Braves Acquire Brian Matusz, Draft Pick From Orioles

Source: www.mlbtraderumors.com --- Monday, May 23, 2016
The Orioles and Braves have struck a deal that sends lefty Brian Matusz and the 76th overall draft pick from Baltimore to atlanta. Minor league pitchers Brandon Barker and Trevor Belicek are headed to the O’s in the swap. Ultimately, the move constitutes a draft pick purchase, with the Orioles willing to part with their competitive balance round B selection in order to offload the commitment to Matusz and add some potentially interesting arms. Of greater consequence than the selection itself, the Braves will boost their bonus pool up to just over $13MM, per the calculations of Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs ( Twitter link ). They’ll still fall a bit shy of the Phillies to remain in third in total spending capacity this summer. A 29-year-old southpaw, Matusz is earning $3.9MM this year in his final season of arbitration control. The remaining $3MM or so of that deal will all be assumed by the Braves, who are expected to designate Matusz for assignment in short order, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets . Matusz has struggled mightily out of the gates in 2016, allowing eight earned runs in six innings while recording just one strikeout against seven walks. He’s been hurt especially by the long ball, having allowed a three bombs on just ten flyballs. Of course, the southpaw was much more effective in years past, though he’s generally outperformed his peripherals to do so. Over 2013-15, he put up 151 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball, with 9.4 K/9 ...