MLB: Rafael Soriano Dealt to the Rays
The Atlanta Braves dealt relief pitcher Rafael Soriano to the Tampa Bay Rays for fellow reliever Jesse Chavez, whom the Rays just acquired a little over a month ago when they dealt second baseman Akinori Iwamura to the Pirates.
Soriano is coming off a season in which he converted 27 of 31 save opportunities with a 2.97 ERA. He gives a Rays team, that struggled with consistency at the position all last season, some stability at the end of the game.
The Rays converted just 65% of their save opportunities tying them for 16th in the majors and blew 22 saves which tied for the 8th most in baseball. J. P. Howell saw the most action, converting 17 of 25 saves, closing out games after Troy Percival was lost for the year due to an injury and later decided to re-retire.
Jesse Chavez is simply a middle-of-the-road reliever whom the Braves took in order to dump Soriano’s salary. Do not expect much out of him other giving the Braves 70 solid innings out of the pen next season.
