Atlanta Braves Making News At The GM Meetings

Sep 29, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski (15) celebrates with team members after their win over the Washington Nationals at Turner Field. The Braves won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

The Braves sign a catcher, Andrelton Simmons wins another award and other news as the hot stove heats up.

Look out old AJ is back

Ken Rosenthal Tweeted this afternoon that the Braves and A.J. Pierzynski had agreed on a one year deal.

Pierzynski agreed to one-year deal. He started 104 games at catcher last season at age 38, batting .300 with a .769 OPS for the Braves.

John Heyman says the contract is for $3M.

The contract is said to be $1M signing bonus, $2M base salary plus chance to earn another $1M in incentives.

The 38 year old Pierzynski signed as a backup to Christian Bethancourt last winter had a huge season after taking over as starter when Bethancourt failed to hold it. At the plate AJ slashed .300/.339/.430/.769 with 24 doubles, 9 homers and 49 RBI in 436 PA over 113 games producing 1.6 rWAR , 2.1 fWAR.

AJ’s career has always been about his bat rather than his defense and last year was no different. Stat corner rated him 41st of 47 in pitch framing for catchers with 3000 or more opportunities and base runners were successful 72% of the time.

The Braves obviously brought back Pierzynski for his leadership qualities. AJ’s a tough old bird but catching wears a body out like no other position and AJ was beaten up pretty badly by season’s end. At 39 Pierzynski cannot be expected to repeat last year behind or beside the plate but minus Jonny Gomes he’s the best veteran presence option they had.

Pierzynski had openly said he wanted to return but most – me included – thought he’d go to Minnesota to finish his career where it started. Apparently AJ had other chances but chose to stay with the Braves.

Next: Do I know your name?

Oct 4, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters (32) stands at home plate during the eighth inning against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles won 9-4. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

No big names arriving

Braves fans hoping for a Matt Wieters signing were always going to be disappointed.  Wieters simply cost too much for a position where the Braves were not going to invest a lot of money. Baltimore adding a qualifying offer to the size of his contract that would have cost a draft pick was the final nail in the coffin of such dreams. O’Brien confirmed that as well.

The Jonathon Lucroy watch was another dream never to be realized. As many of us wrote here, the Brewers wanted too much in terms of prospects for their aging superstar backstop from a team trying to reconstruct their minor league system. David O’Brien opined that there won’t be another catcher signed this winter.

Mark Bowman on the other hand wasn’t so sure.

And later O’Brien backed off his earlier assertion.

Then seemed to clarify his earlier statement

That other catcher probably won’t be Gary Sanchez however as the Yankees traded their backup catcher to the Twins opening the door for Gary Sanchez to move into that slot next year.

Next: Simply Simba

Sep 12, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons (19) turns a double play over New York Mets catcher Travis d

Simba Sensational

When the Gold Glove winners were announced the Giants Brandon Crawford was the winner at shortstop taking the crown that had belonged to Andrelton Simmons for the last two years. Today however Simmons undoubted skill was recognized when Wilson named him Defensive player of the year.

Simba may not have had the eyes on him this year that he had in past years as the Braves stumbled to the finish line but the metrics still loved him.  He led MLB with shortstops with 25 DRS and was second to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier of Tampa among all defenders.

Braves GM John Coppolella  told Bowman he’s the best defender in the game.

"“I think [Simmons] is the best defensive player in the history of the game. I think he’s somebody who brings so much value. When you’ve got young pitching behind him, outs are outs and hits are outs.”"

Okay I’m not sure what that last sentence means either but you get the idea; Coppy thinks Simba is special.

UPDATE

An hour after I post this of course Jonah Keri Tweets that the Braves are in “deep talks” with an NL West team that revolve around Andrelton Simmons. A piece on MLBTR brings spells together information that suggest it isn’t with the Giants and speculates that it might be the Padres or Rockies as part of a plan to move bad outfield contracts.

It’s hard to imagine what the Padres could offer that would make up for the loss of a player Coppolella calls the best in the game. and a late Tweet says so far they aren’t in it

More than that the fans will go absolutely berserk over the loss of Simmons for anything less that a couple of future hall of fame players.

The trade of Craig Kimbrel was at least logical but trading Simmons who is under team control for a long time and costs nothing in terms of today’s salaries could not be explained away.

I can’t imagine the Rockies taking Bourn and Swisher, the Diamondbacks are loaded in the outfield now and the Dodgers would make sense if they were once again willing to have dead money equal to the payroll of the Braves on their books. Pitching makes more sense for the Dodgers than Simmons

This looks like one of those Twitter rumors that grew a life of its own as both Bowman and O’Brien are saying thatthere is nothing substantive going on now; the Braves are just listening. I can dream some wild dreams but I can’t imagine a package big enough to land Simmons from the probable players

Anyone need an outfielder? Anyone. . .  Buehler. . .

Earlier to day Ken Rosenthal reported that the Braves were beating the bushes trying to move their outfield excess elsewhere.

The Braves have Swisher and Bourn after taking them in order to dump the Chris Johnson contract. They also received $15M from the Indians in that deal to offset part of the $15M and $14M Swisher and Bourn are due respectively next year.

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves 2012 Prospect Review: Joey Terdoslavich
• Braves News: Braves sign Fuentes, Andruw’s HOF candidacy, more
• The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
• Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
• Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves

All of this makes sense is terms of clearing the field for new blood. With the Braves mysteriously moving Hector Olivera to left field and Dian Toscano emerging from the mist there does seem to be a glut of outfielders.  There are also plenty of center fielders on the free agent market so teams are hesitant to take on older players like Swisher and Bourn. There are places they fit but wherever they got the Braves will pay most of the freight.

Next: Say What ?

Adonis Garcia is not a major eleague third baseman Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

That’s A Wrap

The signing of Pierzynski, Simba’s award and shopping the outfield were all pretty predictable. The other news today – that according to an early O’Brien tweet, Coppolella thinks Adonis Garcia has earned a shot at playing third base  – was not.

Coppolella was heralded as the Braves sabermetrics guru, a guy who knew and understood the numbers and would use them to the Braves advantage. If he honestly believes Garcia can play third that’s as big a lie as the one they told us about Fredi Gonzalez being a sabermetrically minded manager. Fredi wouldn’t recognize a sabermetric stat if it hit him on the head and if the Garcia quote was sincere, neither would our newly minted GM.

As Alan pointed out earlier and I’ve said here many times, Garcia is not a major league third baseman or any kind if major league caliber infielder. One has to hope that the Braves wear trying not to appear to be desperately seeking a third baseman.  In 1990 or even 2005 that ploy might have worked but not today.

Today teams have video of every play, statisticians crunching numbers every which way they can  and scouts watching players closely for the slightest  negative tendency  — like for instance not being able to field a ground ball. Teams are not fooled by such statements and neither are fans.

Today’s fans are well informed and know the numbers as well as, if not better than, most front offices, Trying to blow smoke up the fans kilt does not inspire confidence in your honesty or induce them to turnout and support their team. Alan suggested the Coppolella make something up the next time he needed a quote for reporters. I’d add that whatever he makes up should be couched in realism instead of mushroom induced fantasy.

Next: I Don't Know is on third?

No one expects the Braves to lay out their plans step by step but when the front office does talk to us, they must tell us the truth and not spin.

The translated spin in this case is: Garcia is going to get a shot at third – he has no chance of actually winning it of course but we’re going to allow him to think he can in order to either trade him or keep his morale up while we find a real third baseman.

Talking in spin – or as my Daddy would have called it talking to hear your gums smack together – is best left to politicians; we expect them to lie.