Atlanta Braves Morning Chop/Box: Overnight Flurry of Trades

Jun 2, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Atlanta Braves pitcher Cody Martin against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

What Happened Last Night??

The short answer is straight-forward; there is a much more complex answer that we’ll deal with in a dedicated post.

Yesterday, we announced that Atlanta had signed 2 of the top talents available in the International players market on the opening day of the 2015-16 signing “season”.  Reportedly, these kids are being paid bonuses totaling $3.4 million.

That was kind of a problem, given that the Braves’ bonus pool allocation was only $2,458,000.  That’s short by $1,042,000, and would put Atlanta into the maximum penalty range – resulting in severe restrictions over the next two signing-season years.

Turns out that portions of these international bonus allocations can be traded.  And thus the Braves apparently decided that the odds that these 16-year old kids will develop into major leaguers is better than the odds of some kids already in the minors, so here’s what they did:

• They found trading partners:  teams without the designs/intent/ability to participate in the international market, and thus teams with bonus slots available to “sell”.
• Cody Martin was traded to Oakland for a slot worth $439,000 (+/-).
• The Dodgers have acquired outfielder Jordan Paroubeck and RHP Caleb Dirks.  The Dodgers yielded a $249,000 slot in exchange.
• The biggest surprise, perhaps, was the last trade:  Garrett Fulenchek was sent to the Rays for two of their slots – $494,000 (+/-).
• Add all that up, and the Braves got $1,182,000 or so in addition spending space… and thus are no longer in the penalty box.

A bit about each of the players given up:

• Cody Martin.  He’s the most well-known of the group, as he had (finally) seen some major league innings this year, though only in relief.  He’s been a minor league starter through his Braves’ career, which began as a 2011 seventh round draftee out of Gonzaga.  He will likely serve as an emergency backup for the A’s.
• Jordan Paroubeck.  We barely got to know him, but he was taken at the back end of the second round by the Padres in 2013, and was included in the trade Atlanta made to obtain Matt Wisler while sending Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton out west.  I don’t have any record of him playing in 2015, though, as he is apparently fighting a fairly severe quadriceps injury.  In 2014, he hit .286 for the Padres rookie club with 4 home runs.  He’s not yet 21 years old, so he could very well have been interesting to watch.
• Garrett Fulenchek. Selected in the second round of the 2014 draft (pick 66), this could be a case of the Braves not liking the trend they were seeing.  Most prospect-rankers still seemed to have him in the 13-20 range among Braves’ prospects, so this trade still looks to be a significant pick-up for the Rays.  Fulenchek was still on the roster of the rookie-league Danville club to start their season, and really hadn’t been pitching that much competitively (not counting the extended Spring program).

Next: Game Recap: Braves Win Pitching Duel Over Max Scherzer