Atlanta Braves: Could some of the lost prospects return to the team?

The Atlanta Braves had 13 total prospects removed from the team in November by Major League Baseball. Could some of those players return to the organization?

The Atlanta Braves fanbase suffered through what became known as “Black Monday” in November, when MLB announced their sanctions against the team, including some tough future sanctions on international signings, but most notably to the fan base, the loss of 13 names, many of whom fans had come to know as future members of the organization.

Recently, an important date passed that could lead to some of those prospects returning to the Braves. So which players could come back to the Braves?

The exact rule

First, let’s look quickly at the exact rule that was altered. The Atlanta Braves lost 12 players who were under contract, one who had agreed to a contract but not had his contract approved by MLB, and the opportunity to sign one player that the Braves had already made a deal with for the 2019-2020 international signing period, so really it was 14 players lost.

Those 13 players who had active ability to sign were allowed to begin signing new contracts on December 5th, and they had until January 15th to receive a new contract with a team that would add an additional signing bonus to .

After that date, the players would receive no additional signing bonus by signing with another team. The Atlanta Braves cannot re-sign any of the players they lost until May 1st, but at this point, the players will not receive any additional benefit to signing now versus signing on May 1st with the Braves.

Let’s take a look at the players who did not sign during that roughly month and a half period where players could get an additional bonus:

Who’s still unsigned?

The biggest bonus of the players left unsigned is right-hander Juan Contreras. Contreras is a right-hander from the Dominican who earned a $1.2 million bonus from the Atlanta Braves due to his big-time fastball.

Contreras perhaps lost some of his luster this season as he made his professional debut. His delivery is high-effort, and he often found himself off-track to the plate in that delivery, which meant he was firing a fastball that can touch the upper 90s and sits 92-94 often without knowing where it’d head.

He also struggled to reign in his offspeed stuff due to his delivery struggles. Contreras does have an elite arm, however, and his build (listed 6’2″ and 180 pounds – though he’s probably more in the 185-200 pound range as he’s filled in quickly) leads to sustainable velocity deep into a start. He tallied a 5.95 ERA and 1.93 WHIP over 19 2/3 innings, with an ugly 21/12 BB/K ratio.

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Outfielders Antonio Sucre and Brandol Mezquita were both lost due to what were found to be “package” deals where their $300K deals were paired with another player to give them more money.

Sucre has a traditional right field profile with a power bat and a power arm in right field. Sucre played in the Dominican Summer League this summer, hitting .237/.333/.333 with 4 home runs, but he did have plenty of swing and miss, with an 8.7% walk rate and a 25.1% strikeout rate over 231 plate appearances.

Mezquita didn’t have a lot known about him, though from a source who attended the workout put on by MLB for the players released by the sanctions, he’s got a quick bat with some above-average power potential and a corner outfield defensive profile.

Finally is South Korean shortstop Jihwan Bae, who the Atlanta Braves finalized a contract with in September. The 18 year-old shortstop is known for his speed and contact ability and was compared by some to the skills of Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner. Bae is suspended from returning to Korea due to skipping their draft to sign with the Braves, but he has been rumored to possibly be interested in signing with a Japanese Independent League team.

Next: Braves revised top 100 prospects

While these four players may not return to the Atlanta Braves, that they have no incentive at this point to sign elsewhere certainly gives the Braves just as much chance to sign as any other team!