This offseason has been a bit of a whirlwind for the Atlanta Braves. They entered the offseason with starting pitching as their biggest need and promptly did anything but address it for the first couple of months or so. The Jarred Kelenic trade came out of nowhere, Atlanta reinforced their bullpen heavily, took a chance that Reynaldo Lopez could be converted back into a starter, and did a 40 man roster culling for the ages.
More recently, the Braves shocked the entire baseball world by trading for All-Star but often injured pitcher Chris Sale and immediately gave him an extension. For better or worse, that pretty much wrapped the moves that HAD to happen this offseason, but the Braves were not done there. On Friday evening, the Braves announced that they had signed both Huascar Ynoa and Luis Guillorme to one year deals for the 2024 season.
The #Braves today signed RHP Huascar Ynoa ($825,000) and INF Luis Guillorme ($1.1 million) to one-year contracts for the 2024 season.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) January 5, 2024
Braves avoid arbitration with Ynoa, add Guillorme for roster depth
These two deals are fundamentally different situations. Huascar Ynoa, who has been recovering from Tommy John surgery, was arbitration-eligible this year and the Braves tendered him earlier in the offseason to advance that process along. Atlanta and Ynoa settling early on $825,000 gets his arbitration case out of the way ahead of the upcoming deadline to settle or head to an arbitration hearing.
Luis Guillorme, however, is a new face albeit a familiar one. Guillorme had played his entire six year career with the Mets (gross) where he served as a utility infielder. He did manage to post an .865 OPS during the 2020 season, but he is generally regarded as a decent defender who can play anywhere in the dirt. Adding Guillorme to the roster mix protects the Braves' bench in the event that David Fletcher doesn't work out as they essentially would serve the same function.
Are these the sexiest moves this offseason? Absolutely not, but the Braves have a good amount of space on their 40 man roster even after adding Guillorme and with some guys slated to start the season on the IL, it sure doesn't look like the Braves are done making moves yet.