The Atlanta Braves have decisions to make...
When it comes to professional sports contracts, on its face, options appear to be one of the more straightforward elements. Three kinds of options exist in MLB: Club, player, and mutual. Club options mean that a specific year of the deal can be exercised by the team. Player means the player opts in or out of the contract for the year (if they opt out, they enter free agency). Mutual options mean both sides need to agree, otherwise, the player heads to free agency.
While the mechanics of the contract are relatively straightforward, deciding on whether or not to exercise them is not always easy. General managers need to make a decision on those contracts before they know exactly how negotiations with players in the open market might go. It's impossible to say what your realistic alternative options are to option years with certainty.
The best thing to do, it would seem, is exercise options on players you're enthused with as a team, and go ahead and cut ties with players that aren't exactly blowing the doors off with their performance, hoping the open market or trades can supplement any remaining needs.
Let's look at all the options available to the Braves this year and make an assessment of whether they should pick the option up or let it go.
Brand Hand, RP: Mutual $7 million option
Brad Hand has a mutual option for $7 million in 2024. This one is simple: Pass. Hand made $2 million this season and won't command even close to seven on the open market after appearing in just 53.2 innings this past year for the Colorado Rockies and Braves.
Hand put up a 5.53 ERA and 1.416 WHIP. He was a below-average pitcher this season.
If the Braves really want to take a flier on the veteran pitcher, they could just seek to renegotiate with him in the open market.
Verdict: Hard pass
Kirby Yates, RP: Club option $5.8 million
Heck. Yes. Kirby Yates returned in 2023 after only pitching 11 and a third innings between 2020 and 2022 due to injury and was a great add when he debuted, putting up a 3.28 ERA, going 7-2 in his relief appearances, and keeping his WHIP below 1.2.
Yates has three pitches, two of which are extremely good when you boil them down to Statcast's run value. He mainly uses his fastball and splitter which both produced averages below .175 in 2023. He produced a 94th percentile K% in 2023.
Yates finally made his first MLB postseason appearance this season with a one-inning showing in the NLDS where he secured three outs in the fifth inning, a game the Braves would win. Surely, he's hungry for more postseason action after waiting seven years to finally get some playoff run.
Looking at his MLB journey in totality, that becomes even more true. Yates was drafted in 2005 and didn't make his MLB debut until 2014. At 36, there might be safer, younger options out in the open market, but probably not for the price range you're looking at securing Yates here.
Yates would be an adequate reliver to keep around at the $5.8 million price point.
Plus how can you not just root for this guy?
Verdict: Pursue
Collin McHugh, RP: Club option $6 million
Collin McHugh is slated to get a raise from $5 to $6 million if the Braves pick up his option for 2023. The right-handed relief pitcher appeared in 41 games to the tune of a 4.30 ERA and 4.09 FIP. After two years of sub-1.00 WHIP, that increased to 1.568 in 2023.
McHugh's pitching took a huge step back in 2023. His sweeper, after a +9 run value in 2022, fell all the way to -7 in 2023. His cutter a +8 in 2022, fell to an even zero in 2023. In his 11th year (did not play in 2020) it seems quite likely McHugh has started to regress, and fast. That, or changes in play like the pitch clock and disengagement rules have disproportionately impacted McHugh's production.
Another theory is that the sweeper, as it became a more widely-used pitch across the league, became familiar to batters and easier to hit. McHugh throws it plenty, so maybe he was disproportionately impacted by that fact.
Battery Power pointed to McHugh's over-reliance on two pitches, one of which he struggled to keep in the zone (sweeper) and one that was all too easy to hit. He may need to up the usage rate on his fastball and/or changeup in order to reinvent himself.
McHugh didn't make the team's roster for the NLDS. That should tell you what you need to know about his future in Atlanta.
There could be a chance he reinvents himself from here to stick around in the league, but it won't be with Atlanta. The Braves need steady, certain pitchers to retool their rotation and relievers for next year, and McHugh is far from a guarantee in that regard.
Verdict: Pass
Eddie Rosario, LF: Club option $9 million
If the role Eddie Rosario were filling for the Atlanta Braves was Chief Magician, this would make a lot of sense, because the vanishing act 2021 Rosario pulled off was nothing short of deceptive. In seriousness, Rosario has struggled immensely on the offensive side of things, despite being a generally serviceable defender in left field.
In the series against the Phillies, Brian Snitker resorted to starting backup left fielder Kevin Pillar, and honestly, who could fault him? Rosario had jogged out a few deep Phillies balls and made his inclusion in the lineup entirely unjustifiable considering he was providing nothing on the offensive side of things.
Rosario went 1-for-7 in the NLDS against the Phillies. Shockingly, that was a slight improvement from his 0-for-8 against Philadelphia the year before.
Rosario was a once NLCS MVP. He went 23-for-60 in the 2021 postseason. What happened?
The Braves don't need to play the game of trying to diagnose Rosario any longer, and they shouldn't. In my opinion, go after Tommy Pham.
Verdict: Hard pass
Charlie Morton, SP: Club option $20 million
Charlie Morton is coming up on 40 years old, and reports have indicated there's a chance he makes this decision easy for the Braves by simply retiring. But assuming he's game to keep the wheels moving on his MLB career in 2023, what should the Braves decide?
An aging pitcher is a scary element to keep inside your starting rotation. Morton's blistering issue is a pretty typical pitcher ailment, but you start to wonder about the possibility of aging injuries creating trouble for pitchers this late.
Yet, the two-time World Series champion performed well in 2023 with a 3.64 ERA and a 3.87 FIP. He let runners on base with a 1.427 WHIP, but largely got out of trouble and was available enough to pitch 30 games, even at 39 years old.
Morton probably wants to make another push at a title, knowing how sweet it is to win, and would surely love to make his last year a title-winning season with the team that drafted him in 2002.
$20 million is steep, Spotrac estimates his market value is only $16.7 million. Morton's return might be contingent on the Braves picking up his option in the first place, so that number may be partially misguided.
Yet, it's worth asking why Morton and the Braves didn't get an agreement on the option done before the postseason, since it was rumored to be a topic of discussion in mid-September.
Though sentimentally, there is every reason to bring Morton back, the Braves need to be more aggressive with his spot in the rotation.
Verdict: Pass, look for younger options at similar price point
