In recent weeks, MLBTR has looked forward to next winter\u2019s option classes. We\u2019ll move now to the NL East, where a former MVP and Cy Young winner are the most notable names.<\/p>\n
Previous: AL East<\/a>, AL Central<\/a>, AL West<\/a><\/p>\n Atlanta Braves<\/p>\n This is as easy as they get. The Braves will exercise their $17MM option for 2027 and have a matching provision for the \u201928 season. The first comes with a $10MM buyout, while the second has no buyout. It\u2019s highly likely the Braves are going to pick them both up anyway, but it could be a moderately closer call for Atlanta after 2027 if Acu\u00f1a has a bad or injury-riddled year.<\/p>\n The Braves have remarkably raced to the second-best start in MLB despite relatively underwhelming work from the five-time All-Star. Acu\u00f1a has only connected on two home runs with a .252\/.367\/.382 slash line through his first 35 games. He missed a couple weeks with a Grade 1 strain of his left hamstring and returned to the lineup yesterday.<\/p>\n Albies agreed to a pair of $7MM team options on his exceedingly club-friendly 2019 extension. He signed away up to four free agent years for a $35MM guarantee that\u2019d max out at $45MM if the Braves exercised the options \u2014 the first of which contained a $4MM buyout.<\/p>\n For a few years, it was among the biggest bargain contracts in the league. A pair of down seasons in 2024-25 reduced the surplus value somewhat, though Atlanta still had an easy call to exercise the first option last winter. Picking up the second should require even less deliberation.<\/p>\n Albies has rebounded to hit .271\/.329\/.441 and is third among second basemen with eight home runs. The NL second base field is crowded, but Albies is putting together a strong case for his fourth All-Star selection while playing on a salary just above what Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a> and\u00a0Miguel Rojas<\/a> commanded as free agents.<\/p>\n Atlanta acquired Kinley from the Rockies last summer. He pitched brilliantly down the stretch, but they nevertheless declined his $5.5MM option for 2026 in favor of a $750K buyout. They re-signed Kinley two months later on a $4.25MM free agent deal. He\u2019s making $3MM this season and will be paid either a $1.25MM buyout or stick around for next season via $5.5MM team option.<\/p>\n Kinley, a slider specialist, has had a somewhat shaky start this season. His 23% strikeout rate is virtually unchanged from last year, but his walks have ticked up and he has been victimized by the home run ball. Kinley has given up a longball in four of his last eight times out. He\u2019s up to 10 runs allowed (nine earned) across 20 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n The Braves have still used Kinley in a decent number of leverage situations. He\u2019s tied for second on the team behind Dylan Lee<\/a> with six holds. This one could go either way, but he\u2019ll need to get on track to remain in skipper Walt Weiss\u2019 circle of trust.<\/p>\n Miami Marlins<\/p>\n The Marlins\u2019 deadline will hinge largely on what to do with Alcantara. He\u2019s making $17MM in the final guaranteed season of the $56MM extension he signed in 2021. Alcantara has rebounded from an abysmal first half of the \u201925 campaign, as he clearly had trouble dialing in his command when he initially returned from a Tommy John procedure.<\/p>\n Alcantara carries a 3.53 ERA with an above-average 49% grounder rate over his first 10 starts. He has allowed 3.47 earned runs per nine in 23 starts going back to last summer\u2019s All-Star Break. The Cy Young form probably isn\u2019t coming back, but Alcantara would be a lock for a team\u2019s playoff rotation. He\u2019s still sitting in the 97-98 mph range with his four-seamer and sinker, albeit with a slight drop in strikeouts.<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s only guaranteed money for the 2027 season is the $10MM they\u2019ll send to the Yankees on the Giancarlo Stanton<\/a> contract. None of their arbitration-eligible players would cost more than a few million dollars. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a> wrote earlier this month that Alcantara is a favorite of owner Bruce Sherman.<\/p>\n It would take another major injury or an atrocious second half for Alcantara\u2019s option not to get picked up. The bigger question is whether that\u2019ll be by the Marlins. They\u2019re 22-27 and fourth from the bottom in a competitive National League. FanGraphs<\/a> has their postseason chances below 5%. The prospect return would be higher this summer than it\u2019d be at the 2027 deadline given the extra playoff run they\u2019re marketing to a contender. Will the Fish keep Alcantara as a veteran rotation anchor or shop him as one of the best available arms?<\/p>\n New York Mets<\/p>\n The Mets took on Robert\u2019s $20MM salary for the 2026 season in last winter\u2019s trade with the White Sox. They didn\u2019t surrender a whole lot in terms of young talent \u2014 Luisangel Acu\u00f1a\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0stock has tumbled over the past couple seasons \u2014 but it was still a sizable financial bet on Robert staying healthy and rebounding from two straight subpar offensive years.<\/p>\n Robert hit well for the first two weeks before falling into a slump in the middle of April. He had a .224\/.327\/.329 slash over 98 plate appearances when he landed on the injured list with lumbar disc inflammation. Initial hopes that it\u2019d be close to a minimal stint haven\u2019t panned out. He\u2019s coming up on a monthlong absence without a clear timeline for when he\u2019ll ramp up baseball activities.<\/p>\n The bet on Robert\u2019s tools and early-career success hasn\u2019t panned out so far. They\u2019ve needed to call upon prospect A.J. Ewing<\/a> earlier than expected. Ewing has shown a very disciplined approach through his first eight MLB games after an excellent start to the year in Triple-A. It\u2019s too early to simply lock Ewing into the 2027 center field job, but the Mets would be better for it if he nails down the position with a strong rookie season. That\u2019d solidify the increasingly probable chance that Robert gets bought out.<\/p>\n Philadelphia Phillies<\/p>\n Washington Nationals<\/p>\n Washington added Littell on a one-year, $7MM free agent deal. They included a $12MM mutual option that comes with a $4MM buyout. That\u2019s an accounting mechanism that allows them to pay Littell more than half the money at the end of the season rather than throughout the summer in salary. They presumably hoped to shed some of the buyout responsibility by flipping Littell at the deadline, though the backloaded nature meant they\u2019d have needed to cover some of it to find a trade partner.<\/p>\n That\u2019s probably a moot point, as Littell hasn\u2019t pitched well enough to merit much attention. He owns a 6.10 ERA with a career-low 10.6% strikeout rate while giving up 14 home runs in just 41 1\/3 innings. He\u2019s the only pitcher with 40+ frames who is allowing a homer once in every three innings pitched. Most of that damage came in April, but Littell has only recorded four strikeouts in 12 1\/3 frames this month. If the Nationals didn\u2019t have one of the worst rotations in MLB, they\u2019d probably have given more consideration to moving on from Littell already.<\/p>\n Note: The Nationals hold respective club options on\u00a0Cade Cavalli<\/a> ($4MM) and\u00a0Max Kranick<\/a> ($850K). Both players would remain eligible for arbitration if Washington declines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent weeks, MLBTR has looked forward to next winter\u2019s option classes. We\u2019ll move now to the NL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,17859,591,7303,306889,39618,85,18669,24613],"class_list":["post-683374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-luis-robert","tag-mlb","tag-ozzie-albies","tag-ronald-acuna","tag-sandy-alcantara","tag-sports","tag-tyler-kinley","tag-zack-littell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}