I don’t need to overstate the worth of uncooked monetary energy in baseball. The Mets spent greater than $320 million on participant salaries, not counting luxurious tax penalties, they usually completed 4 video games over .500. Cash can’t purchase happiness, or perhaps a spot within the playoffs.
It could possibly, nonetheless, purchase you a better and a serious improve to your bench. So the Braves demonstrated Wednesday, once they re-signed nearer Raisel Iglesias for one yr at $16 million, and swapped utility infielders with the Astros, sending Nick Allen west in a 1-for-1 commerce for Mauricio Dubón.
The Braves went into final season as one of many favorites to win the NL pennant solely to tumble to fourth place behind the Marlins (the Marlins!) after befalling a sequence of farces and calamities that recall A Severe Man. Jurickson Profar received popped for PEDs, Spencer Strider and Ozzie Albies misplaced their juice, half the roster received harm, it was an enormous mess.
You knew issues had been going badly when Iglesias couldn’t cease blowing saves. This was among the best closers of the 2020s, a metronomic aid ace in a world the place that’s nearly a contradiction in phrases. If you happen to extrapolate out 2020’s stats over a 162-game tempo, Iglesias was coming off 5 straight seasons of between 58 and 67 appearances, with an ERA between 1.95 and a couple of.75, and a FIP between 2.30 and three.38. To get that pitcher for simply $16 million could be a coup.
However because the Braves began 0-7, Iglesias additionally got here out of the gate sluggish. He blew his first save alternative, and saved wobbling from there. The nadir got here on June 5 — this was the sport the place the Diamondbacks got here again from being down 10-4 within the ninth inning to win. Iglesias took the lion’s share of that beating; he confronted seven batters and surrendered three runs, plus one other runner he inherited from Scott Blewett.
It was Iglesias’ fourth blown save in his first 12 alternatives of the season. At that time, he was 3-5 with a 6.75 ERA, with two of these wins coming in video games the place he’d already blown the save.
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And the underlying numbers weren’t nice both; Iglesias had misplaced a tick of fastball velocity from 2024, and thru the top of Might, his slider had generated simply 9 whiffs towards seven hits, 5 of them house runs.
That’s not what you need. And should you checked out on the Braves’ season…effectively, about the identical time Alex Anthopoulos did, on the threat of being too blunt, you would possibly surprise why on the earth the Braves had been thinking about conserving their 35-year-old nearer at any value, not to mention $16 million.
After he hit all-time low, Iglesias bounced again as if his bottom was product of foolish putty. From June 6 on, he made 45 appearances totaling 43 1/3 innings. He struck out 48 and allowed solely 31 baserunners, one house run, and 6 earned runs of any kind. In back-of-the-baseball card math, Iglesias went 21-for-22 in save conditions with a 1.25 ERA and a 1.98 FIP.
I’m unsure it’s potential to utterly fluke into numbers that good, however this turnaround got here with some underlying adjustments. He received that misplaced fastball velocity again and began throwing his fastballs extra, which is nice; even with the terrible begin to the season, opponents slugged beneath .200 towards each Iglesias’ four-seamer and sinker. By September, he was barely throwing the slider in any respect.
Going ahead, Iglesias will most likely want to have the ability to throw a breaking ball that doesn’t include a better-than-even probability that he’ll need to again up third base, however for now, I’m ready to declare him fastened and grant him absolution. Go forth, my buddy, and give up dingers no extra.
As a lot because the Iglesias contract is a tidy piece of enterprise for Atlanta, my first response to the Allen-for-Dubón commerce was to surprise if there was a gasoline leak at Daikin Park.
I don’t know should you’d need Dubón’s bat within the lineup daily; he hit .241/.289/.355 in 2025, and solely as soon as previously 5 seasons has he produced a wOBA that began with a 3. However the very best Honduran-born baseball participant of the previous 30 years managed to get into at the very least 130 video games in every of his three full seasons in Houston. How? Effectively, regardless of being fairly inept towards right-handed pitching, Dubón is way extra ept towards lefties, tagging them for a 111 wRC+ in 2025. Maybe extra essential, he appeared in at the very least 17 video games at 5 totally different positions for Houston this previous season, and received into three or extra video games in all places besides pitcher and catcher.
Dubón’s defensive numbers this yr had been bonkers sufficient to make him a 2.2 WAR participant in simply 398 plate appearances. That features 16 Outs Above Common in a hair over 500 innings throughout the 2 center infield positions. Dubón has been good, even superb, with the glove all through his profession; he received a pair of Gold Gloves throughout his time in Houston. However I’m skeptical that he awoke on March 1, 2025, and became Ozzie Smith in a mech swimsuit.
Nonetheless, Dubón is a really helpful utility participant. Provided that the Braves needed to plug holes at shortstop, third base, and each nook outfield spots in 2025, it’s clear why they’d be thinking about Dubón.
The Braves’ eagerness to improve absolutely has to do with Allen’s efficiency. Thrust right into a beginning shortstop position, he hit .221/.284/.251 in 416 plate appearances. Allen was a terrific defender at brief; he was third on the place in each OAA and FRV. And I don’t give a rattling, as a result of should you’re making an attempt to place collectively a lineup that’s going to compete within the NL East, you simply can’t give 500 plate appearances to a man with a profession 53 wRC+. Not when your two direct rivals have Trea Turner and Francisco Lindor at that place.
So why would the Astros commerce Dubón, flawed as he’s, for an inferior participant? As a result of they’re making an attempt to get beneath the aggressive steadiness tax threshold. The Astros already non-tendered Ramón Urías, and downgrading from Dubón to Allen will save $4.3 million in arbitration awards, in accordance with MLB Commerce Rumors. Plus Dubón is in his final yr of crew management, whereas Allen has three extra seasons of arbitration to go. Not that both participant is on the degree the place years of management matter a terrific deal.
This commerce is completely the Astros behaving just like the buddy who by no means fairly brings sufficient money to pay his finish of the tab, but when the Astros had been going to low cost out someplace, I perceive why they’re doing it right here.
Dubón is a utility infielder and nook outfielder who hits lefties effectively, however not righties. Houston at present has the extraordinarily well-entrenched and much more right-handed beginning infield of Jose Altuve, Jeremy Peña, and Carlos Correa. If a type of guys goes down, the equally right-handed Isaac Paredes goes and will get his glove out of storage and slides over from DH. Within the nook outfield, Yordan Alvarez is perhaps left-handed, however he hits lefties higher than nearly any right-handed batter on the planet.
The Astros don’t really want a participant like Dubón to platoon with three guys directly and make three begins per week. They’ll dwell with a man who can fill in wherever defensively, and by no means take a significant at-bat. That’s Allen.
So congratulations to the Braves on getting meaningfully higher, and congratulations to Astros proprietor Jim Crane on not having to write down as massive a examine as he used to, whereas not damaging his crew’s roster as a lot as he might have.
