Once the offseason officially begins, the Atlanta Braves will have some decisions to make. A handful of players are candidates to stick around if the team chooses to keep them. In this specific case, this pertains to those with club options. Those who are non-tender candidates will be discussed later.
Here are the five players who have a club options on the team, according to Spotrac. Most of these should be easy decisions for the Braves to make with one notable exception.
If there was one club option that was considered the easiest decision to execise, it’s this one. Sale is coming off another strong year on the mound. While he missed time due to freak injury, he pitched just as well as during his Cy Young season when healthy.
Following a slow start in April, he pitched to a 1.76 ERA in 16 starts. During that span, he allowed more than two earned runs twice, and only one of those two starts saw him allow more than three.
His time away likley removes him from the Cy Young conversation, but he still made his ninth All-Star team and is a finalist for the First and Second All-MLB Teams.
Another contract that should be an easy decision to pick up. His $7 million option could be the same pay as he’s had the last two seasons.
If he hadn’t taken the mound for his final appearance of the season, he would have finished with a 2.48 ERA instead of 3.05. In between April 16 and that final outing, he had a 2.06 ERA. He had some blown saves, but he was reliable more often than not.
The gut reaction is that he’s picked up, even if just to have the option (no pun intended) to trade him. If they can’t, then he’s cheap enough to see if he can bounch back.
The reality, however, is your guess is as good as mine. If he didn’t get hurt, his strong finish would have been enough to justify picking up his option and finding out. Then, he hurt his wrist again. That’s the only reason this is even a discussion.
In theory, they could decline his option and try to re-sign him for cheaper. However, after the run he went on after coming to Atlanta, it would be worth just picking it up.
Kinley finished his half season with the Braves with a 0.72 ERA and an even lower 0.68 WHIP across 25 innings pitched. Maybe it’s because Coors Field is no longer a factor. Maybe the Braves made a couple tweaks too. Whatever it is, he proved to be a stellar addition to the bullpen.
We still don’t know what is going to happen with Raisel Iglesias at the end of his contract. Having Kinley locked down for next season would take some pressure off.
There is a good chance you forgot he was even in the system. He’s one of the players listed, so we’re entertaining this one too.
He’s played five total games in the big leagues for the Braves, all of which came back in 2024. Learning to pitch went so well that he tossed a single inning in 2025.
Since he has been in the minors, his contract is considered to be buried. However, the Braves are still obligated to pay his full salary. His contract, according to Spotrac, has a $1.5 million buyout. Take a good guess at what they’ll likely choose to do.
