December 9: The White Sox have acquired Max Stassi and cash considerations from the Braves in exchange for a player to be named later. Both teams have announced the deal. Per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times, the Braves are expected to pay for the majority of Stassi’s $7MM salary next season.

Stassi, 33 in March, spent just one day in the Braves organization after being acquired from the Angels yesterday in a multi-played deal with the Angels alongside infielder David Fletcher. Now, the veteran catcher is off to his third organization in two days, where he figures to have the opportunity to step into a regular role on the south side of Chicago. The White Sox lost Yasmani Grandal to free agency earlier this offseason and were in need of a veteran backstop to pair with youngster Korey Lee behind the plate in 2024.

It’s a need Stassi is more than capable of fulfilling. While the veteran missed the entire 2023 season, only the first half of his absence was due to the left hip strain that prevented him from being on the Opening Day roster in Anaheim last season. Stassi recovered from that issue midseason, but he and his wife revealed last month that the three-months premature birth of their son necessitated Stassi to step away from the game and attend to his family for the remainder of the 2023 campaign.

That said, Stassi is expected to return to the field in 2024 and has shown himself to be a quality big league catcher over the past few seasons. Initially drafted by the A’s in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, Stassi made his big league debut back in 2013 with the Astros but did not find a regular role in the majors until the 2018 season when he split time behind the plate in Houston with Brian McCann and Martin Maldonado. Stassi did well for himself in a backup role that season, slashing a respectable .226/.316/.394 in 250 plate appearances. While Stassi struggled through 51 games in 2019, prompting the Astros to trade him to the Angels at that year’s trade deadline, Stassi was given a more prominent role upon his arrival in Anaheim.

In 118 games between the shortened 2020 campaign and his first full season as an Angel in 2021, Stassi combined above-average offense at the plate (113 wRC+) with strong defense behind it to be the ninth most valuable catcher in the league according to fWAR. That strong performance led the Angels to sign Stassi to an extension, though that decision would prove ill-fated. As effective as Stassi was during those two seasons, he took a step back in 2022, slashing a meager .180/.267/.363 (63 wRC+) at the plate while posting framing numbers that were closer to average than the elite figures he had posted earlier in his career.

While the struggles Stassi faced in 2022 and his time away from the game in 2023 make it an understandable decision for the Angels and Braves to go in another direction behind the plate in 2024, it’s easy to see why the addition of Stassi would be intriguing for the White Sox. After all, Lee has less than 100 plate appearances of experience in the big leagues and, even if the club believes the former top-100 prospect to be their catcher of the future, will surely need time and assistant as he looks to transition into a new role as a full-time big leaguer. The addition of a veteran catcher such as Stassi should help with that transition, while also creating a substantial bit of upside for Chicago. Stassi’s contract includes a $7MM 2025 club option that features a $500K buyout; if the veteran is able to regain the form he flashed in 2020 and 2021, that $6.5MM decision would be a no-brainer to pick up and make for an attractive trade chip as the White Sox retool their roster with an eye toward the future.

For the Braves, the deal clears a portion of Stassi’s salary from their books while clearing an unnecessary piece from their roster. Atlanta already had one of the best catching tandems in the game with Sean Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud behind the plate, rendering Stassi as largely superfluous. In conjunction with the trade that brought Stassi and Fletcher to Atlanta in exchange for Evan White and the deal that shipped Marco Gonzales to the Pirates, the Braves have shaved roughly $5MM off their payroll since acquiring Gonzales and White as part of the Jarred Kelenic trade during the Winter Meetings while adding a bench piece in Fletcher who better fits the club’s roster than any of Gonzales, White, or Stassi.

Braves Finalize Coaching Staff

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The Braves announced that they have named Matt Tuiasosopo third base coach, Tom Goodwin first base coach and Erick Abreu bullpen coach. Also, bench coach Walt Weiss will have his responsibilities expanded to oversee the club’s infield. These moves finalize the coaching staff under manager Brian Snitker.

Tuiasosopo, 37, played in the big leagues from 2008 to 2016. He continued playing in the minors and independent ball until he retired and transitioned into coaching for the 2019 season. He has managed the Triple-A Gwinnett club for the past three seasons and will now get his first crack at coaching at the big league level on a permanent basis, having briefly filled in for Ron Washington in 2023 while the latter was away from the club. The announcement adds that he will assist Weiss with the infield duties.

Goodwin, 55, has plenty of coaching experience on his résumé. He was the first base coach for the Mets from 2011 to 2017 before jumping to the same role with the Red Sox. He won a World Series in his first year in Boston and stayed with that club through 2021. He has been a roving minor league instructor in Atlanta’s system for the past two years but will now return to the majors.

Abreu, 40, has spent the past nine seasons as a pitching coach for various minor league clubs in the Astros’ system. This is his first appointment to a major league coaching staff.

Atlanta lost their previous third base coach, Washington, when he was tapped to manage the Angels in 2024. He brought Eric Young Sr. with him, which created a vacancy at first base. The bullpen coach vacancy was created when Drew French jumped to the Orioles to be the pitching coach with that club.

Braves Acquire Max Stassi, David Fletcher

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The Braves and Angels have lined up a swap of change-of-scenery candidates. Atlanta announced the acquisition of infielder David Fletcher and catcher Max Stassi for minor league first baseman Evan White and reliever Tyler Thomas. The Braves’ 40-man roster count is up to 36; the Halos will be at 39 once they finalize one-year free agent deals for Luis García and Adam Cimber.

It’s an odd fit for the Braves, who aren’t in need of catching help. Atlanta has Sean Murphy as their starter and re-signed Travis d’Arnaud to an $8MM deal to work as the backup. Stassi gives them a third experienced, fairly highly-priced catcher. Since it’s unlikely they’d want to carry all three — none of whom can be sent to the minor leagues — Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets that they plan to flip Stassi elsewhere.

Atlanta has already moved a trio of players whom they’d acquired in previous offseason trades. Right-hander Jackson Kowar, added from the Royals for Kyle Wright, went to the Mariners in the deal that brought in Jarred Kelenic. As part of the Kelenic trade, the Braves agreed to take on salary on the underwater contracts for left-hander Marco Gonzales and White. Gonzales was dealt to the Pirates for a minimal return on Tuesday, while White is now himself shipped away in this swap with the Angels.

Now they’ll try to move Stassi, who is under contract for $7MM next season. He’s also guaranteed a $500K buyout on a $7.5MM team option for the 2025 campaign. The Halos had signed him to an extension on the heels of a combined .250/.333/.452 showing between 2020-21. That contract didn’t work as the organization envisioned. Stassi slumped to a .180/.267/.303 line over a personal-high 375 plate appearances in 2022.

The 32-year-old didn’t appear at all in 2023. Stassi began the season on the injured list with a left hip strain. While he recovered from the hip issue midseason, he remained away from the team to attend to a family issue. After the season, Stassi and his wife Gabrielle revealed their son had been born three months prematurely in mid-April and had spent the past few months in NICU. In November, Angels GM Perry Minasian told reporters that Stassi was planning to play in 2024 (link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register).

In the season’s final month, the Angels had placed Stassi on the restricted list. That ensured he wouldn’t be paid for the last few weeks as part of the organization’s ultimately successful effort to limbo below the luxury tax line. There’s no public indication that affected the franchise’s relationship with Stassi, but he also seemed an arguably superfluous part of the roster. Logan O’Hoppe has emerged as the top option behind the plate with Matt Thaiss backing him up.

Fletcher likewise signed an extension that hasn’t panned out. The glove-first infielder inked a $26MM guarantee in April 2021. At the time, the Angels envisioned him as a long-term starter at second base thanks to a strong showing in the shortened 2020 season. That looks like an anomaly, as Fletcher’s offense has evaporated in the three years since then. Going back to the start of the ’21 campaign, he’s a .259/.296/.327 hitter.

The Angels twice ran Fletcher through waivers this year. He played in only 33 MLB games while getting into 85 contests at Triple-A Salt Lake. Fletcher made a ton of contact with minimal power impact at the top minor league level, hitting .330/.382/.428 with a microscopic 6.3% strikeout rate across 380 plate appearances.

Fletcher will make $6MM next season, is guaranteed $6.5MM in 2025 and will take home at least a $1.5MM buyout on a ’26 club option. That’s well above what he’d have received were he a free agent this offseason. He’s a plus defender at each of second base, shortstop and third base. For the Braves, he’ll serve as utility infield depth behind Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia and Austin Riley. It’s a role that had been played by Nicky Lopez in the second half of last season, but Atlanta packaged him in the Aaron Bummer trade with the White Sox.

It’s strictly a financial move for the Angels, who also clear two spots on their 40-man roster. White had been a highly-regarded prospect during his time with the Mariners. Seattle signed him to an extension before his MLB debut. That didn’t work, as the righty-hitting first baseman turned in a .165/.235/.308 line in 84 big league games between 2020-21. White hasn’t played in the majors in two years and has barely played in Triple-A because of various injuries, including multiple surgeries on his left hip.

Atlanta passed White through waivers just yesterday. The Angels will take on the remainder of his contract: $7MM next season, $8MM in 2025 and a $2MM buyout on a ’26 club option. He’ll likely start next season in Salt Lake.

Thomas is a left-handed pitcher who turns 28 in a few weeks. The Braves had just selected him in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft out of the Mets organization. The Fresno State product has appeared in parts of six minor league seasons. He has a 4.30 ERA over 130 2/3 career innings at Double-A with scant experience at the Triple-A level.

The Braves agree to take on an extra $6MM next season, while the Halos are assuming an additional $1.5MM between 2025-26. Atlanta is also assuming $6MM in luxury tax obligations for the upcoming season. A traded player’s luxury tax number is recalculated as the average annual value of what remains on their contract at the time of the trade (including option buyouts). Stassi is guaranteed $7.5MM for one season, while the remaining $14MM over two years on Fletcher’s deal is a $7MM average value. White is due $17MM over two seasons, an $8.5MM annual hit. There’s a $6MM gap between the $14.5MM which Atlanta is assuming versus the $8.5MM they’re shipping out.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the terms of the trade.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Braves Sign Zach Logue To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have signed left-hander Zach Logue to a minor league deal, as relayed by Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The lefty is a client of MSM Sports Management.

Logue, 28 in April, has 68 innings of major league experience to his point, pitching for the A’s in 2022 and the Tigers in 2023. He has an unfortunate 6.88 earned run average in that small sample, with a respectable 7.2% walk rate but a subpar 17% strikeout rate. He spent most of 2023 in Triple-A, tossing 90 1/3 innings at that level with a 6.58 ERA. He was outrighted by the Tigers in August and able to elect free agency at season’s end.

Prior to getting to the big leagues, Logue was a prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, eventually coming to the A’s as part of the Matt Chapman trade. He was in better form prior to that deal, tossing 125 minor league innings in 2021 with a 3.67 ERA, 28.2% strikeout rate and 5.3% walk rate.

Atlanta has a strong front three in their rotation, with Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Charlie Morton. Beyond that, things are less firm, with Bryce Elder, Huascar Ynoa, Reynaldo López and AJ Smith-Shawver some of the options for the back end. They might still acquire more pitching throughout the offseason but Logue can provide them with some non-roster depth regardless. If he can get back into the form he showed a few years ago and earn a roster spot, he still has one option season remaining and less than a year of service time.

Braves Sign Angel Perdomo, Outright Evan White

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The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve signed left-hander Angel Perdomo to a one-year, split Major League contract. Atlanta also passed recently acquired first baseman Evan White through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. The Braves claimed Perdomo off waivers from the Pirates in early November but non-tendered him later in the month. He’ll now return to their 40-man roster.

White’s outright comes as little surprise; the Braves’ acquisition of him was always a financial mechanism to facilitate their trade for Jarred Kelenic, and it was obvious that no team would place a claim on White, given the remaining $17MM he’s owed under his previously signed contract extension with the Mariners. White technically has enough service time (three-plus years) to reject the assignment but not enough to do so while retaining the remainder of his salary (which requires five years). As such, he’ll surely accept the assignment and head to Triple-A Gwinnett to begin the 2024 campaign.

Perdomo, 29, posted a 3.72 ERA in 29 innings for the Pirates in 2023 and did so with a gaudy 37.6% strikeout rate against a 9.4% walk rate. Had he been healthy, the Pirates surely would’ve hung onto him, but Perdomo hit the injured list with an elbow injury in August. He ultimately required Tommy John surgery and is slated to miss the 2024 campaign as a result. Even if he spends the entire season on the 60-day injured list, he’d still finish out the 2024 season with two-plus years of service time, meaning Atlanta could potentially control a healthy Perdomo from 2025-28, if all goes well.

White, 27, was the Mariners’ first-round pick back in 2017 and was widely considered one of the sport’s best prospects. Touted as an elite defender at first base with a solid hit tool and above-average power, White looked the part of a future fixture in the Seattle lineup during his prospect days. His 2019 campaign in Double-A saw White turn in a .293/.350/.488 batting line with 18 home runs in 400 plate appearances. The Mariners signed White to a six-year, $24MM contract that November with the idea that he’d be their Opening Day first baseman in 2020. White, however, stumbled to a .165/.235/.308 batting line in 306 plate appearances from 2020-21 and was eventually overtaken by Ty France on the team’s depth chart.

Injuries have also played a notable role in White’s struggles. In the past three years alone, the University of Kentucky product has undergone a pair of surgeries on his left hip and a sports hernia surgery. He’s also dealt with a Grade 2 strain/tear in his groin. That hasn’t helped his production any, and it’s certainly possible that the faulty hip contributed to his struggles in prior stints with the M’s, as his first surgery took place midway through his second MLB campaign.

For now, White will head to Gwinnett and hope for better health and performance to create an opportunity — if not with the Braves then with another club. The aforementioned slate of injuries has limited him to just 30 minor league games since Opening Day 2022 — including only two last year. He’s owed $7MM in 2024 and $8MM in 2025. He’s also guaranteed a $2MM buyout on the first of three club options.

Braves, Dodgers Have Shown Interest In Tyler Glasnow

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Tyler Glasnow remains on the Rays coming out of what had been a fairly quiet Winter Meetings until recently. That doesn’t mean trade talks have slowed down, however, as the 6’8″ righty is one of the sport’s highest-profile trade candidates.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that upwards of half the league has been in contact with the front office on Glasnow’s availability. Topkin lists the Dodgers and Braves among that group, while some teams within the AL East have also inquired on the possibility of an intra-division swap.

Atlanta has spent the past few weeks searching for rotation help. The Braves have brought in Reynaldo López with an eye towards a possible rotation move. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos recently noted that the starting staff still “has room” for an addition (link via Mark Bowman of MLB.com).

The Braves have Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Charlie Morton locked into three spots. López, Bryce Elder, AJ Smith-Shawver and Dylan Dodd are among the in-house options for the last two roles. Last year’s first round pick Hurston Waldrep could factor into the mix at some point. There’s talent but also room for one more impact arm as a finishing touch on arguably the sport’s best roster.

Los Angeles has been mentioned as a team to watch on almost every starting pitcher of note, so it’s little surprise they’ve also checked in on Glasnow. The Dodgers’ starting staff is headlined by Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller with very little certainty beyond that duo. They’re clearly going to acquire multiple starting pitchers; Glasnow is one of myriad possibilities.

Atlanta and the Dodgers are far from the only teams still in the bidding. The Angels are hunting for a top-end starter and have been involved on Glasnow. The Cubs have been a frequently mentioned suitor over the last few weeks. Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that they’re still in the mix.

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