{"id":88947,"date":"2024-11-04T15:10:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T20:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=88947"},"modified":"2024-12-28T10:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T15:55:38","slug":"braves-all-star-exercises-club-option-becoming-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/04\/braves-all-star-exercises-club-option-becoming-free-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves All-Star Says Goodbye to Atlanta, Enters Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/28\/braves-new-hitting-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Atlanta Braves<\/a> catcher and 2021 World Series champion Travis d&#8217;Arnaud has declined the team&#8217;s $8 million option and will test free agency. d&#8217;Arnaud is coming off a 2024 season where he sported a .238 batting average, 14 home runs, 48 RBIs, and a .738 OPS. In addition, the Braves also exercised designated hitter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ozunama01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcell Ozuna<\/a>&#8216;s option for the 2025 season and declined the option on right-handed pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=jackslu01,jackso008luk,jackso007luk&amp;search=Luke+Jackson&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Jackson<\/a>. As well as reinstated outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr, left-handed pitchers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kerrra01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ray Kerr<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/perdoan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angel Perdomo<\/a>, and right-handed pitchers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stridsp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spencer Strider<\/a> and Huascar from the 60-day injury list.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Atlanta Braves have declined their $8 million club option on catcher Travis d\u2019Arnaud, sources tell ESPN. He is now a free agent.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1853511221867114718?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Braves Silver Slugger Tests Free Agency<\/h2>\n<h3>d&#8217;Arnaud and Free Agency<\/h3>\n<p>Travis will turn 36 in February and sported a 63 wRC+ in the last two months with a 35% K rate and an 85 wRC+ after May 1. The Braves&#8217; top prospect is a catcher, and it frees up $8M. Pointing as to why the Braves decided to decline his option. But the Braves are not closing the door on re-signing the 35-year-old catcher as a free agent. The Braves&#8217; focus now is that they need payroll flexibility.<\/p>\n<p>But if d&#8217;Arnaud decides to explore other options and doesn&#8217;t stay with the Braves, he has much to offer other teams looking to save on some bank. d&#8217;Arnaud is a 12-year veteran with a 103 OPS+ a, 0.4 barrel percentage, and a .438xSLG who has been highlighted for his strong efforts with blocking and stealing as a catcher. Travis will be a cheap catcher available on the market for several teams to target. While d&#8217;Arnuad does have a baseball background that carries forward an appeal to pick up on the trade market, his past season with the Braves didn&#8217;t showcase the clutch factor.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves moving forward with him and giving him the freedom to explore other teams is a smart choice. Considering that the Braves will be getting back many talented players, such as Ozuna. Travis has already come up as a possible fit with the New York Mets<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atlanta Braves catcher and 2021 World Series champion Travis d&#8217;Arnaud has declined the team&#8217;s $8 million option and will test free agency. d&#8217;Arnaud is coming off a 2024 season where he sported a .238 batting average, 14 home runs, 48 RBIs, and a .738 OPS. In addition, the Braves also exercised designated hitter Marcell Ozuna&#8216;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":88962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1071],"tags":[3243,221,2262,164,686],"class_list":["post-88947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-mlb","tag-catcher","tag-marcell-ozuna","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-new-york-mets","tag-travis-darnaud"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}