ATLANTA — Adrian Gonzalez was released by the Atlanta Braves and is a free agent.
Atlanta acquired the 35-year-old as part of Saturday’s five-player trade that sent outfielder Matt Kemp to the Los Angeles Dodgers and immediately designated him for assignment and placed him on waivers.
Gonzalez waived his no-trade clause after the Braves agreed to cut him from their roster, and he was formally released. Atlanta is set at first base with Freddie Freeman.
Los Angeles also sent starting pitchers Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy, and infielder Charlie Culberson to Atlanta along with $4.5 million due May 1.
Cody Bellinger took over at first base for the Dodgers when Gonzalez went on the disabled list with a herniated disk in his back last season. Gonzalez, acquired from the Boston Red Sox in August 2012, was an All-Star in 2015 and led the NL in RBI in 2014. He gets $21.5 million in the final year of his contract, and a team signing him to a big league contract would owe just the minimum $545,000, with Atlanta paying the remainder.
GIANTS: Catcher Nick Hundley agreed to a $2.5 million, one-year contract to remain with the team.
Hundley, 34, hit .249 with nine homers and 35 RBI in 303 plate appearances last season, and threw out 13 of 49 runners attempting to steal. He has a .249 career average with 81 homers and 340 RBI.
Hundley became a free agent after the season.
RANGERS: Left-hander Martin Perez broke his non-pitching elbow in a mishap with a bull and is likely to miss the start of the season.
Perez had surgery Monday in Dallas and is expected to start throwing in about a month. The Rangers said Perez, 26, is expected to be sidelined from games until mid-April, putting him on track for a possible return to the major leagues by May 1.
The injury occurred on Perez’s ranch in his native Venezuela. General Manager Jon Daniels said Perez told him he was startled by a bull and fell on the elbow.
Perez was 13-12 with a 4.82 ERA in a team-high 32 starts. After missing most of the 2014 and 2015 seasons because of reconstructive surgery on his left elbow, Perez has led the Rangers in starts each of the past two seasons.
LUXURY TAX: The Los Angeles Dodgers will pay the highest luxury tax for the fourth straight year and the New York Yankees owe a penalty for a 15th consecutive season, streaks that could end as the sport’s biggest spenders slash payroll for 2018.
The Dodgers owe $36.2 million, according to final figures compiled by the commissioner’s office. That raises their five-year tax total to nearly $150 million.
New York was second at $15.7 million, its lowest amount since 2011 but a figure that increased its total since the tax began to $341 million. San Francisco was next at $4.1 million, followed by Detroit at almost $3.7 million and Washington – which is paying tax for the first time – at just under $1.45 million.
The Dodgers and Yankees vow to get below next year’s tax threshold of $197 million. That would reset their base tax rate from 50 percent to 20 percent going into the 2018-19 offseason, when Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and possibly Clayton Kershaw head a potentially illustrious free-agent class.
“We know going in that the structure we have in place allows for flexibility for teams to make decisions in the near term and for the longer term,” players’ association head Tony Clark said. “It’s something obviously we watch, something that we’re very cognizant of.”
Los Angeles’ 2018 payroll for tax purposes currently projects to about $181 million and New York’s to $177 million.
CUBS: The team is making a pitch for Yu Darvish, a free-agent right-hander.
Darvish said he had a “very good meeting” Monday with club officials. Darvish tweeted a statement confirming the get-together amid reports that two Chicago executives, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, were in Dallas to speak with him.
Darvish is one of the top starting pitchers available this offseason, and the Cubs have been busy filling holes on their staff.
They have signed starter Tyler Chatwood, and relievers Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek.
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