I know the Braves aren’t perceived to the be pitching-related geniuses they were a few years ago, but I still think the fact they’re willing to let a pitcher get away from them, when they can obviously afford to retain him, ought to throw up a red flag, especially considering how much money we lost on Oscar. (run-on sentence much?)

I think the Braves believe that Wagner + Saito ($10 M) is cheaper than Soriano + Gonzalez in arbitration. But in any event, this isn’t about the Braves not wanting Soriano and Gonzalez. They didn’t think they had much choice. The Braves offered Soriano/Gonzalez arbitration and believed that both relievers would take free agency. The Braves then assumed that both relievers would sign elsewhere at a high price, and signed Wagner and Saito in some misguided effort at getting ahead of the curve. They thought they were clever in signing two replacement relievers at a lower total cost. Soriano completely took them by surprise when he accepted arbitration, but at that point the Braves already had Wagner/Saito under contract with promises to give them the closer/set up roles. If the Braves had thought Soriano would accept arbitration, they might not have signed Wagner.