Braves pursued Rosenthal
The Braves lost Mark Melancon to the Padres and Darren O’Day to the Yankees in free agency. Another of their right-handed relievers from 2020, Shane Greene, remains on the open market. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that the team continues to pursue bullpen help, recently exploring a back-loaded, two-year deal with free-agent closer Trevor Rosenthal, according to major-league sources.
Rosenthal instead agreed to a heavily deferred, one-year, $11 million contract with the A’s that will pay him $3 million in 2021, $3 million in ’22 and $5 million in ’23. The Braves’ offer was not at the same level, and a source close to Rosenthal said the right-hander was intrigued by the possibility of building his case for a multi-year deal at Oakland’s spacious RingCentral Coliseum, where the Athletics’ previous closers, Liam Hendriks and Blake Treinen, enjoyed success.
Earlier this offseason, the Braves also showed interest in free agent Kirby Yates, who signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Blue Jays. They wanted to bring back Melancon and O’Day, as well as outfielder Adam Duvall, who signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the Marlins. But most of their allocated budget went to one-year deals for starting pitchers Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly, who will earn a combined $26 million in 2021, and outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who signed a four-year, $65 million deal.
Even though Ozuna’s deal is back-loaded, the Braves are down to less than $5 million of payroll flexibility in ’21, according to a source with knowledge of the team’s thinking. Club officials do not want to get caught in a budget crunch the way they did last season, when their only addition at the trade deadline was left-hander Tommy Milone. But they were willing to stretch for the upside of Rosenthal.
