According to Ken Rosenthal and David O’Brien of the Athletic, the Braves intend to trade DH Matt Carpenter. Atlanta acquired the left-handed hitter from the Padres in a trade driven by salary considerations.
The main objective of San Diego was to offload some of Carpenter’s $5.5 million salary. According to Dennis Lin of The Athletic, the Padres were contributing $1.5 million to make the trade possible. The Braves assumed $4MM in luxury tax and salary obligations. The Friars avoided the competitive balance tax by $4.5 million and saved $4 million in cash.
For the Padres, Carpenter’s CBT number was slightly higher than it is for Atlanta. With San Diego, his two-year, $12MM contract was front loaded; he made $6.5MM this year. A traded player’s CBT calculation for an acquiring team is recalculated based on how much they’re still owed at the time of the trade — in this case, $5.5MM for one year — but that came with a $6MM tax hit as the contract’s average annual value.
The goal of San Diego’s trade with Atlanta was to acquire Ray Kerr, a hard-throwing depth reliever, by effectively “purchasing” his rights. The Braves are paying a 42 percent tax on the $4 million in salary that they assumed from Carpenter as a second-year luxury tax payer in the second tier of penalization.
Their total outlay for the trade will be about $5.68 million. Atlanta’s competitive balance tax amount, as determined by Roster Resource, is approximately $267MM. At $277MM, the third penalization tier begins.
In an odd attempt to bolster the talent at the bottom of the roster, Atlanta’s front office has taken on a few underperforming contracts. They brought in Evan White and Marco Gonzales along with Jarred Kelenic, and almost immediately traded them. The White Sox quickly acquired catcher Max Stassi, whose contract was part of the David Fletcher trade. Next in line is Carpenter.
To find a taker, the Braves may need to pay Carpenter’s salary close to the league minimum, as they did with Gonzales and Stassi. The seasoned player is coming off a.176/.322/.319 performance.
