After Vidal Brujan’s split contract, the Braves have seven arbitration-eligible players that could be non-tendered by this afternoon’s deadline:
- Mauricio Dubon;
- Dylan Lee;
- Alek Manoah;
- Joel Payamps;
- Jose Suarez;
- Joey Wentz; and
- Eli White.
Dubon is pretty much a lock because, well, they traded for
him and his modest-but-higher-than-Nick-Allen’s-would-have-been arbitration-eligible salary.
Lee and White seem like near-locks because they aren’t due very much (likely at or under $2 million) and because they’ve been useful for the Braves.
Manoah is kind of a weird case because he was claimed with full knowledge that he’d need to be tendered to be retained, and didn’t end up on the roster for any production-related reason. The Braves could’ve changed their mind (a la declining Tyler Kinley’s option), though.
Wentz seems cheap (around $1 million) for his potential production. Suarez and Payamps, who knows: Suarez’ likely salary isn’t an impediment but you could probably sign him, or someone like him, to a minor league deal; Payamps has the highest projected salary of this group (somewhere in the $3-$4 million range) and was awful last year. I can see why the Braves claimed him and why they might contemplate tendering him, but he’s also their biggest opportunity here to avoid committing marginal resources to someone that might implode again.
Note that the Braves could always non-tender these guys and try to get them on a minor league deal or a cheap major league contract, so a non-tender isn’t a guarantee of goodbye in and of itself. But, that said, which of these guys do you think does get a goodbye?
