Braves sign breakout right-hander, lefty reliever to new deals

The Braves announced Saturday that they have signed both right-hander Reynaldo López and left-hander Aaron Bummer to new contracts. They also selected right-hander Domingo Gonzalez to the roster.

López will make $30M over the next three years: $8M in 2025, $14M in 2026 and $8M in 2027. On his previous deal, he was set to make $11M in ’25 and ’26 with an $8M club option and $4M buyout for ’27. This deal effectively guarantees that club option ahead of time while allowing Atlanta to move some of his money from the ’25 ledger to the ’26 ledger.

Bummer’s deal had two club options for ’25 and ’26, valued at $7.25M with $1.25M buyouts. Per Saturday’s announcement, he is now guaranteed $13M over the next two years: $3.5M in ’25 and $9.5M in ’26. That’s slightly less than the $14.5M he could have made if both options were eventually picked up. Still, he gets the security of having it locked in now, staving off any chance of an injury or a decline in performance hurting his future earning power. In this instance as well, the club moves some money from ’25 to ’26.

Before the offseason has begun in earnest, Atlanta’s payroll and competitive balance tax situation has already been a clear focus. Almost as soon as trades were allowed, outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler was flipped to the Angels, essentially as a salary dump. Atlanta got right-hander Griffin Canning in return, but it seems their primary motivation was to get rid of the two years and $26M left on Soler’s deal. Now, a couple of days later, they announced these reworked deals. In both cases, the goal was seemingly to give Atlanta more spending power in the upcoming offseason.

According to RosterResource, Atlanta is currently slated to have a payroll of $191M and a CBT number of $210M. The latter is higher because it’s calculated based on a contract’s average annual value rather than what the club will pay in 2025. The club has signed some backloaded extensions, which leads some players to have a higher CBT hit than their current salary.

The club finished 2024 with a payroll of $232M and $277M. Looking ahead to 2025, there’s some breathing room relative to last year’s numbers, but triggering options on Marcell Ozuna ($16M), Travis d’Arnaud ($8M) and Luke Jackson ($7M) will eat up some of that. The club also has plenty on its offseason to-do list, with Max Fried and Charlie Morton now free agents, opening up two holes in the rotation. The club might consider upgrading on Orlando Arcia at shortstop, Sean Murphy at catcher or Jarred Kelenic in the outfield.

López's new deal won’t impact his CBT hit. Last winter, he signed a three-year, $30M deal with Atlanta that included a $10M luxury tax calculation. This new deal also has him slated to make $30M over the next three years, keeping the CBT hit the same.

In terms of pure dollars, he is now guaranteed $4M extra than previously, with that club option locked in. If he should suffer an injury or a decline in performance between now and then, he has prevented the club from going with the buyout. In exchange, the club gets a slight increase in spending power this winter by moving $3M of his salary ahead by a year. His return to a starting role was a big success this year as he posted a 1.99 earned run average in 135 2/3 innings.

With Bummer, the club clearly wanted to keep him around but worked out some details that they liked better than those options. This will actually increase his CBT hit relative to 2024, but by a bit less than if they had just picked up the option.

Atlanta acquired Bummer a year ago when he still had one guaranteed season left on his deal with the White Sox. Per the rules of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players union, a player’s CBT hit is recalculated at the time of a trade. Bummer was set to make a $5.5M salary in 2024 and a $1.25M buyout on the option, so his CBT hit was $6.75M in 2024. He had a strong season, posting a 3.58 ERA out of Atlanta’s bullpen this year.

If Atlanta had picked up the ’25 option, his CBT hit would have jumped to $8.5M when factoring in the $7.25M salary and the $1.25M buyout on the ’26 option. Instead, Atlanta has locked him in at $13M for the next two years, reducing his CBT hit to $6.5M. They also backloaded the salary so that they have more money to spend on the ’25 club. For him, he’s potentially leaving a small amount of money on the table, as he could have eventually made $14.5M if both options were triggered. But he now has more guaranteed up front, so he’s protected against a big surgery or other unfortunate developments between now and his second option decision.

Perhaps Atlanta expects to have a bit less of a payroll crunch a year from now. Ozuna’s contract will be done after 2025, as will that of Raisel Iglesias. They have ’26 club options for players like Chris Sale, Pierce Johnson, Ozzie Albies, David Fletcher and Arcia that they could walk away from, depending on each player’s health and performance between now and then. RR currently pegs Atlanta for a $137M payroll and $136M for CBT purposes in 2026. However, those numbers will eventually climb based on the options and players who qualify for arbitration, as well as with any multi-year deals the club gives out this winter.

Gonzalez, 25, was initially signed by the Pirates but Atlanta nabbed him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. Players who have played parts of seven years in the minors, including the cancelled 2020 season, can qualify for minor league free agency. That was about to be the case for Gonzalez, but Atlanta wanted to keep him around, so they added him to the roster on Saturday.

He was in a swingman role when in the Pirates’ system but Atlanta has had him working primarily in relief since they grabbed him. He has posted huge strikeout totals but also given out many walks. He spent all of last year in Double-A, posting a 4.19 ERA in 53 2/3 innings. He struck out 30.5% of batters faced while giving out free passes at a 13.3% rate. This year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A. He had a 2.91 ERA in 52 2/3 innings, increasing his strikeout rate to 38.8% while decreasing the walks to 10.3%. Those strong results will get him onto a major league roster for the first time and he should compete for a role in Atlanta’s bullpen next year.