ESPN: Braves head coach has been suspended.
Atlanta The Atlanta Braves, who acquired first baseman Matt Carpenter from San Diego last week, dismissed him on Monday.
The Braves actually lost $4 million as a result of the choice.
Carpenter and left-hander Ray Kerr were acquired by Atlanta on Friday in exchange for outfielder Drew Campbell from the Padres. The Padres agreed to give the Braves $1.5 million as part of the trade. It partially offsets Carpenter’s $5.5 million.
three times The 38-year-old Carpenter, an All-Star with St. Louis, gave his career a boost with the New York Yankees in 2022 by using the short porch in right field to his advantage and hitting.305 with 15 home runs and 37 RBI. From May 26 to August 8, when he broke his left foot on a foul ball, he was a Yankees player. After making a comeback for the postseason, he hit just 1 for 12 with 9 strikeouts.
Carpenter agreed to a two-year, $12 million deal with the Padres, which includes a 2024 player option for $5.5 million. From July 1st onward, he only had 50 at-bats, yet he hit.176 with five home runs and 31 RBI. Carpenter missed games after September 10 due to discomfort in his right elbow.
2013–14, ’14, and ’16 saw Carpenter as an All-Star. His career average is.260, and he has hit 175 home runs and driven in 644 RBI with the Padres, Yankees, and Cardinals (2011–21).
In order to free up Jeff Francoeur to spend more time with his family, the Braves also signed C.J. Nitkowski, a Rangers commentator, to join their primary television broadcast crew on Monday.
Nitkowski, who pitched for the Braves in 2004 and is currently a suburban Atlanta resident, has been named as the main analyst for play-by-play commentator Brandon Gaudin by Bally Sports and the Braves
A source tells ESPN’s Jeff Passan that All-Star closer Josh Hader agreed to terms on a five-year, $95 million contract with the Houston Astros on Friday, greatly strengthening a team that has advanced to the American League Championship Series seven times in a row.
With no deferrals, the deal is the biggest ever in terms of present-day value for a relief pitcher. The New York Mets and Edwin Diaz inked a five-year, $102 million contract last offseason, but $26.5 million of that amount was deferred, making the deal’s current value somewhere around $93 million.
The Astros’ pickup of Hader comes on the heels of news that Kendall Graveman, one of the team’s principal high-leverage relievers, would miss the entire 2024 season after undergoing shoulder surgery. Hader’s presence in all likelihood means Ryan Pressly, who accumulated 90 saves over the last three years, will become the team’s eighth-inning reliever, though Hader displayed versatility to handle various assignments early in his career.
Whatever happens, the Astros will once again have a destructive bullpen in the back end with Bryan Abreu and Rafael Montero in the mix. The Astros return the vast majority of the team that finished one game short of the World Series last year. The addition of Hader by Houston has the dual benefit of removing him from the mix for its division rivals. All offseason, there had been rumors that the Texas Rangers, who won their first championship last year and upset the Astros in a closely watched ALCS, were interested in Hader.
Hader spent five complete seasons in the major leagues, making an All-Star team each time, and has established himself as perhaps the best closer in the game. He was a member of the Astros minor league system from 2013 to 2015. He leads the majors with 153 saves since the beginning of 2019. Over the course of those five years, he has 437 strikeouts, which is 59 more than the next closest reliever.
In the process, the 29-year-old left-hander has fashioned a 2.60 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. Thrown from a wiry body that enhances his deception, his devastating sinker-slider combination has helped him achieve the highest strikeout-per-nine ratio in history—15.0—among those who have amassed at least 50 innings.
