Chopping Network: Braves trade Johnson, cash for 3 relievers

November 30, 2009

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves announced a trade that sent Atlanta starting second baseman Kelly Johnson and a reported 2.2 million dollars to St. Louis in exchange for highly regarded AAA closer Chris Perez, middle reliever Josh Kinney, and AAA middle reliever Ryan Franklin.

The Braves have wanted to get a little more financial room for the free agent market. It is reported by some in the Braves organization that Johnson (right) was never considered to be available until he won his arbitration case and got nearly 2 million more than what the Braves offered.

Johnson, 27, had his best season at the plate in 2009, hitting .305/.385 with 14 HR and 93 RBI. Many consider him in the top 5 of all second basemen in GABA. His defense has, however, remained on the low side of average.

Perez (top left), age 25, is rated by Baseball America as the #1 closer prospect in GABA. He did struggle some at AAA last season (ERA 4.97, 5-4 record), but he did register 35 saves for Memphis. He has a good shot at making the Braves active roster in the spring.

Kinney (middle left) had a solid year (81 games, 10-5 record, 1 save, 4.33 ERA) as a set-up man out of the Cardinals pen. The 30 year old is expected to help anchor a pen that proved to be leaky, especially late in the game.

Franklin (bottom left), 36 years of age, is something of a long shot in making the Braves active roster. After struggling with his control for the major league club, he was shipped to Memphis where the control issue continued, along with a balooning ERA (8.49). Speculation is that he was added to the deal only to make it more financially do-able for the Cards.

Fans were not particaularly pleased with losing Johnson, who was growing in his popularity with the Barves nation. "What is (Jobo) Foster (Braves GM) thinking? Yeah, I mean Johnson is like an All Star guy, " said Marty Vincent of Roswell, GA. "What are we going to do to replace him and his bat in the lineup?"

Even so, there seems to be a sentiment of let's wait and see where the team goes from here before censorous judgment is passed on Foster.

(After this article was written, it is reported that St. Louis is on the verge of sending Johnson to Florida.)

Braves send Vazquez to Texas for Gonzalez, Main

Monday, June 28th, 2010 - The Texas Rangers traded 32-year-old reliever Mike Gonzalez and 21-year-old minor league starting pitcher Michael Main (pictured above) to the Atlanta Braves, getting 33-year-old starting pitcher Javier Vazquez in return. Braves GM Jobo Foster said the trade was made to bloster the bullpen with the reaquisition of Gonzalez, to make some financial room and to open a spot in the rotation for southpaw Aaron Poreda who, Foster says, has earned a shot with Atlanta. It is rumored that veteran starting pitcher Tim Hudson may be on his way out of the rotation if his performance does not show marked improvement.