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Braves Sign Maikel Franco

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The Braves signed third baseman Maikel Franco last week, according to Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle.  The signing took place prior to September 1, as per The Athletic’s David O’Brien, so Franco would be eligible for inclusion on a postseason roster.

It can be assumed that Franco’s deal is a minor league pact, and if he does reach Atlanta’s active roster, the Braves will only owe him the prorated portion of a minimum salary.  The Orioles are on the hook for the remainder of Franco’s salary (what is left on the infielder’s one-year, $1MM deal) after releasing Franco on August 27.

After a solid season with the Royals in 2020, Franco couldn’t keep the momentum going during his lone season in Baltimore, hitting only .210/.253/.355 with 11 home runs over 403 plate appearances in an O’s uniform.  These struggles prevented Franco from being a trade chip for the rebuilding Orioles at the trade deadline, and so the team opted to cut him loose to open up more playing time for younger players.

Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has shown a propensity for adding veterans as roster depth, and Franco’s presence will provide some extra backing for Austin Riley at third base.  Riley (enjoying a big breakout season) has seen almost all of the action at the hot corner this season, with utilityman Ehire Adrianza serving as the primary backup.  Franco also has experience at first base, so he could theoretically also back up Freddie Freeman

Franco was a Riley-esque top prospect himself when coming up in the Phillies farm system, though now in his eighth MLB season, Franco hasn’t been able to consistently deliver on that potential.  As per the wRC+ and OPS+ metrics, Franco has been an above-average hitter only three times (2015, 2018, 2020) in his career, and he has a .246/.297/.423 slash line over 3185 total PA in the big leagues.  He does have 121 home runs, as Franco has topped the 20-homer threshold three times.

Tanner Roark Elects Free Agency

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Right-handed pitcher Tanner Roark has elected free agency, according to Gabe Burns of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Presumably, the Braves had placed him on waivers, which he then cleared. Roark had enough service time to reject the assignment and elect free agency.

It’s been a rough couple of years for Roark, after a solid seven-year run before that. From 2013 to 2019, the righty logged 1100 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.71, producing 14.6 fWAR. But after signing a two-year deal with the Blue Jays before the 2020 season, it’s been mostly rough sailing. In the shortened 2020 campaign, Roark pitched 47 2/3 innings with an ERA of 6.80. Toronto didn’t give him much room to improve this year, as they cut him loose after just seven innings over three appearances.

Roark latched on with Atlanta on a minor league deal and has spent most of this year with their Triple-A team, where things have actually gone well for him. In 46 1/3 innings, primarily as a reliever, he put up an ERA of 2.14. The Braves selected his contract in June but didn’t get him into a game.

Roark can now go back to the open market and see if any team is intrigued by those signs of resurgence in Triple-A. Because it’s now September, Roark would not be eligible for postseason play, but could help a club soak up some innings as the season winds down.

Abraham Almonte Elects Free Agency

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Outfielder Abraham Almonte has elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, relays David O’Brien of the Athletic (Twitter link). The Braves designated him for assignment last week.

This season, Almonte has logged his most significant big league action since 2017. Selected to the major league roster in late May, the switch-hitter picked up 175 plate appearances with Atlanta. He got off to a strong start but his production tailed off beginning in late June. Overall, Almonte posted a league average .216/.331/.399 line while spending most of his time in left field.

Almonte has picked up at least some MLB time in each of the past nine seasons. The 32-year-old is free to pursue opportunities elsewhere for the season’s final few weeks, although he won’t be eligible for postseason play because he was let go after August 31.

Braves Place Chris Martin On 10-Day Injured List

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  • The Braves placed right-hander Chris Martin on the 10-day IL due to inflammation in his throwing elbow.  Southpaw Sean Newcomb was recalled from Triple-A to take Martin’s spot on the active roster.  In a season already shortened by a month-long injured list trip due to right shoulder inflammation, Martin has a 4.17 ERA over 36 2/3 innings out of Atlanta’s bullpen.  That ERA has been inflated by four runs allowed over his last four appearances, which could be due to this elbow issue.  For the season as a whole, however, Martin’s strikeout and hard-hit ball rates are each considerably down from his 2020 statistics.

Every Team’s Initial September Callups

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The limit on active roster players expanded from 26 to 28 today, as the calendar flipped to September. Every team announced at least two additions to the big league club (some teams made three or more due to injured list placements). Here’s a recap of today’s spate of transactions:

Ozzie Albies Avoids Major Injury, Considered Day-To-Day

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Sept. 1: Albies has thankfully avoided a major injury, it would seem. David O’Brien of The Athletic tweets that x-rays on his knee came back negative, and manager Brian Snitker for now is considering Albies day-to-day. At the moment, there’s no expectation he’ll land on the injured list, although that outlook could change depending on how Albies feels in the next couple of days as he mends.

Aug. 31: Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies suffered an injury to his left leg/knee area in the fifth inning of tonight’s game against the Dodgers. Hitting left-handed, Albies fouled a ball off his leg and was unable to put weight on it as he attempted to walk off the field. He was carried back to the dugout by two members of the training staff.

The team hasn’t yet provided an update on Albies’ status. It’s still possible the 24-year-old will avoid serious injury, but it’s a scary situation for the NL East-leading Braves. Albies is having another quality season, hitting .259/.317/.482 with 23 home runs over 564 plate appearances while rating as a high-end defender and baserunner.

Ehire Adrianza came off the bench to hit for Albies. The utilityman could be in line for additional playing time if Albies requires an injured list stint. Orlando Arcia and Johan Camargo also remain on hand as infield depth options at Triple-A Gwinnett.

Braves Reinstate Ian Anderson, Option Edgar Santana

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The Braves have reinstated right-handed pitcher Ian Anderson from the injured list, per a team announcement. Fellow righty Edgar Santana was optioned as the corresponding move.

The return of Anderson should give further momentum to a Braves club that has been surging of late. After hovering around .500  for most of the season, the club has gone 17-6 so far in August and vaulted up to first in the NL East, currently sitting 4 1/2 games ahead of the Phillies and 7 1/2 ahead of the Mets.

Anderson’s season hasn’t been quite as brilliant as his 2020 debut, but has been excellent nonetheless. After putting up a 1.95 ERA across 31 1/3 innings last year, the righty has an ERA of 3.56 in 96 innings in 2021. However, he was stalled by right shoulder inflammation and landed on the IL July 16th. Now that he’s healthy again, and combined with the recent return of Huascar Ynoa, the Atlanta rotation is now the strongest it has been in months, as they try to defend their perch atop the division over the season’s final weeks.

For Santana, this continues his yo-yo season, as this is his third time being optioned since being acquired from the Pirates in April. When in the big leagues, he’s been a serviceable member of the bullpen, throwing 37 2/3 innings with an ERA of 3.82. He’s done that despite a below average strikeout rate of 20.3%, but an excellent walk rate of 5.9%.

 

Braves Designate Abraham Almonte For Assignment, Activate Eddie Rosario

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The Braves announced Friday that they’ve reinstated deadline acquisition Eddie Rosario from the 10-day injured list and opened a spot on the roster by designating fellow outfielder Abraham Almonte for assignment. Rosario has been out since July 7 due to an abdominal strain.

Almonte, 32, appeared in 63 games and tallied 174 plate appearances for Atlanta, batting .218/.333/.401 along the way. He’s cooled off quite a bit after a hot start, however, with just a .184/.270/.350 output over his past 115 plate appearances — including a current 0-for-12 skid at the plate.

The Braves were the sixth big league club for the journeyman Almonte, who has also appeared at the MLB level with the Padres, Indians, Mariners, Diamondbacks and Royals. In 1325 career plate appearances, he’s a .235/.302/.374 hitter. Atlanta will place Almonte on outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days, at which point he’ll be available for any other club to claim. If he goes unclaimed, Almonte has more than enough service to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Rosario, 29, enjoyed a solid run as the Twins’ everyday left fielder from 2017-20, hitting at a combined .281/.317/.493 clip while averaging 32 home runs and 33 doubles per 162 games. The free swinger’s OBP trended downward in his final couple seasons in Minnesota, however, and the Twins passed him through waivers last November before non-tendering him rather than paying a raise on his $7.75MM salary. That made Rosario, who would’ve been arbitration-eligible one final time, a free agent a year sooner than expected.

The Indians signed their former division rival to a one-year, $8MM contract late in the offseason, hoping he’d add some pop to a lineup with a rather muddled outfield outlook. Instead, however, Rosario turned in a career-worst showing at the plate, batting .254/.296/.389 in 306 trips to the plate. The Braves effectively acquired Rosario for cash, sending only Pablo Sandoval to the Indians in the swap. Sandoval was immediately released by Cleveland.

Part of the Braves’ deadline approach in the wake of so much turnover in the outfield this season was to acquire a bundle of once-productive outfield options in the midst of middling seasons in hope that a change of scenery would bring about a rebound. It worked out brilliantly with Jorge Soler, who’s been on a tear since joining the Braves. Joc Pederson and Adam Duvall have continued at slightly below-average paces, though each has delivered some timely hits since arriving in Atlanta. Rosario now joins that group as the Braves look to stave off the reeling Mets and Phillies and secure another division title.

2021-22 Qualifying Offer Candidates

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With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror and a little more than six weeks remaining in the regular season, plenty of front offices are turning their attention towards the upcoming offseason. The first notable decision for many clubs will be to decide whether to tag one or more of their top impending free agents with a qualifying offer.

As a reminder, the qualifying offer is a one-year contract offer teams can make to certain impending free agents. The precise value of the QO has yet to be calculated, but it’s determined as the average salary of the game’s 125 highest-paid players. Last season, the QO value was set at $18.9MM. If the player accepts the offer, he returns to his current team on that one-year deal. If he rejects, his previous team would receive draft pick compensation should he sign elsewhere.

Last season, six players (George Springer, Trevor Bauer, J.T. Realmuto, DJ LeMahieu, Kevin Gausman and Marcus Stroman) received qualifying offers. Gausman and Stroman accepted the QO, while Realmuto and LeMahieu re-signed with their current clubs as free agents. The Reds and Astros received compensatory picks (used on Jay Allen and Chayce McDermott, respectively) when Bauer and Springer departed.

The collective bargaining agreement prohibits a player from being tagged with a qualifying offer multiple times in his career. (A list of every active big leaguer who has previously received a QO is available here). Similarly, in order to be eligible, the player must have spent the entire preceding season on the same team. Players traded midseason cannot be tagged with a QO.

With the majority of the 2021 season in the books, we can take a look at the upcoming free agent class to predict which players might wind up receiving qualifying offer this winter.

Locks

This group is fairly straightforward, as there’s very little chance any of these players would accept a qualifying offer. Correa, Seager and Freeman all have MVP-caliber upside and are locks to pull in long-term deals this winter. Semien didn’t receive a QO from the A’s after a down year in 2020, took a pillow contract with the Jays for almost the value of the QO ($18MM), and has essentially replicated his 2019 form that earned him a third place finish in AL MVP voting. He should find a big multi-year deal this time around.

Story is having a bit of a down year, but there’s no doubt the Rockies will make him a qualifying offer after not trading him at the deadline. Nick Groke of the Athletic wrote this week that Colorado hasn’t given up hope of convincing him to sign a long-term extension, but that seems unlikely given Story’s own bewilderment he wasn’t moved to a contender this summer. Whether Story is willing to return to Denver or not, he’ll receive a QO.

Kershaw, Ray and Rodón will be among the top pitchers on the market. Kershaw has spent the past couple months on the injured list due to forearm soreness, but he’s expected back in September and is in the midst of another fantastic season. So long as he’s healthy, he’s a lock for a QO. Ray and Rodón both had to settle for one-year deals after poor 2020 seasons, but they’ve each been among the best pitchers in the American League this year.

Likely

Over the past two seasons, Taylor has somewhat quietly been one of the game’s top 25 qualified hitters by measure of wRC+ and he’s versatile enough to cover any non-catcher position on the diamond. He’s not a true everyday player at any one spot and he’s making contact at a career-worst rate this season, so he falls just short of being an absolute lock for a QO. But the Dodgers would be as willing as any team to shoulder a significant one-year salary were Taylor to accept, and his body of work should be sufficient to warrant a multi-year deal regardless.

The Mets’ players in this group are two of the more interesting free agents in the class. Conforto entered the season looking like a lock for a QO and seemingly having a chance at landing nine figures with a strong platform year. He missed a month with injury, though, and hasn’t made anywhere near his typical level of impact at the plate. He’s shown some life over the past few weeks, and between his track record and age (28), Conforto still seems a good bet to land a long-term deal.

Syndergaard was a top-of-the-rotation starter at his peak, but he hasn’t pitched since 2019 because of Tommy John surgery. He’s eyeing a September return — likely in relief, given his dwindling time to build up arm strength — and his late-season form will obviously be critical to his market. The Mets should run one of the higher payrolls in the league, and Syndergaard has the upside to be an ace if healthy, so New York still seems more likely than not to make the offer.

Similarly, Verlander has essentially missed two full seasons because of his own Tommy John procedure. That’s a scary development for a pitcher who’ll be 39 on Opening Day 2022, but he was still every bit an ace when we last saw him in 2018-19. The Astros are a win-now club that runs high payrolls, so Verlander accepting a QO wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. If he declines and signs elsewhere, Houston would recoup some much-needed draft compensation after losing their past two first-round picks as punishment for the sign-stealing scandal.

Colorado reportedly showed even less interest in trading Gray than they did with Story at the deadline. There’s apparently mutual interest about working out a multi-year extension, and the QO could serve as a temporary measure to keep Gray in Denver while the Rockies and Gray’s representatives work on a long-term deal.

Rodríguez has bounced back to take the ball every fifth day this year after a scary bout with myocarditis cost him all of 2020. His ERA’s pushing 5.00, but his peripherals are far better than that bottom line run prevention and the southpaw has an established track record of mid-rotation production.

The Mariners are facing a difficult decision regarding Kikuchi, as MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored last month. Seattle must decide whether to exercise a package deal of four successive club options at $16.5MM apiece (essentially a four-year, $66MM extension) this winter. If the Mariners don’t exercise their four-year option, Kikuchi has a $13MM player option to return to Seattle for 2022. If both parties decline their ends, the 30-year-old would hit free agency this offseason, although the M’s could then tag Kikuchi with a qualifying offer.

Given that Kikuchi will only be a free agent if he passes on a $13MM player option, the Mariners would likely make him a QO worth a few million dollars more if it comes to that — either with the expectation he’ll decline in search of a longer-term deal, or with the hope he accepts and Seattle can keep him in the fold next season without committing themselves to the additional three years of guaranteed money.

Possible

The Giants have plenty of payroll space this offseason and seem likely to try to keep most of this season’s core together. Belt has been one of the sport’s most productive offensive players on a rate basis over the past two years. But he’s also 33 years old, has a long injury history and is striking out at the highest rate of his career.

San Francisco bought low on DeSclafani over the winter after he had a tough 2020 season with the Reds. He’s bounced back to post a very strong 3.26 ERA, although his peripherals are closer to average and he’s benefitted from opponents’ .257 batting average on balls in play. The Giants will likely see 4/5 of their starting rotation hit free agency this winter, so they could be eager to bring DeSclafani back, even if that comes via a lofty 2022 salary.

Morton has had another productive season in his first year as a Brave, but his previous two teams (the Astros in 2018 and the Rays in 2020) let him reach free agency without making a qualifying offer despite his consistently strong track record. That’s presumably due to concerns about his past injury history and age. He’ll turn 38 this winter and might check his potential earning power by limiting himself to teams in the Southeastern part of the country — as he reportedly did last offseason. That could inspire the Braves to pass on a QO, but Morton continually reels off above-average performances, and this is an Atlanta front office that has been eager to dole out hefty single-year salaries for key veteran upgrades in recent years.

Iglesias looks like the top impending free agent reliever (assuming the White Sox exercise their option over Craig Kimbrel). He’s sporting an ERA under 3.00 for the fifth time in his six seasons since moving to the bullpen, and he’s never had a single-season SIERA above 3.55. Home runs have been an issue, but Iglesias gets above-average results year in and year out and has some of the best strikeout and walk numbers in the game in 2021.

Long Shots

The Giants hold a $22MM club option (with a $3MM buyout) over Posey’s services for next season. If the front office is willing to commit him a significant salary, they’ll just exercise the option rather than going the QO route. Indeed, they’re reportedly planning to do exactly that (or to potentially pursue a multi-year extension with the franchise icon). Either way, there’s no real reason to involve the qualifying offer here.

Canha would be a very plausible qualifying offer candidate on many teams. He’s been a well above-average hitter and overall performer three years running and is generally one of the game’s more underrated players. The A’s, though, didn’t make a QO to either of Semien or Liam Hendriks last season. Canha’s a Bay Area native, and his age (33 in February) will cap the length of offers he receives from other clubs. Given that, it’s not hard to envision him accepting a QO if offered. The A’s, who perennially run low payrolls and will have a loaded class of arbitration-eligible players this winter, don’t seem likely to take that risk.

Wainwright has had a fantastic 2021 season, and the Cardinals figure to be motivated to keep the franchise icon in St. Louis in some capacity. But that also looked to be true after his strong 2020 campaign, and Wainwright only wound up landing a one-year, $8MM deal. He’d be well-deserved in demanding a raise over that sum to return next season, but it remains to be seen if the Cardinals would be willing to chance more than doubling his salary  — particularly if they feel Wainwright’s motivated to remain in St. Louis rather than pursue the highest possible offers in free agency.

Kluber signed an $11MM deal with the Yankees last offseason after back-to-back seasons wrecked by injury. He pitched well through ten starts but has been out since late May with a shoulder strain. Kluber’s nearing a return to action, but his missing nearly three months only adds to prior concerns about his ability to handle a significant workload at this stage of his career.

Kim, García and Wood are all having strong 2021 seasons and could plausibly land solid multi-year deals this winter. Each has enough question marks that their teams don’t seem especially likely to offer a salary in the range of the qualifying offer, though. Kim doesn’t miss many bats; García has had extreme highs and lows throughout his career; Wood has a checkered injury history. García’s contract contains a $12MM club option that vests into a mutual option if he reaches 492 plate appearances this season. If that option doesn’t vest, the Brewers would obviously have no incentive to decline the option only to make a qualifying offer at a higher price point.

Opt-Out Clauses

Each of Arenado (six years, $179MM), Castellanos (two years, $34MM) and Martinez (one year, $19.35MM) has significant guaranteed money remaining on their contracts but can opt out of those deals this winter. Arenado and Castellanos would be locks to reject qualifying offers if they trigger their opt-out provisions, since they’d be foregoing bigger guarantees to test the market.

Martinez’s player option is of similar enough value to the projected value of the qualifying offer that he could plausibly trigger the opt-out but then accept a QO. Even if that proved to be the case, the Red Sox would probably be happy to keep him in the middle of the lineup for another season.

Ineligible

Braves Extend Travis d’Arnaud

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The Braves announced Friday that they’ve signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a new two-year contract that guarantees him $16MM. The Wasserman client will earn $8MM in 2022 and in 2023, and there’s an $8MM club option for the 2024 season that does not have a buyout.

Travis d'Arnaud | Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

That $16MM guarantee matches the guarantee on the current two-year deal that d’Arnaud is playing out in Atlanta. He’d been slated to return to the free-agent market at season’s end, but the new contract now locks him in as the organization’s top catcher for at least another two seasons.

Selected by the Phillies with the No. 37 overall pick back in 2007, d’Arnaud quickly became a top prospect who was involved in a pair of trades involving Cy Young winners — the first sending Roy Halladay from Toronto to Philadelphia and the second sending R.A. Dickey from the Mets to the Blue Jays.

After debuting as a 24-year-old in 2013, d’Arnaud would go on to spend parts of seven seasons playing with the Mets. He showed the promise that made him one of the game’s most highly regarded minor leaguers at times, particularly in 2016 when he batted .268/.340/.485. However, d’Arnaud’s time with the Mets was marred by repeated injuries. In addition to undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2018, d’Arnaud also spent time on the injured list with a concussion, a broken finger, a strained rotator cuff and an elbow sprain (a separate one from the sprain that led to his Tommy John surgery).

Despite playing in parts of seven seasons as a Met, d’Arnaud only topped 100 games twice. The Mets released d’Arnaud in May 2019, and after signing with the Dodgers and making a lone plate appearance there, he was traded to the Rays in exchange for cash. Tampa Bay needed catching help with several backstops on the injured list, and what looked to be a short-term depth addition instead turned into a breakout showing that set the stage for d’Arnaud to eventually be paid $32MM from 2020-23.

With the Rays, d’Arnaud stepped up as the primary catcher and enjoyed one of his best and most productive seasons. He appeared in 92 games and tallied 365 plate appearances with Tampa Bay, batting .263/.323/.459 with 16 long balls. He parlayed that strong showing into what is now the first of a pair of two-year, $16MM deals in Atlanta.

D’Arnaud’s first season in Atlanta, while shortened due to the pandemic, was the most productive of his career. He played 44 of the Braves’ 60 games at catcher and turned in a huge .321/.386/.533 with nine homers and eight doubles in 184 plate appearances. He went on to bat .286/.380/.476 in 50 postseason plate appearances.

Things haven’t gone as well in 2021, though that’s again due to injury. After a lackluster start to the season, d’Arnaud went on the injured list in early May with a torn ligament in his thumb that required surgical repair. He returned just nine days ago and has gone 5-for-21 with a home run and four walks in that brief time. Overall, he’s batting .223/.277/.369 through 112 plate appearances this year.

The d’Arnaud extension solidifies the team’s catching spot for the next two seasons, though it also serves as something of a roadblock for 23-year-old William Contreras, who is tearing the cover off the ball in Triple-A this season. Contreras was originally promoted to the big league roster in the wake of d’Arnaud’s injury and got out to a strong start before fading badly. He batted just .204/.278/.387 in 158 Major League plate appearances this year but has posted a massive .313/.368/.583 slash (150 wRC+) with eight home runs in 125 plate appearances with Triple-A Gwinnett.

Extending d’Arnaud gives the Braves the luxury of breaking Contreras in as a backup or part-time option, but it’s certainly possible that he’ll find himself in a larger role over the next two seasons. He’d likely be the first option in the event of an injury to d’Arnaud, and he could simply hit his way into a larger share of the workload behind the plate. The National League could very well have the designated hitter in place next season, which would give the Braves the option of getting both into the lineup at times.

Behind Contreras, the Braves have 23-year-old Shea Langeliers rising through the system. The No. 9 overall pick in the 2019 draft, Langeliers is regarded as one of the top game’s top all-around prospects and is enjoying a strong season in Double-A, where he’s batted .267/.346/.524 (136 wRC+). Langeliers likely wouldn’t be an option until midway through the 2022 season or even into 23, so the d’Arnaud extension isn’t necessarily a sizable deterrent to his ascension through the ranks.

Of course, locking d’Arnaud up for the foreseeable future also frees the Braves to explore the possibility of including one of Contreras or Langeliers as part of an offseason trade package to address other areas of need. A relatively modest two-year for d’Arnaud certainly doesn’t make a trade of one of the promising young backstops a fait accompli, but it’s easier to part with some of that upside if the Braves feel confident that there’s a steady veteran in house.

By signing d’Arnaud now, the Braves sidestep the issue of searching for a catcher on the offseason market. A win-now club in their shoes wasn’t likely to just hand over the starting job to Contreras in 2022 without a contingency plan in place, and the market for catching help looks fairly light. Yan Gomes and d’Arnaud were likely to be the only two starting-caliber options in free agency, assuming the Cardinals do indeed finalize the Yadier Molina extension they’re reportedly discussing at the moment. Gomes might ultimately command a comparable price, though, and the Braves have already established a relationship with d’Arnaud. They clearly value both his on- and off-field contributions to the club, so it’s sensible to keep him around at a price point that won’t significantly impede their offseason dealings.

Even with d’Arnaud now on the books at $8MM next year, the Braves have just shy of $64MM on the books in 2022. They’ll owe arbitration raises to several key players (Dansby Swanson, Max Fried, Mike Soroka, Richard Rodriguez, Austin Riley) and still need to work out an extension for franchise cornerstone Freddie Freeman at some point. Even when factoring for a theoretical Freeman extension and arbitration raises, the Braves should still have more than $20MM — potentially quite a bit more, if a Freeman deal were to be backloaded — separating them from this year’s payroll level.

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