News roundup: Braves lose A.J. Minter to division rival, add more organizational depth

The Atlanta Braves have lost another key veteran in free agency, but this one's staying in the division

In the eyes of many across Braves Country, this is becoming “the offseason from hell.”

Not only did the injury issues from last season continue with Joe Jiménez’s knee and the ‘likely-not-ready-to-start-the-season’ status for both Ronald Acuña Jr and Spencer Strider, but the “longest-tenured Braves” list took a beating, as well.

Max Fried (Yankees), Charlie Morton (Orioles), and Travis d’Arnaud (Angels) all departed this offseason, taking eighteen combined seasons in Atlanta with them out the door. The hits, however, aren’t done.

Let’s look at the week’s notes in another news roundup.

A.J. Minter departs in free agency

That eighteen seasons of tenure out the door this offseason is now twenty-five with the news that lefty reliever A.J. Minter is signing a two-year deal with New York Mets. The contract, for a reported $22M, has an opt-out after year one.

And to be honest, this one hurts.

While I don’t know about the wisdom of giving a non-closer $11M AAV - The Athletic reported on Friday that Minter’s the first non-closer to ever receive an eight-figure AAV and an opt-out inside a multi-year deal - the fact that the franchise’s leader in holds is departing for a division rival is still hard to take.

Minter was one of the glue guys in the clubhouse, a fixture in the bullpen who did everything from fill in at closer to come in as a fireman and shut down a rally. Minter returning always felt like it was bound to happen, especially after Atlanta did work on Tanner Scott and then backed out of a deal with Jeff Hoffman.

Minter even discussed wanting to return when his season ended with the hip surgery in August, saying “The goal is to get healthy during the offseason and be back here” to MLB.com in the wake of his surgery.

But it’s not to be, and Atlanta’s now in an inflection point in this offseason - if you need a lefty reliever and want to placate a fanbase that’s become more and more vocal about their frustration with the underwhelming acquisitions, Tanner Scott’s right there.

Per reports, lefty reliever Tanner Scott is expected to select from multiple offers this weekend. While the Mets are believed to be out on him after signing Minter, the Braves have gone as far as medical checks on Scott and the Cubs are believed to be interested, as well.

Braves add two minor leaguers and a waiver claim

Accumulating several different reports (including one of mine), the team’s made a few minor league adds and one 40-man move this week, adding veteran catcher Curt Casali and undrafted free agent Jackson Dannelley to minor league deals and claiming Amos Willingham off of waivers from the Washington Nationals.

The corresponding move for Willingham was a DFA of Allan Winans (which we predicted on the final podcast of 2024).

Let’s look at these three deals:

Casali: break glass in case of emergency

Casali, 36, has an obvious role: Emergency depth in Gwinnett. He’ll be invited to spring training and can theoretically win the starting role over Chadwick Tromp, but Atlanta’s staff likes throwing to the out-of-options backup and keeping Casali over Tromp means losing the latter on waivers.

This has been a trend for Alex Anthopoulos - ever since he was forced to use seven different catchers in the 2021 season due to injuries, the organization’s been overstocked with catchers in Gwinnett. They carried three for the entirety of 2024, including top prospect Drake Baldwin, veteran depth Sandy Leon, and either Sebastían Rivero or now-retired Ryan Casteel at times (due to Tromp’s promotion to the majors while Sean Murphy was on the injured list).

The duo of Baldwin and Leon stand to return to the Stripers in 2025, joined by either minor league Rule 5 claim Dylan Shockley or Casali if he doesn’t have an opt-out during spring.¹

The veteran, while grading out below-average in most offensive and defensive metrics at this point in his career, does have 543 career MLB games of experience and would give Atlanta a degree of basic competence behind the plate were Murphy to miss time.

Dannelley is a “pitch characteristics” signing

Dannelley, 23 and an undrafted free agent from the 2024 Draft, was picked up by Atlanta after impressing at the Tread Athletics pro day last week. The 5’10 righty flashed a mid-90s fastball, a 87-mph sweeper (!), a low-80s curveball, a 91-mph slider, and a changeup.

As a fan of both throwing multiple versions of a pitch (two-seam and four-seam fastballs, sweeper and a slider, etc) as well as sliders that are 85 or harder, it’s a pickup that intrigues me a lot.

I’m not as worried about his college struggles (a 5.97 ERA between Houston and Purdue in 92 career innings) because most smart analytical teams are looking at pitch characteristics more than college performance, and he absolutely has them. With the caveat that I’m pretty sure his ‘slider’ is actually a cutter and the fastball is a two-seamer, an 87-mph sweeper is rare with just 17 major leaguers throwing more than ten of them last season. (Can we call it a “turbo sweeper”? I like that name.)

Notable proponents of the turbo sweeper include two of the best non-closers in baseball, Griffin Jax and Orion Kerkering, as well as some of the best starters like Zack Wheeler and Luis Severino. Other players who dabbled in what I’m calling the ‘turbo sweeper’ include Paul Skenes, Garrett Crochet, Dylan Cease, Gavin Stone, and Nick Pivetta.

If the Braves can develop him, this is a potential starting arsenal. He’s been tentatively assigned to the Complex League for now - I’m expecting him to stay in Extended Spring before hitting Complex and then being pushed to Single-A Augusta.

Willingham has a power mix

The one of the trio most likely to get run next season, Willingham is another in a long line of optionable high-minors relief options to be grabbed by Atlanta. A local kid coming home (born in Rome, GA and went to school at Georgia Tech), the 17th-round pick in 2019 has thrown exactly 25.1 innings in the majors but has plenty of AAA experience, pitching to 2.88 and 3.69 ERAs in back-to-back seasons for Washington’s affiliate in Rochester.²

It’s an intriguing mix that’s focused on power pitches: a 95.4 mph four-seam fastball, a 90.1 mph cutter, and a 84.8 slider as the three primary offerings. He also used a changeup (4.9%) and a sinker (0.3%) last season, but it’s mostly heaters and a harder slider off of them.

We’ve discussed this before, but throwing a slider 85 mph typically makes it good no matter what the movement is on it - being able to land it in the zone a bit more than last season’s 42.6% is the goal, although that can be mitigated if it’s being used as a chase pitch off of the fastball and cutter.

In his brief MLB sample, he threw the fastball more 97-98 than 95, providing some hope that building a bit more velocity can give the Braves some more much-needed power in the pen.

I’d expect him to start in Gwinnett but absolutely be in the mix for major league innings once he gets settled and the Braves have a better idea of how his stuff will play.

1. Several veterans like Casali have opt-out dates in their minor league deals where they either need to be added to the 40-man roster/guaranteed a major league spot or can choose to opt-out and head back to free agency.

2. The Rochester Red Wings