The Braves Have Decisions to Make. The Market May Not Cooperate.
Opt-outs are coming, but external upgrades at DH and depth may be hard to find
The Atlanta Braves have some immediate roster decisions to make this week.
To be clear, there are a few veteran players that need to make their decisions first; the trio of Dominic Smith, Kyle Farmer, and Martín Pérez are all holding opt-outs that they need to decide to exercise or not, but Atlanta will have to respond quickly.
These decisions are also tied to what’s happening around the league. At the end of the day, Atlanta’s looking to find someone for their designated hitter role and as veteran starting depth. Will that come from the internal options or the open market? Let’s talk about it.
The veterans with opt-outs
On the offensive side, 1B Dominic Smith and infielder Kyle Farmer have the ability to opt out of their deals five days before Opening Day. Correcting earlier reporting of mine that got this wrong, so does starter Martín Pérez.
SIDEBAR: To explain what happened: I got a list of all XX(B) free agents from the MLB Players Association, originally dated November 2nd, and Pérez wasn’t among the 137 names. What I didn’t realize is that that list was later revised five different times, adding a total of 38 more names, over the subsequent few days. He was in one of these updates, the November 5th one, after declining his half of a mutual option, and I had an old copy of the list that didn’t include him. Lesson learned to double-check that all mutual option and declined club option names are included.
The logistics of these opt-outs are as follows: Beginning five days before Opening Day (March 25th), eligible players can notify teams in writing that they are triggering the opt-out clause in their minor league deals. The teams then have 48 hours to either add the player to the 26-man roster or release them into free agency. Under past CBAs, teams could pay a $100k “retention bonus” to override the opt-out, but that option was removed in the most recent CBA ahead of the 2022 season. The players chose the ability to find a place to play over a short-term payday if they aren’t in a team’s plans, which I understand.
Two of these opt-out decisions across the league have already become known, with utilityman Dylan Moore indicating he’ll opt out of his Phillies contract and infielder Paul DeJong telling the media that he’ll stay with the Yankees. Any player who declines to opt out now has two additional chances to do it, coming on May 1st and June 1st. Let’s look at the decisions for Atlanta and try and figure out what the Braves will do.
