4 more Atlanta Braves trades gone wrong
By Josh Mathews
We looked at the 5 worst Atlanta Braves deals.. but there were more ‘worsts’ to regret.
As the world turns, the Atlanta Braves move closer to the trade deadline. We’ve explored a top 5 worst trade list, but there are yet more cringeworthy moves in our beloved team’s history.
With an eye to the future, we’ll look again to our past and highlight 4 more trades that, depending on your perspective, belong on the list or at least deserve serious consideration. The discussion is what it’s all about.
July 30, 2015: Hector Olivera
The Hector Olivera debacle. This was a three team trade, so let’s see how it turned out for each team.
Who got who?
- Braves: Hector Olivera, Zachary Bird (minors), Paco Rodriguez, and a competitive balance round A pick (from Marlins)
- Dodgers: Bronson Arroyo, Luis Avilan, Jim Johnson, Jose Peraza, Alex Wood, Mat Latos, and Mike Morse
- Marlins: Victor Araujo (minors), Kevin Guzman (minors), and Jeff Brigham
Explaining the deal:
Essentially, the Dodgers shelled out a ton of salary relief in the deal. They paid $28 million of Olivera’s salary (his signing bonus) and picked up another $18 million in salary spread across the players listed.
In addition to the $14.3 million in salary relief the Marlins got, they also received relief pitcher Jeff Brigham, who pitched to a 5.90 ERA over 12 appearances, four of them starts. Both other arms, Victor Araujo and Kevin Guzman flamed out in A ball.
So, the Braves, instead of getting Olivera at full price, got a massive discount on a Cuban prospect, who at the time had slashed .348/.392/.493 in the minor leagues. The Braves also received two additional minor league arms.
Olivera was thought to be a possible cornerstone in the rebuild.
What we got:
As said above, Olivera, who was 29 years old at the time, looked good… on paper. Olivera only appeared in 30 games for the Atlanta Braves, hitting two home runs in 98 at-bats. Then, in 2016 while in Washington, DC he was arrested for assault.
Olivera was traded later to the San Diego Padres in what was largely a money deal in which we acquired Matt Kemp.
That was a positive for the Atlanta Braves, as Kemp played in 171 games, hitting .278 with 31 home runs and 103 RBI. In the end, his legs failed him
Olivera last played in 2017 for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League, and hasn’t been heard from since.
Zachary Bird toiled in the minors and is now out of baseball. Although we rehabbed Paco Rodriguez from Tommy John surgery, he never appeared in a game at any level in our organization.
What we gave up:
The Atlanta Braves had just acquired Bronson Arroyo from the Arizona Diamondbacks where they took on salary for a prospect, and that prospect was Touki Toussaint. The Dodgers took on a portion of what we owed Arroyo.
Luis Avilan seemingly came out of nowhere with little to no prospect fanfare and in his first 106 appearances in 2012 and 2013 for the club, pitched to a 1.69 ERA as a left-handed specialist.
Over the next two years, he was much more average, in those 112 appearances, he complied a even 4.00 ERA. The latter number has played much closer to his career averages, but Avilan has by and large been a good, and sometimes spectacular relief option.
The Atlanta Braves initially acquired Jim Johnson two years removed from 101 saves and an All-Star appearance in 2012 and 2013 with the Baltimore Orioles. He produced good results in his 49 appearances before the trade, apparently so much so that we acquired him that offseason again. In 2016, he was worth 1.5 WAR, in 2017, -0.9 WAR. Johnson’s success was so centered around his sinker, and after his breakout, he only showed flashes of that dominance.
Jose Peraza was our number #1 prospect when our farm system was very thin. That’s not to say that Peraza wasn’t a talent, but it would be interesting to see where he would slot in looking at how stocked the farm was been the past three seasons. The Dodgers dealt him to the Cincinnati Reds, and in the four seasons since, he’s got a career batting average of .274 with 27 home runs and 141 RBI. In 2019, he has been used more off the bench than in previous seasons.
The biggest hurt was Alex Wood, but throwing out his 2017 season where he was lights out, he has always been the same pitcher that we got rid of. He’s a solid arm, probably a #4, and has dealt with his share of injuries. He still hasn’t thrown a pitch for the Cincinnati Reds, where he was traded this past offseason, in 2019.
Analysis:
This certainly wasn’t good, but when you boil it all down, we gave up what’s amounted to an average reliever in Avilan, what seems to be becoming a utility man in Peraza, and Wood.
The All-Star season that Alex Wood had in 2017 was tragic for Atlanta Braves fans to watch, but he’s largely been average outside of that one season, with injury questions to boot. Remember, some scouts didn’t like that funky wind-up.
Don’t forget the competitive balance draft pick that we got, which turned out to be top 30 pitching prospect Joey Wentz.
Wentz was magnificent in Rome and Florida in 2017 and 2018, and has come on as of late in Mississippi. Over his last three starts, he’s allowed just two earned runs while striking out 27 batters over 18 and two-thirds innings.
Let us also consider that Olivera was eventually turned into Matt Kemp, which provided us with the equivalent of a full season of good production (.278/31 HR/103 RBI).