Why the Braves Kept Johan Camargo and Luke Jackson

To say it was a shocking day for the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday would be a bit of an understatement in my book as they threw us a curveball.

I think many people believed the Atlanta Braves would consider not tendering a contract to Johan Camargo, Luke Jackson, and Grant Dayton.

But not many people thought Adam Duvall was on the bubble. Although, props to @dupu and @The_Twenty_Two who both mentioned it as a possibility in the comments on Twitter before it happened.

And in hindsight, it does make a good bit of sense as our own Fred Owens explained here.

For the most part, however, many had Duvall penciled in as the starting left fielder for the Braves going into 2021 — perhaps in a platoon role.

We’ll get more into that in another post, but I want to focus on the other surprises from Wednesday in that they kept all three of Camargo, Jackson, and Dayton.

I will give myself a little bit of a pat on the back here as when I wrote about the Braves’ non-tender candidates a few weeks ago I said, “…it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the Braves hang onto all three of these guys as cutting them doesn’t save a ton of money.”

Still, I didn’t really think all three of them would avoid the ax. In fact, going into Wednesday I felt pretty certain Luke Jackson would be the only one who would be non-tendered.

Again, for me, non-tendering a player is about saving money and not paying a player more than their current production is worth.

Non-tendering guys like the three we’re talking about just really isn’t going to make much difference on the payroll. The Braves got all three of those players for less than what Duvall likely would have made through arbitration.

Plus, arbitration contracts aren’t guaranteed. The Braves can still part with these players during spring training and only pay a small portion of their contract.

With the departures in the bullpen, it makes some sense to hang onto Jackson and Dayton until you see how the rest of the offseason plays out. I tend to believe there are several good relief options available who are better than Jackson that you can get at the same price or maybe a little more.

So I still highly doubt Jackson plays for the Braves in 2021 — especially considering he’s out of Minor League options.

And that’s another reason why I thought bringing back Camargo was a no-brainer. Having someone like him who is a versatile switch-hitter with Minor League options at just $1.6 million brings a ton of value.

Plus, he does have a track record of success in the big leagues — even if it’s been a while at this point.

I’m very interested to see how Camargo does playing winter ball and getting regular reps. He could also turn himself into a nice trade chip for the Braves.

Again, it just didn’t make much sense to part with these guys for how little (comparatively speaking) they’re making when they still hold some value.