Payroll and future roster implications of the Braves trading for Jorge Soler

The Atlanta Braves approached the trade deadline with a laundry list of needs, an eye on their potential effect on the franchise's future, and a plan to protect it.

Atlanta Braves bring back outfielder  and 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Atlanta Braves bring back outfielder and 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
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The Atlanta Braves didn’t throw all of their prospects at a rental player or a league-average player with a price tag inflated by scarcity. Instead, Alex Anthopoulos chose to bring back Jorge Soler to add pop to a lineup struggling to score runs and Luke Jackson to bolster the bullpen, disappointing talking heads looking for exciting trades that are easily understood.

Learning from buying lemons

All of us have seen that bright, shiny thing we had to have even though the price was higher than its true value. Before I woke up to reality, I bought a lot of cars I had to have and spent more than they were worth before I learned that I wasn’t looking past my wants to my reality.

Anthopoulos doesn’t hesitate to make a big move when it makes sense. He also learned the hard way that acquiring a player, even if he doesn’t fit the immediate need, hoping a player’s significant injury history doesn’t pop up at the wrong time, and overpaying for mediocrity often pushes a team’s chance for success farther down the road.

No, it isn’t about the money.

I wrote a few weeks ago that I felt the club didn’t want to cross the second threshold because the farm system is thin except for Nacho Alvarez, Drake Baldwin, and pitchers the Braves see as the future rotation -Spencer Schwellenbach, A J Smith Shawver, Hurston Waldrep, and Drue Hackenberg.

At the deadline, the club had between $3.5M and $4.5M of payroll space before crossing the second competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold. Taking even a medium-sized contract, unless it’s a controllable, high-quality player, would not only increase the club’s tax bill, it would also drop their next first-round draft pick 10 slots.

I felt that any player acquired whose contract pushed the club past the second CBT threshold had to be worth that kind of loss, and I didn’t see that player on the market.

After the deadline ended, David O’Brien confirmed it.

Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos prepared for the pennant run and protected  the future at the trade deadline. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports
Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos prepared for the pennant run and protected the future at the trade deadline. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports / Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

Anthopoulos’ take on the deadline

In interviews after the deadline, the Braves PoBO (Twitter or X link) said that positive reports on the health of Max Fried and Reynaldo Lopez convinced him to acquire a bat to reinforce the lineup and add depth to the pen.

Initially, it felt the contracts of Soler and Jackson had to push the team over the threshold, but the contracts included signing bonuses paid by the Giants, which meant the final tax hit was under $2M. According to Fangraphs, the final taxable payroll is $1,687,610 below the $277,000,000 threshold at $275,312,390.

In an interview during the last game in Milwaukee, Anthopoulos said they fielded calls right up to the deadline about offers they’d made earlier but decided against adding a deal. They were ready to do more for the right player(s) and had other offers that would have changed the roster and CBT calculus, but decided the return wasn’t worth the cost.

The Braves gave up an injured pitcher and an A-ball infielder for Soler, who had batted .280/.374/.486/.860 with a .372wOBA and 146 wRC+ since June 1, and Slider-man Jackson. One pundit described the Braves deal as a desperate move by a desperate team.

Oddly, that pundit didn’t say the same about the Astros emptying their system for a 33-year-old fifth starter carrying a 4.75 ERA – 1.34 WHIP- who gives up 1.3 homers every nine innings. That sounds desperate to me; I guess it depends on your perspective.

Soler will hit because that’s what he does. If the rest of the lineup returns to anything resembling its true form, the Braves are the threat everyone feared. The trade didn’t empty the farm system, burden the team with an onerous contract, or a perpetually injured, highly-played player. It does give Alex Anthopoulos payroll flexibility going into the offseason and keeps our first-round draft pick in the first round.

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