The big news of the day for Atlanta was signing a two year contract with Pierce Johnson to keep the veteran reliever in Atlanta for $7 million per year, with the Anthopoulos Special: 1% to the Braves foundation and a club option for another year at the end.
Johnson has pretty much been a good reliever since 2020, except for when he was with Colorado before being traded to Atlanta this season. He was great for Atlanta down the stretch and has a really nice curveball. This is a solid deal and essentially what the Braves gave Chris Martin in an almost identical scenario a few years ago. It is real money for a reliever, but nothing crazy like what Will Smith got or what Raisel Iglesias is getting. Johnson appears set to be the Braves’ top non-Iglesias right-hander in the bullpen and he should be good in that role. Nice to see Atlanta being proactive (as per usual) in bringing Johnson back on a pretty reasonable deal.
