The Braves made some on-brand moves early in the offseason, as the offseason machine got humming league-wide. Tacking on a year to both Reynaldo Lopez and Aaron Bummer, standout 2024 offseason additions, is a reasonable move. It is interesting that Atlanta is making an effort to push money away from the 2025 season. They also cleared up significant money with the Jorge Soler trade, particularly if they cut lose Griffin Canning and his ~$5 million arbitration projection. Overall, this could be $20 million of payroll savings for 2025, but is at least $15 million so far. It is worth mentioning that the luxury tax savings are less than the actual payroll savings, as the Bummer and Lopez deals don’t change the luxury tax picture by much. It is certainly something interesting to watch, but what it will amount to, I’m not sure.
An interesting one was Gerrit Cole opting out, forcing the Yankees into a decision to tack another year at $36 million on top of his pre-existing $144 million over 4 years or see him hit the open market. The contract probably already was somewhat overvalued for Cole, even in the presently inflated pitching market, relative to what he would be likely to get on the open market, particularly on AAV. Adding another $36 million for a fifth year on the contract of a 34 year old pitcher who got a historic contract off of a career year that he has not repeated with up and down results in New York and has injury concerns is probably not particularly advisable. That being said, he and his camp could be correctly assessing that the Yankees may be inclined to take that negative expected value bet, at least partially due to the PR situation. The Yankees very publicly went all-in on Cole and he has had good seasons for them, even if not to the level of his last season in Houston. Letting him walk after a World Series loss as the preeminent “big money” franchise in MLB is not something that their fanbase and media market is likely to love, especially with the return of Juan Soto being far from a guarantee. It will be fascinating to see how this situation shakes out with the Yankees overall this offseason.
Braves News
The Braves extended Aaron Bummer and Reynaldo Lopez by one year each, in typical Alex Anthopoulos early-offseason fashion, pushing money back from 2025.
Our own Matt Powers reviewed 2024 first round pick Cam Caminiti’s debut “season” in the Braves organization, which was more of a cup of tea.
On the other end of the career and expectations spectrums, Adam Duvall got a season review from Ivan, for his fairly unsuccessful 2024.
MLB News
Gerrit Cole opted out of his contract, handing the Yankees a decision to add another year and $36 million or let him see the market.
An international free agent who was expected to sign for around $4 million with the Padres was discovered to be 19 years old instead of 14.
Cody Bellinger opted into his player option with the Cubs to stay another year at $27.5 million, taking him off the free agent market.
Ha-Seong Kim opted to become a free agent, becoming a top option for the Braves this offseason to fill a spot at shortstop.
Freddy Peralta had his option picked up by the Brewers, taking one of the potential top free agent starters off the market.
