Busy Braves pick up option on Ozuna, decline Travis D’Arnaud

ATLANTA — With only a handful of days allowed to make decisions on pending Free Agents, the Atlanta Braves made a flurry of decisions Monday afternoon that could reshape the team in 2025.

Designated Hitter Marcell Ozuna will be back after the team picked up his $16 million option for 2025, put declined the team options on Catcher and fan-favorite Travis d’Arnaud and Relief Pitcher Luke Jackson.

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Ozuna has been one of the league’s most productive hitters for the past season and a half. In 2024, he was arguably the team’s best offensive player, hitting .302 with 39 home runs and 104 Runs batted in.

d’Arnaud was set to make $8 million in 2025 and the 36-year-old was coming off a season where despite hitting only .238 with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs. The veteran catcher played in 99 games this past season, the fourth most in his 14-year career. He was extremely popular with the fans and by most reports one of the leaders in the Atlanta clubhouse.

Jackson was set to make $7 million in the upcoming season and had been re-acquired in the middle of the 2024 season from the San Francisco Giants. He was not able to find the magic that made him a Braves legend during the 2021 World Series run.

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It was a busy Monday for the Braves because along with the free agent moves, the team moved OF Ronald Acuna and Pitchers Ray Kerr, Angel Perdomo, Spencer Strider and Huascar Ynoa off of the injured list and added them back to the team’s 40-man roster.

The team had traded OF Jorge Soler just four days ago along with restructuring the contracts of P Reynaldo Lopez and Aaron Bummer in what appears to be moves to clear space under the Major League Baseball Salary Cap.

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