Atlanta Braves trade Sean Rodriguez, reduce infielder traffic

When Ozzie Albies was called up this week, that just exacerbated the crush of middle infielders on the roster.  Today that’s starting to be sorted out.

The Atlanta Braves got a surprise when surgically-repaired Sean Rodriguez returned well sooner than expected from his near-tragic auto wreck this Winter.  But his return along with that of Micah Johnson created a roster issue and a playing time issue.

The Pirates have helped us out by placing a waiver claim that has now lead to a trade.  In case you missed it, here’s how that waiver trading stuff all works.

Now this is both kind of ironic and likely helpful to Rodriguez and his family – this is the team that he played for last season, so he’s certainly familiar with the territory.

This is the second time the Pittsburgh has traded for the infielder.  In December of 2014, they acquired him from the Tampa Bay Rays for cash and a minor leaguer.

When he became a free agent, the Braves came calling as they needed a solid bench bat who could handle all of the infield duties.  Rodriguez continued to stay in touch with the Pirates, but their management was unable to make a deal work that could match the Braves’ 2 year, $11.5 million offer.

The Pirates will now assume that contract… the same one they avoided last off-season.  But Rodriguez gets to go ‘home’.

So… What did we Get?

A bit of a conflict between beat writers, but it appears that Dave O’Brien has the correct scoop:

Connor Joe – to be completely confused with former big leaguer Joe Connor, who played at the turn of the LAST century (1895-1905) – will be 25 years old in another 2 weeks and is variously listed as 1B/3B/OF.

Joe was with the Pirates AA affiliate at Altoona (PA) and while he doesn’t hit a lot, he also walks  nearly as much (12%) as he strikes out (14%).

Joe is not considered to be a prospect at this point, despite being drafted 39th overall in 2014 as a Competitive Balance Round A pick out of the University of California/San Diego.

So while there’s a smidge of upside, he’s the kind of return one would expect for the Pirates to pick up all of Rodriguez’ salary ($5 million for 2018, plus the leftovers for this year – a $1.5 million bonus was paid at the time of his signing).  So the Braves will ultimately save close to $6.6 million in this deal.

Business

It’s probably unfortunately for Atlanta that Rodriguez was the one to depart – his bat ‘broke out’ a bit late in 2016 with Pittsburgh and we never really got to see what he can do.

Rodriguez was hitting only .162 with a pair of homers, but Atlanta will have other bench options for next season – unless Johan Camargo ends up on the hot corner on a full-time basis.

Meanwhile…

This trade leaves 38 on the 40-man roster, even with this additional change for tonight:

(Jason Hursh was optioned back to Gwinnett in the corresponding move)

Fried was placed on the 40-man after the 2016 season to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.  His season hasn’t been nearly as good as hope at AA Mississippi, recording a 5.92 ERA over 87 innings with an increased walk rate.

If you believe in FIP and xFIP, you’re still happy with Fried’s season, and that’s perhaps a part of calling him up today.

Next: Let's play a game of What If?

Of note, this does not necessarily mean that Fried will be a reliever from this point forward, but his a chance to get him some experience while avoiding another addition to the 40-man list.