$$$$ was the reason Nicki Lopez was traded. I think his salary was $4.5M.
Last edited by buck75; 02-14-2025 at 10:03 AM.
It was good to see Acuna's interview was in all English and they asked him if he learned anything this time around and he said he needs to take it easy on the base paths so that was great to hear!
jpx7 (02-14-2025)
Yankees seem to be in a pickle with Stroman. He doesn't want to come out of the pen, but he's probably the odd man out in their rotation. His 2026 player option has already locked in after 140 IP in 2024. If they would pick up 8 million this year and next year, he could be worth a gamble.
Last edited by Carp; 02-14-2025 at 11:38 AM.
jpx7 (02-14-2025)
Stroman is a 5 at this point. There’s a reason no other team wants him.
jpx7 (02-14-2025)
AA on the quiet offseason. Just my interpretation . . . (1) sounds like Holmes is ahead of Anderson (as it should be), and (2) right now high-leverage RP (specifically, accounting for the Jimenez injury) is the biggest gap that may yet be closed.
In any rational world, they are at least talking to David Robertson's agent.
jpx7 (02-14-2025)
That was AA saying he couldn't afford to get good replacement players without saying it. You can't lose a TOR starter in Fried and expect a guy coming back from his 2nd TJ surgery to replace him this year. In an important game I'm taking Morton over Holmes all day everyday. This is GM talk for I $hit the bed.
JohnAdcox (02-14-2025)
yeah, the whole "he didn't have TJS sthick" is so dumb.. He had a tear and they put a patch on the tear.. Does anyone know the data on how successful and the long term viability that brace is versus just getting the surgery? the chance of it failing or getting re-injured is the same and maybe more.. so Strider will forever be a huge injury risk after 2 elbow tears already.
Coppy
My recollection is that internal brace has been around for a while for position players, but it's only caught fire as a TJ alternative for pitchers in the past couple years. So not enough data to make solid conclusions, though the couple guys that I remember having it have been fine upon their return: Drew Rasmussen, Garrett Whitlock. IIRC, Strider didn't have a full tear. They called it UCL damage due to a bone spur, or something along those lines.
Yup. "We have a lot of our guys signed long term", isn't quite the flex folks seem to think it is. Olson and Murphy are signed long term, and I'm willing to bet anyone any amount of money that won't end up being a good thing.
If you are looking for a silver lining the only one that exists is ducking under the tax limit this year opens up some room for additions in 2026/2027, and they were able to do it while still having a Top 3-5 team in the sport. It's hard to complain about any of that.
JohnAdcox (02-14-2025)
And I get that he can't come out and say that bc he'd piss off season ticket holders and the casual fans during a competitive window like we have. But the writing is on the wall to the point where everybody (including other teams and fans) are shocked we haven't replaced Fried or Morton. If Strider or Sale goes down long term as it stands right now we are in trouble bc it's gonna be 2024 all over again throwing $hit against the wall and seeing what sticks. Holmes and Anderson are good fill in guys but not someone you wanna see over and over just like Elder. AJSS is the only guy we have right now with actual potential to step in.
Have you guys actually looked at Holme's statcast data on his pitches. Can someone help me figure out how he had the success he did? I mean, it wasn't like he was overly lucky or super low BABiP.. He is an enigma to me..
Coppy
Carp (02-14-2025)
Interesting nugget here from the AJC . . .
https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-b...KZAUC5HUMU654/To a question about payroll, Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos made a revelation: Over the offseason, the Braves discussed a potential deal that would’ve put them over the luxury tax for the third consecutive season. The talks did not cross the finish line.
“It had nothing to do with the dollars,” Anthopoulos said. “Again, the tax is a tax — on every dollar over. It’s not on your entire payroll.”
That hasn’t stopped the Braves, who went past the luxury tax in each of the past two years. A third time over the threshold — $241 million for 2025 — would mean a 50% tax on all overages.
“And for the right deal, we’ll do it,” Anthopoulos said. “It was a deal that would’ve been a longer-term deal — that could be trade or free agency. But what stopped us was more the out years, ‘26, ’27 and so on, how the payroll looks, who we’re blocking, how we’d be impacted.”
jpx7 (02-14-2025)
I hope no GM is worried about who they are blocking 2/3 years down the road...
Coppy