Braves first offseason loss comes with major Ron Washington ties

The World Series might've only ended a couple of weeks ago, but the Atlanta Braves have already been incredibly active. They've made a couple of trades, have reworked a couple of contracts, and made decisions regarding their several club options. Accepting Marcell Ozuna's option was a no-brainer, as was declining Luke Jackson's, but declining Travis d'Arnaud's $8 million club option was a bit surprising.

d'Arnaud had been a key figure both on and off the field for the Braves for each of the last five seasons, so letting him test the free agency market instead of paying him a reasonable sum to split time with Sean Murphy felt like a questionable decision.

It turns out that d'Arnaud's time on the open market is short-lived, as the 35-year-old has reportedly signed a two-year deal to join the Los Angeles Angels according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. With this deal, d'Arnaud reunites with Ron Washington, former Braves third base coach and current Angels manager.

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First Braves loss of the offseason joins Ron Washington with the Angels

On the surface, it's a bit questionable that the Angels got this done as quickly as they did. They already have their catcher of the future in Logan O'Hoppe who hit 20 home runs in his first full season. With that being said, though, getting d'Arnaud for two years at only $6 million per is solid value.

Given the fact that Washington is there and that the team's GM is Perry Minasian (a GM with Braves and Blue Jays ties), it's not so hard to see why the Angels were eager to get this done. d'Arnaud can provide a much-needed veteran presence to a young Angels team while being a perfect mentor for the young and developing O'Hoppe.

Where the Braves go from here remains to be seen. One thing that's abundantly clear is that they're comfortable giving Sean Murphy a whole lot more of the playing time than he saw in 2024. Who Murphy's backup will be, though, is up in the air. Atlanta could choose to sign a free agent like Danny Jansen or Carson Kelly. The Braves can also choose to use their third catcher from the last couple of seasons, Chadwick Tromp, in a reserve role.

The most enticing decision they could make, though, is to promote arguably their best prospect, Drake Baldwin to the majors. Baldwin had a breakout 2024 campaign which helped raise his stock tremendously. He only has 75 games of Triple-A experience under his belt, but he performed better at Triple-A Gwinnett than he has anywhere else. Plus, Alex Anthopoulos is known for being aggressive with promoting prospects as we saw with Spencer Schwellenbach this past season.

If the Braves weren't going to bring d'Arnaud back for one year and $8 million, they certainly weren't going to match or top this Angels offer. Now, Braves fans can only watch d'Arnaud and Jorge Soler play for their former beloved third base coach from afar.