Alex Anthopoulos has continued to stay busy this offseason and January has seen 1 player leave the organization via trade, 1 enter via trade, 13 international signings, 5 MiLB deals, and 1 Major League contract.
Braves Trade Tyler Owens for J.P. Martinez
23 y/o Owens was drafted in the 13th round of the 2019 draft and has essentially been of the long relief/spot start variety. Over the course of 4 years, Owens has pitched in 169 innings with not bad/not good results. A change of scenery could do him well.
J.P. Martinez is a 5’8 27 y/o outfielder that hit his stride in 2023 (albeit in the PCL, a notorious hitter friendly league). His .963 OPS over 375 PAs is his best to date. In the minors, Martinez has loads of experience in all 3 OF positions and is known as an excellent defender. However, his real calling card is his speed as he racked up 41 SBs to only 4 CS in 2023.
Braves Sign 13 International Players
PItchers: Jorge Nunez, Yander Pinero, Fernando Duarte, Rafael Lasorsa, Nolsen Marquez, Kendy Francique, Anferni Gonzalez,
Infielders: Juan Mateo, Jose Perdomo
Outfielders: Juan Espinal, Gabriel Cesa, Isaac Osorio
Catchers: Manuel Dos Passos
Breakdown: Only Perdomo and Espinal signed for significant money with Perdomo being the cream of the crop. He was rated as a consensus top 3 with many believing he was the best in this class of IFAs.
Braves Sign 5 to MiLB Deals
- RHP, Anthony Vizcaya: 30 y/o Vizcaya is a MiLB lifer, dating back to 2018, bouncing between foreign leagues, Indy leagues, and MiLB. He’s never received that big payday and his 5 seasons in MiLB have shown middling results.
- 2B, Carlos Arroyo: An international signing at only 16 years of age, Arroyo only lasted 2 years in the Pirates org before they let him loose. He then played in Miami’s system for a short time, but has since played in foreign leagues. More than likely, he’s org-filler.
- SS, Yolbert Sanchez: A former top prospect in the White Sox org, Sanchez has been in organized baseball since 2015, but has never made it past AAA. He has the defensive ability to play all over the infield, but might as well not carry a bat to the plate.
- RP, Charlie Culberson: I don’t know what level Charlie will start at, but he’s coming back as a pitcher. A reverse Ankiel. What a world.
- OF, Jordan Luplow: Luplow signed a big league deal with the Braves last year and was DFAd before he got into a game due to a spring training oblique injury. As of now, he’ll report to Gwinnett, but Braves still need a RHH OFer and he’s the best of the worst thus far. My expectation is that AA will provide him some company before too long.
Braves Sign Luis Guillorme
We’ve already talked about Guillorme in a previous piece, but I’ll leave you with this genius tweet by Braves organist Matthew Kaminski:
Signing Charlie Culberson always makes me happy even though it’s totally inconsequential.
How do people feel about the Raheem Morris signing for the Falcons. Not sexy but probably a solid hire IMO.
I’m irrationally excited for J.P. Martinez in the same way that I was irrationally excited for Forrest Wall. I think he has a good skillset for a 26th man. In his “coming of age” years, he has shown power, patience, and speed.
Ryan, I’m getting some Matt Young vibes 🙂
Oh dear…I was gung ho about him in the rebuild. Young never had power though.
Culberson should hit up Penn Murfee for some backup infielder-turned-pitcher tips.
Murfee started his college career at Vandy as a position player (mostly a backup infielder) before switching to pitching, transferring to a school where he could get actual innings on the mound, getting drafted in the 33rd round, and working his way up to the Majors. Nice story.
I guess I’ll play the old-timer role today (I do turn 56 on Thursday) and mention that Jimy Williams died. He was the guy who waived Sid Bream home on the final play of the 1992 NLCS, RIP.
Onetime Braves Journal commenter Craig Calcaterra remembered a nice thing he did for Steve Avery.
https://cupofcoffee.beehiiv.com/p/cup-coffee-january-30-2024
Nice story, Alex. Thank you.