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Braves: It won't take long to trade Soriano

The sky is apparently not falling on the Braves, despite reliever Rafael Soriano's surprising decision late Monday to accept an arbitration offer the team made only because it hoped to get compensatory draft picks when he signed elsewhere.

General manager Frank Wren said Tuesday the Braves would trade Soriano and his high salary and do it long before opening day. He said this matter won't hinder the team's offseason priorities, including adding a hitter and trading a starting pitcher.

"It hasn't affected what we're going to do," Wren said of Soriano's decision, which just met the midnight deadline for free agents to accept or decline arbitration offers. "I think there's a good market [to trade Soriano], which was reinforced with our conversations today. We met with a lot of clubs that have interest in our bullpen."

The Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Astros are known to have interest in Soriano. http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-brave ... 33063.html

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports the Rays and Astros are the teams most interested in trading for reliever Rafael Soriano.
The Angels and Orioles, for whatever reason, dropped out of the running Wednesday. Soriano recently accepted an offer of arbitration from Atlanta and could make nearly $8 million. The 29-year-old posted a 2.97 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP and a 102/27 K/BB ratio in 75 2/3 innings this past season.
Source: Ken Rosenthal on Twitter