{"id":899323,"date":"2026-10-30T00:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T00:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899323\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T00:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T00:24:13","slug":"braves-exercise-options-on-acuna-albies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899323\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Exercise Options On Acu\u00f1a, Albies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Braves announced they\u2019ve picked up their options on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/acunaro01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/albieoz01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ozzie Albies<\/a>. Acu\u00f1a will make $17MM next season, while Albies will match this year\u2019s $7MM salary. Those were Atlanta\u2019s only option decisions this year.<\/p>\n<p>There wasn\u2019t much suspense with either decision. The Braves weren\u2019t going to cut either member of their core for what would\u2019ve amounted to $7MM in savings. Acu\u00f1a\u2019s option came with a $10MM buyout that meant he\u2019d only have been bought out had he suffered some kind of career-altering injury. Albies\u2019 deal didn\u2019t have a buyout but comes with a base salary akin to what solid utility infielders (e.g.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kineris01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/castrwi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Willi Castro<\/a>) make as free agents.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves have Acu\u00f1a until team control for two seasons, as there\u2019s another $17MM option on his deal for the 2028 campaign. That one doesn\u2019t have a buyout, so it\u2019d be a costlier decision, but it\u2019s still highly likely to be exercised. Acu\u00f1a hit 20 homers with a .255\/.345\/.451 slash line in a relative down year. He\u2019s one season removed from a monster .290\/.417\/.518 showing after coming back from the second ACL tear of his career.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the final season of the $35MM extension that Albies signed early in his career. Atlanta has tacked on $10MM by picking up two club options along the way \u2014 a $4MM buyout on his first option was already factored into that $35MM guarantee \u2014 so he made a total of $45MM over a nine-year stretch. Albies handily outperformed those salaries, though he\u2019s been more serviceable than great going back to the start of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n<p>MLBTR examined Albies\u2019 recent production in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/10\/the-braves-other-middle-infield-question.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">greater detail<\/a> last night. He\u2019s coming off an ugly finish that dropped his season batting line to a pedestrian .237\/.293\/.392 clip \u2014 his second straight below-average year offensively. Albies still connected on 22 home runs and would have beaten a $7MM guarantee on the open market, so it\u2019s an easy call to pick up the option, but the Braves could consider trade possibilities if they view second base as a place for an offensive upgrade. That\u2019s complicated by the league\u2019s most glaring need at shortstop, where they\u2019ll need to re-sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dubonma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-10-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a> and\/or make a move on the trade front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves announced they\u2019ve picked up their options on\u00a0Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. and\u00a0Ozzie Albies. Acu\u00f1a will make $17MM next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,18700,18917,99],"class_list":["post-899323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-ozzie-albies","tag-ronald-acuna","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}