It went down late at night, but the Atlanta Braves got a new arm for their bullpen in a trade with the Chicago White Sox on Thursday. Left-handed pitcher Aaron Bummer heads to the Braves, who send a package of five players back to the White Sox.
The White Sox receive right-hander Michael Soroka, lefty Jared Shuster, infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake, and minor-league pitcher Riley Gowens in exchange for the 30-year-old Bummer.
Bummer had been with Chicago for all seven years of his Major League career since debuting in 2017. This past season, he, like many White Sox, struggled out of the gate and couldn't right the ship. He finished the year 5-5 with a 6.79 ERA and 1.53 WHIP in 61 appearances.
Despite the rough numbers, Bummer picked up 15 holds, carrying a 12.03 K/9 and 29.2 percent strikeout rate with 78 strikeouts in his 58 1/3 innings. You'd think he would have had better results with those strikeout stats, but his real problem was issuing too many free passes. He ran a 5.55 BB/9 and a 13.5 percent walk rate. Yikes.
So what makes Bummer attractive to Braves' general manager Alex Anthopolous? The righty has a career 3.84 ERA, even after his dreadful 2023 season. Looking under the hood, Bummer's expected ERA sat at 3.53, while his 3.58 FIP and 3.51 xFIP indicate that his results were worse than perhaps they should have been.
Bummer's contract situation also likely enticed Anthopolous. We know the Braves general manager likes certainty, and with Bummer the team gets three years of control if they choose. The reliever's five-year, $16 million contract runs out after the 2024 season but comes with club options for 2025 and 2026.
As for the players the Braves are sending to the Windy City, it seems like Antholopolous is just trying to clean up a messy room before Friday's non-tender deadline. Soroka and Lopez were non-tender candidates, while Shuster and Shewmake "... saw their stars fade quickly this year," per MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
Soroka is the biggest name in the package. The former first-round pick had superstar potential written all over him, but his career hasn't met expectations following his sparking 2019 rookie campaign. With multiple injuries, including twice tearing his right Achilles tendon, he hasn't returned to the level the Braves had hoped.
Atlanta now has 37 players on the 40-man roster, giving them plenty of room and flexibility for their offseason moves.
