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Braves Sign Orlando Arcia To Two-Year Guarantee

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The Braves announced an agreement with utilityman Orlando Arcia on a two-year, $3MM contract. He’ll earn successive salaries of $1.6MM and $1.3MM over the next two seasons, per the team. The deal also contains a 2024 club option valued at $2MM that comes with a $100K buyout.

The contract extends the Braves’ window of club control by a season, as Arcia had been controllable through 2023 via arbitration. It’s a bit of a surprise to see the Braves commit any long-term money to Arcia at first glance. He only tallied 78 MLB plate appearances after Atlanta acquired him from the Brewers in April, with a poor .214/.282/.343 line to show for it. Arcia has been a below-average hitter in all five of his MLB seasons, with a .260/.317/.416 showing during the truncated 2020 campaign the best line of his career.

Arcia is coming off a very strong showing with Triple-A Gwinnett, though. Over 322 plate appearances at the minors’ top level, he hit .282/.351/.516 with 17 homers, only striking out in 11.8% of his tallies at the dish. By measure of wRC+, that offensive output was 29 percentage points better than the Triple-A East league average. And Arcia’s a valuable defensive player who generally posts decent numbers at shortstop and began to expand his versatility this past season.

Clearly, the Atlanta front office believes in his ability to contribute over the coming seasons, even if just off the bench. The $1.5MM average annual value is a minimal investment, and it’s actually a bit less than the $2.1MM MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had forecasted Arcia making in 2022 via arbitration.

That’s not to say Arcia and his representatives at World Sports Agency made a mistake in signing the deal. At that previous figure, he’d look like a non-tender candidate. The Venezuela native instead locks in some guaranteed money over the coming two seasons. Arcia is out of minor league option years, but it seems likely he’ll stick on the active roster out of camp given the team’s investment in him.

Jon Heyman of the MLB Network first reported the Braves and Arcia were in agreement on a two-year, $3MM guarantee with a 2024 club option.

Yankees, Blue Jays Among Teams With Interest In Freddie Freeman

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2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman is one of the top free agents on the market this winter, and he’s unsurprisingly drawing interest from a few of the game’s higher-spending organizations. The Yankees and Blue Jays are among the teams to have reached out to the five-time All-Star, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link).

Many around the industry expect Freeman will eventually re-sign with the Braves. The star first baseman has been a member of the organization for nearly a decade and a half, and it’d be a bitter pill for the fanbase to swallow if Freeman departs on the heels of Atlanta’s first World Series title since 1995. No deal has yet gotten done, though, with the Braves’ reluctance to offer a sixth guaranteed year reportedly the hold-up in talks so far. Heyman adds that Freeman had been seeking a guarantee in the $180MM range. Entering the offseason, MLBTR indeed projected a six-year, $180MM pact for the three-time Silver Slugger award winner.

It’s certainly not out of the question Freeman and the Braves will eventually bridge their gap. Heyman notes that some other organizations in pursuit are still skeptical about the possibility the 32-year-old leaves Atlanta. There’s no harm for clubs to reach out to Freeman’s representatives at Excel Sports Management in case the Braves aren’t willing to meet his ultimate ask, though.

Were Freeman to seriously entertain the possibility of leaving Atlanta, it stands to reason other clubs would get involved. Both Heyman and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic have floated the possibility of the Dodgers making a run at the Southern California native. Los Angeles has already lost Corey Seager and could see Chris Taylor also depart. Signing Freeman while bumping Max Muncy over from first to second base would go a long way towards replacing the offensive production they’ve lost this winter.

Broadly speaking, any big-market team could poke around the Freeman market. The Jays have no need for a first baseman, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looking to have made the jump to perennial MVP candidate. Toronto could free up at-bats at designated hitter to accommodate Freeman, though, and other high-spending clubs could similarly move incumbent pieces around to make a signing work. Freeman is one of the game’s most consistently productive hitters, having been at least 32 percentage points better than average at the plate (by measure of wRC+) in each season since 2013.

Braves Exercise Brian Snitker’s 2024 Option

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The Braves announced Tuesday morning that they’ve exercised a club option for the 2024 season on manager Brian Snitker. He was already under contract through the 2023 campaign after signing an extension this past February, but he’s now on a guaranteed contract for the next three years.

Snitker celebrated his 66th birthday during the 2021 postseason and, not long after, celebrated the Braves’ first World Series victory in more than two decades. First named manager an interim basis during the 2016 season after Atlanta dismissed Fredi Gonzalez, Snitker quickly cemented himself in that role and shed the “interim” tag. He’s since proven himself to a pair of front-office regimes and signed a trio of short-term extensions under two different general managers. With today’s announcement, he won’t need to think about his next contract for at least a couple years.

The Braves went 72-90 in Snitker’s first full season on the job, in 2017. Since then, he’s guided the team not only to a winning record but to a division championship in each of the past four seasons. This year’s World Series roster may not have been the most talented group Snitker has ever overseen — star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. and righty Mike Soroka were both shelved due to injury — but that only makes the win all the more impressive.

Snitker has spent more than four decades in the Braves organization. During his time with the club, he’s managed seven different minor league affiliates in addition to a pair of stints as the Major League bullpen coach and a pair of stints as the MLB third base coach. He was named 2018 National League Manager of the Year in his second full season on the job, and he’s finished fourth or better in each of the three seasons since.

While the World Series victory was, in many ways, the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of work for Snitker, his focus will now shift to defending that World Series crown and bringing home another championship to Atlanta over the next three seasons.

Braves Sign Kirby Yates

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The defending champion Braves have made an addition in the bullpen, announcing a two-year, $8.25MM guarantee for free agent reliever Kirby Yates. The team announced that’ll take the form of a $1MM salary in 2022, a $6MM salary in 2023 and at least a $1.25MM buyout on a 2024 club option valued at $5.75MM. (The Braves are among the teams that publicly disclose contract terms). Yates is a client of Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Yates is coming off a lost season. After signing with the Blue Jays last offseason, he suffered a flexor strain in Spring Training that required Tommy John surgery. That procedure is expected to keep him out until midseason 2022, which explains the contract’s backloaded structure. That came on the heels of a 2020 campaign also wrecked by injury, as he was limited to just 4 1/3 frames with the Padres that season.

Because it’s been a few years since we’ve seen Yates over an extended period, it might be easy to forget how great he was at his best. A late bloomer who bounced around the league on waivers through the first few years of his MLB career, he took his game to a new level upon landing with the Padres in 2017. Over the next three seasons, the right-hander pitched to a combined 2.31 ERA across 179 1/3 innings of relief, striking out a brilliant 38.7% of batters faced while walking just 6.8%. Yates led all of baseball with 41 saves in 2019, a season that also saw him earn an All-Star nod and finish seventh in National League Cy Young award voting.

Yates turns 35 years old next March, so there’d be some risk for Atlanta even independent of his spotty recent health history. But he was utterly dominant the last time he was at full strength, and that ceiling prompted the front office to take a shot on a rebound.

We’ve seen similar deals of this ilk in the past. Tommy Kahnle and Ken Giles signed two-year contracts with the Dodgers and Mariners, respectively, last winter despite both being expected to miss the entirety of the 2021 campaign recovering from TJS. Yates offers the potential to contribute to a playoff push down the stretch next year before logging a hopefully healthy 2023 campaign. The Braves also pick up some additional upside in the form of the 2024 club option, which would look like an abolsute bargain if Yates does manage to return to anything resembling his 2017-19 form.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Braves and Yates were in agreement on a two-year, $8.25MM guarantee with a $5.75MM club option for 2024.

MLB Imposes Retroactive 20-Game Suspension On Marcell Ozuna For Violation Of Domestic Violence Policy

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Major League Baseball announced a retroactive 20-game suspension without pay for Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna, as per the terms of the MLB – MLBPA Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. Ozuna’s suspension was retroactively served during his time on Administrative Leave at the end of this past season; he’ll be eligible to return to the field starting in 2022. He will forfeit twenty games’ salary, as his previous Administrative Leave placement had been paid pending the results of the league’s investigation.

Ozuna was arrested on May 29 after police responded to a domestic disturbance at his residence. Court filings at the time indicated that the responding officers saw Ozuna place his hands around his wife’s neck, throw her against a wall and strike her with a cast that was on his left hand. (He had fractured two fingers in a game the week before and was on the injured list at the time).

Felony charges originally brought against Ozuna were dropped in early August, but prosecutors moved forward with a pair of misdemeanor charges. In early September, Ozuna agreed to enter into a three-to-six month domestic violence intervention program that could see those charges dropped if he completes all the required measures. The domestic violence policy allows the league to impose discipline even in the absence of criminal charges.

Ozuna signed a four-year, $65MM contract with the Braves last offseason. He remains under contract through 2024.

Braves, Darren O’Day Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran reliever Darren O’Day, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Presumably, the Ballengee Group client will be in Major League Spring Training and hope to secure a roster spot in what would be a return bid with Atlanta.

O’Day, 39, signed a one-year deal with the Yankees back in January.  He was limited to only 10 2/3 innings in 2021 due to a rotator cuff strain as well as a season-ending hamstring injury that required surgery in July.  Despite the injury, O’Day chose a $700K buyout over his $1.4MM player option with the Yankees.  O’Day will make a $1MM salary if he’s in the Majors, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, so he still has a chance to come out ahead.

O’Day, a side-arming righty, is a 14-year MLB veteran with a 2.53 ERA in 587 1/3 career innings.  He began his pro career as an undrafted free agent back in 2006, joining the Mets’ bullpen in 2009 as a Rule 5 pick from the Angels.  He was quickly claimed by the Rangers and ascended to the club’s setup job in short order.  After a lost 2011 season that included hip surgery, O’Day joined the Orioles on a waiver claim.  He went on to post a 1.92 ERA over the next four seasons, making the 2015 All-Star game and landing a four-year, $31MM contract to remain with Baltimore.

At the 2018 trade deadline – with O’Day out for the season due to hamstring surgery and still owed $9MM in 2019 – the Orioles shipped him to Atlanta as a salary dump along with Kevin Gausman.  Though O’Day only pitched 21 2/3 innings for Atlanta from 2019-20 due to injuries, he must have enjoyed his time there.  O’Day hasn’t topped 20 innings in a season since 2017.  He was death on righties in his heyday, but had difficulties with lefties even back then.  Specialists can be difficult to employ in the three-batter minimum era, but O’Day will have a crack at joining Atlanta’s 2022 bullpen.  The current Braves pen includes Tyler Matzek, Will Smith, A.J. Minter, and Luke Jackson, plus the recently-acquired Jay Jackson.  Richard Rodriguez, with a potential arbitration salary north of $3MM, is a threat to be non-tendered or traded by tomorrow’s non-tender deadline.

Phillies Claim Yoan Lopez, Designate Roman Quinn

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The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Yoan Lopez off waivers from the Braves and cleared a roster spot by designating outfielder Roman Quinn for assignment.

The 28-year-old Lopez had a solid run with the Braves’ top affiliate, Triple-A Gwinnett, tallying 32 2/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball with a 26.7% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in that time. Atlanta never gave him a look in the Majors after acquiring him in a small, late-May swap with the D-backs, however, and Lopez was designated for assignment when the Braves picked up righty Jay Jackson from the Giants last week.

Once a high-profile international signing by the D-backs, Lopez has only tallied 101 2/3 innings in the big leagues to this point. He carries a 4.25 ERA with a solid 7.7% walk rate but a below-average 19.1% strikeout rate. He has a pair of minor league options remaining and will give the Phillies some bullpen depth if he survives the offseason on their 40-man roster.

Quinn, 28, long ranked as one of the better prospects in the Phillies’ system, but the speedster has been oft-injured and, to this point, generally unproductive at the MLB level. The fleet-footed switch-hitter batted just .173/.306/.288 in 62 MLB plate appearances this past season and owns a .228/.306/.355 batting line through 512 trips to the plate at the game’s top level.

To his credit, Quinn has swiped 39 bases in just 178 MLB games and has drawn solid defensive ratings across all three outfield positions. He’s also compiled a solid .286/.351/.407 batting line in Triple-A. However, Quinn is out of minor league options as well, and he’d been projected to receive a modest bump to $700K in arbitration. The dollar amount surely wasn’t of concern to the Phillies so much as the fact that Quinn simply wasn’t viewed as part of the outfield puzzle moving forward.

The Phillies are known to be in the market for center field upgrades, having previously been tied to Starling Marte (now with the division-rival Mets) and Byron Buxton (who signed a seven-year extension and received a full no-trade clause from the Twins). Presumably, the Phils will continue to explore alternative options in the outfield, eyeing at least a new center fielder if not a pair of outfielders to pair with reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper.

Braves Acquire Jay Jackson, Designate Yoan Lopez

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The Giants have traded right-handed reliever Jay Jackson to the Braves in exchange for cash or a player to be named later, per a pair of team announcements. San Francisco designated Jackson for assignment on Friday while setting their 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 protection deadline. Fellow right-hander Yoan Lopez was designated for assignment in a corresponding move, per the Braves.

Jackson, 34, has found new life in the big leagues after a strong four-year run with the Hiroshima Carp in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s been with the Brewers and the Giants since returning, most recently pitching to a 3.74 ERA with an impressive 31.3% strikeout rate in 21 1/3 innings for San Francisco last season. Jackson also averaged 94.8 mph on his heater, pairing that with a sizable 13.3% swinging-strike rate. Those numbers are impressive, to be sure, but Jackson has also struggled with his command at times, walking 13.5% of his opponents since his return from NPB.

Command issues notwithstanding, Jackson makes for a solid, low-cost pickup for the reigning World Series champs. In addition to a good run with the Giants’ big league club last year, he also posted a 1.29 ERA with a gaudy 24-to-1 K/BB ratio in 14 Triple-A frames in 2021. And, despite the fact that he’s 34 years old, Jackson still has a minor league option remaining, so he can give the Braves a good bit of flexibility in the bullpen.

The 28-year-old Lopez was traded from Arizona to Atlanta in a late-May deal that sent minor league outfielder Deivi Estrada to Arizona. Lopez had a solid run in Triple-A Gwinnett, tallying 32 2/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball with a 26.7% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in that time.

Once a high-profile international signing by the D-backs, Lopez has only tallied 101 2/3 innings in the big leagues to this point. He carries a 4.25 ERA with a solid 7.7% walk rate but a below-average 19.1% strikeout rate. The Braves will have a week to trade Lopez, place him on outright waivers or release him.

Details On Braves' TV Contract

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  • The Braves have six seasons remaining on their current TV contract with Bally Sports, and the team will soon receive an increase in their annual revenues from that deal, Tim Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes.  Beginning in 2023, the Braves will receive over $100MM per year, and that number will rise to close to $120MM by 2027.  It isn’t known if this increase will directly impact payroll, but Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has said the Braves have more available to spend in 2022.  The TV contract and other details about the team’s business were revealed in a Liberty Media (the Braves’ parent corporation) investors conference this past Thursday, which included Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei saying that there weren’t any plans to sell the Braves.  Given all the positive information presented to investors, it isn’t surprising that Liberty Media would want to keep the team, as revenues generally continued to rebound both in the wake of the pandemic, and with the Braves’ World Series run adding even more of a benefit.  As Maffei simply put it, “it has been a pretty good run” for Liberty Media since buying the club in 2007.

Braves Select Drew Waters, Three Others

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The Braves announced that they’ve added four prospects — outfielder Drew Waters and right-handed pitchers Freddy Tarnok, Brooks Wilson and William Woods — to their 40-man roster. All four players would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft if not added to Atlanta’s roster before tomorrow evening’s deadline. The club’s 40-man is now full.

Waters is the highest-profile of the bunch. A second-round pick in 2017, the switch-hitting outfielder emerged as one of the sport’s most promising prospects early in his career. Waters hit very well in the low minors, flashing a strong combination of bat-to-ball skills, athleticism and defensive aptitude in center field. By 2019, he’d made it onto Baseball America’s top 100 overall prospects list. He remained one of the game’s top farmhands over the next few years, topping out at #32 entering this past season.

The 2021 campaign was something of a struggle, though, as the 22-year-old spent the entire year with Triple-A Gwinnett. He hit .240/.329/.381 with 11 homers over 459 plate appearances, striking out at an alarming 30.9% clip. As he’s climbed the minor league ladder, evaluators have increasingly raised questions about his aggressive approach at the plate. Waters’ issues against high minors pitching have dinged his stock a bit, but he still checked as the #6 farmhand in the system this offseason and was always a lock to be protected given his pre-2021 pedigree. Depending on how the Braves address their uncertain outfield mix this winter, Waters could be a big league option fairly early in 2022.

Tarnok, Atlanta’s third-round pick in 2017, has slowly progressed up the minor league ladder. The 22-year-old (23 next week) reached Double-A this season, where he worked to a 2.60 ERA over 45 innings with a fantastic 33.7% strikeout percentage and a manageable 8.3% walk rate. Keith Law of the Athletic wrote in July that Tarnok could be an above-average starter at his peak, praising his 93-96 MPH fastball, athleticism and curveball feel. He’s yet to reach Triple-A, though, so it seems likely the Braves will want Tarnok to get a bit more seasoning in the minors before bringing him up for his big league debut.

Wilson, 25, was a seventh-round pick out of Stetson University in 2018. He’s never appeared on an organizational ranking at either FanGraphs or Baseball America, but he had a very strong season between Double-A Mississippi and Gwinnett in 2021. Over 50 innings of relief, Wilson worked to a combined 2.34 ERA with an astronomical 41.4% strikeout rate and a 9.4% walk percentage. He could be an option for the MLB bullpen as soon as next season.

Woods, 22, was a 23rd-rounder in that 2018 draft out of a Tennessee junior college. Both BA and FanGraphs ranked him the #21 prospect in the Atlanta system entering 2021, praising his mid-high 90’s fastball and promising slider. Both outlets expressed reservations about his control but suggested his velocity could at least make him an effective option out of the bullpen. Injuries limited him to just four appearances at High-A Rome this year.

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