Braves: It won't take long to trade Soriano

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By David O'Brien

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Indianapolis – The sky is apparently not falling on the Braves, despite reliever Rafael Soriano's surprising decision late Monday to accept an arbitration offer the team made only because it hoped to get compensatory draft picks when he signed elsewhere.

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Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com The Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Astros are known to have interest in Braves reliever Rafael Soriano.

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General manager Frank Wren said Tuesday the Braves would trade Soriano and his high salary and do it long before opening day. He said this matter won't hinder the team's offseason priorities, including adding a hitter and trading a starting pitcher.

"It hasn't affected what we're going to do," Wren said of Soriano's decision, which just met the midnight deadline for free agents to accept or decline arbitration offers. "I think there's a good market [to trade Soriano], which was reinforced with our conversations today. We met with a lot of clubs that have interest in our bullpen."

Through two days of baseball's Winter Meetings, the Braves have spent much of their time trying to trade starter Derek Lowe and Soriano. Wren said one unidentified team might have trade interest in both pitchers.

Soriano must give written consent to the Braves for any trade before June 15. But Wren said his agent, Peter Greenberg, told the Braves he would accept a trade to one of the teams that pursued Soriano before he opted to take the arbitration offer.

The Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Astros are known to have interest in Soriano.

The Braves already signed closer Billy Wagner and setup man Takashi Saito to replace Soriano and free agent Mike Gonzalez (who declined arbitration) and Wren made it clear recently that Soriano would be in a lesser role if he returned.

That didn't stop Soriano from accepting arbitration, but Greenberg let Wren know that the reliever didn't intend to hold the Braves hostage by refusing a trade.

"I talked to Raffy's agent last night right after they accepted, about 12:05 [a.m.]," Wren said. "And he reiterated that [Soriano] wants to be pitching in the back end of ballgames and he knows that we've committed that to other people.

"And he shared with me the list of clubs that were the hottest after him and said if you can make a deal with those clubs to give us an opportunity [to pitch in that sort of role], he's open to that."

Soriano accepted arbitration after teams were reluctant to make offers while also giving up a high draft pick as compensation for signing a Type A free agent.

By accepting arbitration, he's likely to command a salary of $7 million to $8 million. A team that trades for him won't have to give up a draft pick and Wren said some teams might want to avoid arbitration and work out a multi-year contract.

The Braves won't get the picks they would have if Soriano signed with another team, but they could get a viable player or prospect in a trade for him. For that reason, Wren said he didn't regret offering arbitration to Soriano and assuming the risk.

"The alternative is we don't offer arbitration and we get nothing," Wren said. "We're going to get a player that we like and there's some competition [for Soriano]. The competition will probably drive what kind of player that we get."

The Braves have been focused so far on trying to trade pitchers and haven't had many conversations with teams about acquiring a hitter. Wren said he didn't think they would get the hitter they want through a trade, an indication they might try to sign a free agent once they clear up some payroll.

R. Church designated for assignment

Outfielder Ryan Church was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Soriano. It was an unceremonious end to a brief Braves stint for Church, the player the Braves got from the New York Mets in a July 10 trade for Jeff Francoeur.

Church hit just .260 with two homers and 18 RBIs in 44 games during an injury-plagued tenure with the Braves.

There was little if any trade interest in Church, who would have gone non-tendered by the team at Saturday's deadline for teams to offer contracts to arbitration-eligible players

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