Atlanta’s two (no, not three) arbitration-eligible players avoid trial by coming to an agreement at the deadline.
Today is the deadline for teams across Major League Baseball and their respective players to exchange numbers back and forth when it comes to arbitration. There are two big deadlines: The deadline for agreements was 1:00 p.m. ET and the players and teams that didn’t reach an agreement by that point will exchange salary figures at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight.
The Atlanta Braves went into today’s proceedings with three candidates for arbitration: Jarred Kelenic, Dylan Lee and Eli White. As of right now, the Braves have only come to an agreement with Jarred Kelenic, as the two parties agreed on a $2.3 million contract for the 2025 season. Robert Murray of FanSided reported it first and the Braves confirmed the news shortly afterwards.
The #Braves today signed OF Jarred Kelenic ($2.3 million) to a one-year contract for the 2025 season.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) January 9, 2025
We still haven’t heard any news on Lee or White, so keep it locked in and we’ll update this post once any further news comes out. While the deadline has passed, names and numbers are still filtering through, so we may have news on those two pretty soon. We could only hear about it tonight! Either way, we’ll have it covered for you and will be updating this post once news breaks.
What’s more is that according to MLB.com Braves beat writer Mark Bowman, the Braves aren’t going to have any arbitration hearings this year. Apparently Eli White wasn’t arbitration-eligible after all, so that appears to be the end of Atlanta’s business as far as arbitration in 2025 is concerned.
Jarred Kelenic will be coming into this season looking to rebound after he never quite got his footing during his first season in Atlanta. He eventually finished with a .231/.286/.393 slash line, with a wOBA of .29 and a wRC+ of 86 over 118 games — all of which was down compared to his final season with the Mariners. Meanwhile, Dylan Lee will be entering into this season looking to continue being a handful for opposing batters to deal with. Lee had an ERA- of 51 and a FIP- of 76 over a career-high 59.2 innings in 2024.
